Some Historical and Theoretical Bases of Racism in Northwestern Europe

Author(s): Christen T. Jonassen

Source: Social Forces, Vol. 30, No. 2 (Dec., 1951), pp. 155-161
Published by: University of North Carolina Press
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RACISM IN NORTHWESTERNEUROPE
of a dismal future state in which all human activities are viewed continuously and reient]essly
by an all-seeing eye. The basic weakness in this
picture is precisely this assumption of the existence
of robot-like creatures who, alone, could perform
such a function, plus the fact that millions of them
would be required to keep the population under
complete control. The concentration camp material
supports this criticism. Many of the flaws in the
efficiency of the concentration camp system were
due to the venality of the SS personnel, some of
them appeared because of the persistence of humane considerations, and vanity often played into
the hands of the inmates.
There is another important factor that contributes to the impossibility of instituting perfect social
controls that is demonstrated by the concentration camp experience. This also pertains to the
human rather than the material aspects of organization. To achieve their ends, the concentration
camp personnel had to employ the services of their
prisoners. Need for special skills made some of the
jailors dependent upon some of the prisoners, a
fact that gave these unforeseen opportunities to
counteract administrative measures to the advantage of large numbers of inmates. Work requirements, for example, employment outside of
the camps, often put prisoners in a position to
thwart the controls imposed upon them. The ingenuity of the strategems used by concentration

155

inmates makes for some of the brighter pictures

in the otherwise monotonously gruesome record.
Any ruling personnel is similarly dependent upon
its subject population in one way or another and
this dependence insures that control can never be
complete. This fact should be of interest to students of bureaucracy, especially to those who draw
a lugubrious picture of the consequences of the
extension of bureaucratic control in our society.
These analysts seem to have overlooked the
corrective factors present in any organization by
virtue of the fact that what is organized are human
beings and not robots.
In conclusion we might point out that all of the
special topics of the sociology of the concentration
camp system can be focused upon one basic issue,
namely, the problem of survival in concentration
camps. The material abundantly shows that only
in rare instances was survival a purely individual
achievement. In most cases survival was due to
the operation of social factors some of which I
have mentioned in the preceding discussion. If
evidence is needed in support of a truism, this
material clearly sustains the basis upon which
sociology itself is founded, namely, the fact that
for man, society is a means of survival for the
individuals in whom it is manifest, and also, that
richness of individual life depends upon the richness of the human relations available and the
variety and complexity of social arrangements.

SOME HISTORICAL AND THEORETICAL BASES OF

RACISM IN NORTHWESTERN EUROPE
CHRISTEN T. JONASSEN
OhioState University
T

HE

dogma of racism, that one ethnic or

racial group is condemned by nature to

hereditary inferiority and another group is
destined to hereditary superiority, has been one
of the most fateful ideas in recent history. Hankins, in 1926, deplored the rising tide of adulation
of the blond dolichocephal as the embodiment of
all that was great, but hopefully concluded that,
though this propaganda was not yet spent, it
appeared to be weakening.' He stated further, "It
I Frank H. Hankins, The Racial Basis of Civilization:
A Critique of the Nordic Doctrine (New York: Alfred A.
Knopf, 1926), p. vii.

is no exaggeration to say that the doctrine of

Aryan ascendency of which Count Arthur de
Gobineau has been proven by time to have been
the major prophet, was one of the most influential
ideas of the half century preceding the Great
War."2 If events have proven the prophesy of
the former statement to be erroneous, the same
events have shown his latter judgment to be well
founded indeed. And the portentous shadows cast
by the vast stirring of the peoples of Asia promise
that the influence of racism will be as great in the
2

Ibid., p. 15.

156

SOCIAL FORCES

next half century as it was in the half century preceding.

