Sorry, maar met de beste wil van de wereld kan ik Darwin nog geen racist vinden. Dat hij veronderstelde dat de blanke cultuur verder was ontwikkeld dan die van andere volken is duidelijk. Ook dat hij veronderstelde dat deze hoger ontwikkelde cultuur het zou winnen van de in zijn ogen minder ontwikkelde... maar dan ben je nog geen racist.
Een racist gaat er van uit dat er verschillende bloedlijnen zijn die je niet met elkaar kunt kruisen, en dat er dus ook superieure en inferieure rassen zijn. Niet voor niets verwerpen racistische organisaties als de Ku Klux Clan de evolutietheorie. Immers, volgens deze theorie stammen alle mensen af van dezelfde bron. Dat is dus ook wat Darwin zei.
"...But the most weighty of all the arguments against treating the races of man as distinct species, is that they graduate into each other, independently in many cases, as far as we can judge, of their having inter-crossed. Man has been studied more carefully than any other animal, and yet there is the greatest possible diversity amongst capable judges whether he should be classed as a single species or race, or as two (Virey), as three (Jacquinot), as four (Kant), five (Blumenbach), six (Buffon), seven (Hunter), eight (Agassiz), eleven (Pickering), fifteen (Bory St. Vincent), sixteen (Desmoulins), twenty-two (Morton), sixty (Crawfurd), or as sixty-three, according to Burke. This diversity of judgment does not prove that the races ought not to be ranked as species, but it shews that they graduate into each other, and that it is hardly possible to discover clear distinctive characters between them.
- Charles Darwin; The Descent of Man, 1871
Daarnaast verzette Darwin zich hevig tegen slavernij, wat in zijn ogen "unholy" was.:
I will not even allude to the many heart-sickening atrocities which I authentically heard of; -- nor would I have mentioned the above revolting details, had I not met with several people, so blinded by the constitutional gaiety of the negro as to speak of slavery as a tolerable evil. Such people have generally visited at the houses of the upper classes, where the domestic slaves are usually well treated, and they have not, like myself, lived amongst the lower classes. Such inquirers will ask slaves about their condition; they forget that the slave must indeed be dull, who does not calculate on the chance of his answer reaching his master's ears.
...
It is often attempted to palliate slavery by comparing the state of slaves with our poorer countrymen: if the misery of our poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin; but how this bears on slavery, I cannot see; as well might the use of the thumb-screw be defended in one land, by showing that men in another land suffered from some dreadful disease. Those who look tenderly at the slave owner, and with a cold heart at the slave, never seem to put themselves into the position of the latter; what a cheerless prospect, with not even a hope of change! picture to yourself the chance, ever hanging over you, of your wife and your little children -- those objects which nature urges even the slave to call his own -- being torn from you and sold like beasts to the first bidder! And these deeds are done and palliated by men, who profess to love their neighbours as themselves, who believe in God, and pray that his Will be done on earth! It makes one's blood boil, yet heart tremble, to think that we Englishmen and our American descendants, with their boastful cry of liberty, have been and are so guilty:
- The Voyage of the Beagle; Charles Darwin, 1839
En het volgende citaat kan bijna van Weston Price zijn:
I was told before leaving England that after living in slave countries all my opinions would be altered; the only alteration I am aware of is forming a much higher estimate of the negro character. It is impossible to see a negro and not feel kindly towards him; such cheerful, open, honest expressions and such fine muscular bodies. I never saw any of the diminutive Portuguese, with their murderous countenances, without almost wishing for Brazil to follow the example of Haiti; and, considering the enormous healthy-looking black population, it will be wonderful if, at some future day, it does not take place.
- Letter from Darwin to J.S. Henslo, March 1834
Ik denk ook niet dat je Darwin de schuld kan geven van de rassentheorie van de Nazi's (100 jaar later!), die had namelijk helemaal niets te maken met Darwin. Sterker nog: de boeken en leer van Darwin waren verboden door de Nazi's. En wel om dezelfde reden als die bij de KKK: alle mensen stammen af van dezelfde bron! Dit was natuurlijk onacceptabel voor deze übermenschen.
“Hitler didn’t apply NATURAL selection to humans. [...] Hitler tried to apply ARTIFICIAL selection to humans, and there is nothing specifically Darwinian about artificial selection. It has been familiar to farmers, gardeners, horse trainers, dog breeders, pigeon fanciers and many others for centuries, even millennia”.
The mis-portayal of darwin as a racist
Nazi ideology vs Darwinism
