The Racist Anti-Racism of American Anthropology

dc.contributor.author

Baker, LD

dc.date.accessioned

2021-11-23T21:28:52Z

dc.date.available

2021-11-23T21:28:52Z

dc.date.issued

2021-10-01

dc.date.updated

2021-11-23T21:28:51Z

dc.description.abstract

In 1909 Franz Boas conducted a massive study entitled Changes in Bodily Forms of Descendants of Immigrants. In this study, he demonstrated that Eastern and Southern European immigrants to the United States were not racially different from other Europeans because of what he called “the marvelous power of amalgamation.” Boas’s study dealt a blow to scientific racism because he demonstrated the plasticity and instability of racial types. Boas chose to emphasize the enormous gulf between the white and non-white races. His research and advocacy were anti-racist, but the way he promoted assimilation was racist. The next year W.E.B. Du Bois invited Boas to give the final lecture at the conference where the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was officially incorporated. Boas presented “The Real Race Problem,” in which he argued that the real problem was the “difference in type.” To solve it, the Negro needed to amalgamate by “encouraging the gradual process of lightening up this large body of people by the influx of white blood.” American anthropologists joined other Progressive Era reformers committed to assimilation, like the orphan train and Indian boarding school movements. They were each striving to be anti-racist but went off the rails, contributing to the consolidation of whiteness and the perpetuation of racism.

dc.identifier.issn

1051-0559

dc.identifier.issn

1548-7466

dc.identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10161/24005

dc.language

en

dc.publisher

Wiley

dc.relation.ispartof

Transforming Anthropology

dc.relation.isversionof

10.1111/traa.12222

dc.title

The Racist Anti-Racism of American Anthropology

dc.type

Journal article

duke.contributor.orcid

Baker, LD|0000-0002-0430-3354

pubs.begin-page

127

pubs.end-page

142

pubs.issue

2

pubs.organisational-group

Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

pubs.organisational-group

African & African American Studies

pubs.organisational-group

Cultural Anthropology

pubs.organisational-group

Duke Innovation & Entrepreneurship

pubs.organisational-group

Duke

pubs.organisational-group

Initiatives

pubs.organisational-group

Institutes and Provost's Academic Units

pubs.publication-status

Published

pubs.volume

29

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