Personality needs as well as cultural and social
dynamics are probably responsible for the fact
that a certain amount of ethnocentrism and chauvinism in whatever guise may be found in all
societies. And the attempt to interpret history on
a racial basis is as ancient as history itself. Hebrews,
Greeks, Romans, and Medieval man left copious
evidences of their conviction that their achievements were attributable to the heroic stock from
which they had sprung and to the particularly
gifted blood that flowed in their veins.3 But
probably nowhere else have the beliefs which we
call "racism" been so studied and elaborated by
the scientist, pseudo-scientist, philosopher, philologist, historian, the writer, the poet, and the
politician as in Germany, England, and the United
States. France has flirted with Gallo-Romanism,
Celticism and Gallicism; the Slavic peoples with
Pan-Slavism, and the Turks with Pan-Turanism,
the Negroes with Pan-Africanism, the people of
Asia with Pan-Asianism, and the Italians under
Mussolini with Neo-Romanism.4 But these ideologies were for the most part pale imitations of the
doctrine of racial superiority, known variously as
Aryanism, Nordicism, Teutonism, Gobinism, Anglo-Saxonism, and Anthropo-Sociology or Social
Selectionism, which developed in northwestern
Europe. It is the latter brand of racism that we
are particularly interested in investigating.
There are a number of theories concerning the
origins and development of racism. Thus Snyder
regards racism as a fundamental mechanism devised to strengthen the developing nationalism of
the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.5And Benedict states: "European expansion overseas set
the stage for racist dogmas and gave violent early
expression to racial antipathies without propounding racism as a philosophy. Racism did not get its
3 Cf. William A. Dunning, A History of Political Theoryfrom Rousseau to Spencer (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1920).
4 The history of racism has been capably treated by
Louis L. Snyder, Race: A History of Modern Ethnic
Theories (New York: Longmans Green, 1939); Jacques
Barzun, The French Race, Theories of Its Origins and
Their Social and Political Implications (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1932); and Race: A Study
in Modern Superstition (New York: Harcourt Brace
and Company, 1937), by the same author; Frank H.
Hankins, op. cit.
5 Snyder, op. cit., p. 312.

currency in modern thought until it was applied

to conflicts within Europe-first to class conflict,
and then to national conflict."6And Cox following
the Marxist position states, "It is probable that
without capitalism, cultural chance occurrence
among whites, the world might never have experienced race prejudice";7 while MacCrone holds
that racist ideologies were characteristic products
of eighteenth century European domination and
nineteenth century evolutionary theory and were
non-existent in the minds of Europeans before this
time.8 Thus scholars differ on some points and
agree on others or give different weights to possible
causal factors.
The purpose of this paper is to attempt a reconciliation of conflicting theories concerning the
development of Nordic racism in the light of
certain materials which have heretofore been ignored in the discussion of this problem, and to
throw additional light on the development of the
phenomenon of racism by a synthesis of historical,
sociological, and psychological understandings.
This purpose it is felt may be accomplished by a
reevaluation of historical data and by regardingthe
ideology of racism as mental productions which
can be examined from the point of view of the
sociology of knowledge. Using the paradigm suggested by Merton,9 we shall attempt to answer
such questions about Nordicism as: Where is the
existential basis of these mental productions located? How are these mental productions related
to the existential basis? Why do these exist and
what are their manifest and latent functions?
And when do the imputed relations of the existential base and knowledge obtain?
That the main thesis of racism has been proven
false by scholars and scientists does not alter its
effectiveness or importance as a world force; on
the contrary, it raises questions as to why it has
persisted though shown to be without validity.
And as Schelerpoints out, "the sociology of knowledge is not concerned merely with tracing the
6 Ruth Benedict, Race: Science and Politics (New
York: Viking Press, 1945).
1Oliver Cromwell Cox, Caste, Class and Race: A
Study in Social Dynamics (Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday, 1948).
8 I. D. MacCrone, Race Attitudes in South Africa,
EHistorical,Experimental and Psychological Studies (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1937), p. 8.
1 Robert K. Merton, "The Sociology of Knowledge"
in Gurvitch and Moore, Twentieth Century Sociology
(New York: The Philosophical Press, 1945), p. 372.

RACISM IN NORTHWESTERN EUROPE

existential basis of truth, but also of social illusions, superstitions, and socially conditioned errors
and forms of deception.")10
The peoples of northwestern Europe and the
United States have always been very conscious of
the culture which they inherited from the classic
civilizations of the Mediterranean basin; indeed,
in common language "culture" is usually used to
describe those parts of our culture which were
acquired from Greece and Rome. We are perhaps
less conscious of how much of our cultural heritage,
our habits, and values were acquired from the
ancient peoples of the North Sea basin. These
cultural factors are less dramatic and evident
because they are acquired in the subtle process of
socialization, rather than through a foreign language or a formal educational institution, and have
in this way endured through the ages passed from
generation to generation. Thus past events are
encysted in the social attitudes of today, and these
events cannot be fully understood without reference to their origins and developmental history,
for the present attitude represents merely the
latest or contemporary phase of the total genetic
process.
Barzun has pointed out the apparent paradox
that modern, Nordic, racial ideology has originated
in the writings of Latins such as Tacitus, Bougainville, and de Gobineau;11 these authors really used
the Nordics as Samuel Johnson used the Chinese,
or More the Utopians, to create invidious comparisons as a critique of their own society. It is significant that these doctrines did not become very
important in the ideology and politics of the Latin
countries where many of them originated, but did
achieve much greater influence in some northern
European countries. This is understandable when
it is realized that cultural diffusion is selective and
that the culture of the ancient peoples of the North
Sea Basin contained a rather complete racist
theory which was integrated with their mythology
and their total value system, and which in most
respects paralleled the myths of modern racist
dogma.
The Rigsthula12is a cultural poem which de10 Max Scheler, Die Wissenformen und die Gesellschaft (Leipzig: Der Neue-Geist Verlag, 1926), pp.
59-61. Quoted by Merton, op. cit., p. 383.
Jacques Barzun, The French Race, p. 12.
12The Rigsthula sometimes called Rigsmol is contained in the Codex Wormanius, a manuscript of
Snorri's Prose Edda. The Eddin poems were the work

157

scribes the racial make-up, the functions and relationships of social classes in Viking society, and
explains the origins of these classes and their function on a mythological basis. According to this
poem it was the god Rig who created the different
classes of society. Thrael, of the lowest class, is
describedas black-hairedwith wrinkled skin, rough
hands and knotted knuckles, thick fingers, ugly
face, twisted back, and big heels. Thrael's wife
would hardly win any beauty contest either since
she had, according to this account, crooked legs,
stained feet, sunburned arms, and a flat nose.
Their function as described by this work was to
carry burdens all day, dig turf, spread dung, and
herd swine and goats.
Karl, the yeoman, however, is pictured as sturdy
and strong with a ruddy face and flashing eyes.
It was his duty to manage the farm, build houses,
and fashion other artifacts.
Mothir, the woman of the noble class, is described as having bright brows, a shining breast,
and a neck "whiter than the new fallen snow."
And her son, Jarl, by the god Rig, is portrayed in
these words, "Blond he was, and bright his cheeks,
grim as a snake's were his glowing eyes." Jarl's
function as a warrior and ruler is described in
detail; he, unlike either Thrael or Karl, is taught
runes.
This poem like the rest of Norse mythology may
be looked upon as a mental production which gave
the Vikings explanations about nature, society,
and themselves, gave them answers to questions
they could answer in no other way, and therefore
helped them to solve problems arising out of activity in these spheres of life.
The thralls found in Scandinavia at the opening of the Viking Age were probably to a large
extent descendants of the short, brunette, brachycephalic race which the tall, blond, long-headed
of various authors of ancient Iceland and Norway. It is
thought that the Rigsthula was reduced to writing in
the last part of the Tenth Century, but that it had
existed for many generations before this in oral form.
The poem has been of considerable interest to European
scholars. See for example Maximilien de Ring, Essai
sur la Rigsmaal-Saga: et sur les Trois Classes de la Societe Germanique(Paris: Benjamin Duprat, 1854); Karl
Von Lehman, Die Rigsbula (Rostock: Verlag der Stillerchen Hof und Universitatsbuchandlung, 1904). It
has been translated into several languages including
English. Cf. Henry Adams Bellows, Quotationsfrom the
Poetic Edda (Princeton: Princeton University Press
and Scandinavian Foundation, 1936), pp. 201-17.

158

SOCIAL FORCES

Norse had conquered when they moved into

Scandinavia.13 The Vikings, as they conducted
their raiding and conquest expeditions to England,
Ireland, and Continental Europe would bring
back captives which were made slaves. These were
for the most part shorter and darker than their
captors. Thus certain racial characteristics such
as short stature, dark hair and skin, and a flat
nose became associated with inferior social status,
and inferiority in general; while blondness, light
skin, and certain facial features became connected
with superiority. These ideas were supported by
mythology and tended to persist even though a
certain amount of race mixture went on generation
after generation.
It is certain that much of the cultural mass,
such as aspects of laws, language, values, usages,
etc., of the modern nations of the North Sea basin
can be traced to the culture described by Norse
Sagas and other documents which have survived.14
It is therefore reasonable to hypothesize that the
values regardingracial characteristics,social status,
inferiority and superiority survived along with
other elements and formed a fertile mental atmosphere in which racism could grow and achieve
its rankest flowering in the age of Hitler.
There is considerable evidence to support this
point of view. Of all the purveyors of Aryanism
and its various forms, Arthur de Gobineau must
be given the dubious honor of being the most important. It was he who with sublety and brilliance
fused the scattered racist ideas of philosophers,
ethnologists, and the musings and exuberances of
the poets into a coherent intellectual whole, and in
striking prose gave life to the dry scholarship of
the linguistic paleontologists that preceded him.
His abilities as a synthesizer and a writer surmounted the many errors of his ideas and the
falsity of his basic premise, and helped make
racism one of the most influential ideas of the
Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries. In many
respects de Gobineau is to racism what Adam
Smith is to capitalism. It was de Gobineau who
turned the "Aryan Controversy,"chiefly concerned
18 For a discussion of slavery in ancient Scandinavia
see A. E. Eriksen, "Traeldom hos Skandinavere" in
Nordisk Universitets Tidsskrift (1861); A. Gjessing
"Traeldom i Norge" in Annaler for Nordisk Oldkyndighet og Historie (Kristiania, 1862).
14 Cf. M. Larson, The Earliest Norwegian Laws, Being
the GualathingLaw and the FrostathingLaw (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1927).

with the location of the homeland of the Aryan

language and people by philology and anthropology, into an ideology of racial superiority and inferiority that was to have such portentous consequences for the history of our times. Although de
Gobineau used "Aryan" to describe his chosen
people it is clear that he meant Nordic in the restricted sense. It was essentially his work which
crystallized the Nordic myth and gave it the present form and direction. Those who followed him,
Houston Stewart Chamberlain15and Hans F. K.
GQnther16in Germany, and Madison Grant17and
Lothrop Stoddard18in the United States developed
and elaborated what he had started.
De Gobineau's central thesis that race and aristocracy are the most important elements in civilization and that the hope of the world has always
been the fair-hairedAryan or Nordic was proposed
in a four volume work, Essai sur l'inegalite des
races humaines (1853-1855). Later (1879) he published Histoire d'OttarJarl, Pirate Norvegien conquerant du pays de Bray en Normandie, et de sa
descendance.And it is significant for this paper that
in a letter to Mm. Wagner he stated that the Essai
was written in consequence of research begun on
the history of his family and that it was written
in part to prove scientifically the superiority of his
own race. He believed that he was a direct descendant through Norman stock of Ottar Jarl, a
Viking hero of ancient Norway. Furthermore, in a
passage in OttarJarl he states that this book continues his Essai and his Histoire des Perses which
were written only to serve as prefaces.'9 Certainly
de Gobineau in his research for Ottar Jarl must
have come in contact with the values and ideas
about race and aristocracy expressed in the Rigsthula.
One of the great intellectual movements of the
15 Houston Stewart Chamberlain, Foundations of the
Twentieth Century (London, 1911), translated from the
original: Die Grundlagen des neunzehten Jahrhunderts
(Munich, 1899).
16 Hans F. K. Gunther, Rassenkunde des deutschen
Volkes (Munich, 1930).
17 Madison Grant, The Passing of the Great Race (New
York, 1916).
18 Lothrop Stoddard, Closing Tides of Color (New
York, 1935); The Rising Tide of Color Against White
Supremacy (New York, 1920); Revolt Against Civilization (New York, 1922).
19Maurice Lange, Le Comte Arthur de Gobineau,
Etude biographiqueet critique (Strausburg, 1924), p. 119.
Quoted by Hankins, op. cit., p. 49.

RACISM IN NORTHWESTERNEUROPE
Nineteenth Century, Romanticism, helped to make
the peoples of Scandinavia, Germany, England,
and America conscious of their Norse heritage.
In his rejection of neo-classical themes the Romanticist sought inspiration in other directions,
one of these sources being ancient Norse sagas
and Teutonic ideas. Norse and Anglo-Saxon themes
are important aspects of the Romantic movement
in Scandinavia, England, and the United States.20
The same was true of Germany and it was no accident that Houston Stewart Chamberlain,disciple
of de Gobineau, who elaborated and popularized
Gobinism, was an enthusiastic admirer of Richard
Wagner who perhaps better tha anyone resurrected and dramatized old Nordic myths in his
The Ring of theNiebelungen.Wagner and Gobineau
were good friends and the German master found
great pleasure in being told that the Ring embodied
the quintessence of de Gobineau's principles of
German race superiority. Chamberlain's marriage
to Wagner's daughter joined individuals who were
already intimately spiritually related. That Hitler
should find both Wagner's operas and the present
Wagner family worthy of his intense patronage is
therefore understandable.
It would appear then- that the central ideas of
racism had been part of the intellectual atmosphere
of northwestern Europe since the beginning of
historical times and most probably long before,
and that the Romantic movement created a renaissance and dramatization of Norse ideals in the
Nineteenth Century. In fact, de Gobineau himself
was essentially and typically a romanticist.
Though some forms of racist ideas were present
in Spain, Portugal, and particularly France, racism
never took root and grew to such virulent proportions in these countries even though their exploitation of colonial peoples created a situation
in which one could expect such ideas to flourish.
However, religious traditions, and the traditions
of the Inquisition were strong in these countries
and it was to this type of mental productions that
the Spaniards and Portuguese turned for their
rationalizations. The exploitation by the Latin
colonial powers of the natives was no less brutal
than that practiced by the colonizers from northwestern Europe, but it was justified by different
premises. The Spaniards, for example, justified
20 Cf. Frank Edgar Farley, Scandinavian Infinences
on the English Romantic Movement (Boston: Ginn and
Co., 1903); Josef Koerner, Niebelungenforschungender
deutschen Romatik (Leipzig: H. Hassel, 1911).

159

their exploitation of native peoples on the basis

that these people were pagans and therefore outside the pale of Christian ethics and consideration.
It might be argued that, since the result was the
same, whether exploitation was justified on a
racial or religious basis had no significance. But
this differencewas to be of tremendous significance
for the modern world. The difference of religion
could be overcome by conversion, and in Spanish,
Portuguese, and French colonies amalgamation
was often accepted and even encouraged, while
in English and Dutch colonies where racist ideas
predominated amalgamation was usually strongly
discouraged and proscribed, and intermarriagewas
the exception rather than the rule. This is one of
the important facts which explains why the race
problem is being solved through amalgamation
in such countries as Brazil, while it is perhaps
more acute than ever today in such countries as
South Africa where English value systems predominate.
On the other hand, not all the countries of northwestern Europe whose culture can be traced back
to Norse and Teutonic origins have elaborated
racism intellectually, nor has it found expression
in political movements. The Scandinavians like
other peoples have not been free from chauvinism,
ethnocentrism, and extreme nationalism, but it
appears to be correct to state that in modern times
racism, so prevalent in Germany, Great Britain,
and the United States, has not appeared here.
For example, Penka's thesis that Scandinavia was
the cradle of the Aryans, which was popularized
in England by G. H. Randall's The Cradle of the
Aryans (1887), received little notice in Scandinavia,
and the Scandinavian anthropologists Montilius
and Sophus Muller did not assent.2' And even
under the Nazi occupation of Norway and Denmark when espousal of Nordicism had immediate
and tangible rewards the doctrine gathered comparatively few adherents. Thus in Scandinavia
where the old Norse ideas of race and aristocracy
should certainly be as strong as anywhere, significant ideological and political movements based on
racism are conspicuously absent.
It would appear, therefore, that other factors
besides the presence of racist traditions must be
invoked to explain the apparent contradiction.
The other factor, which was present in Germany,
Great Britain, and the United States and not in
Scandinavia, was the historical situations in which
21 Hankins,op. cit., pp. 20, 21.

SOCIAL FORCES

160

the former countries became involved. Racism in

Germany as an intellectual movement developed
concomitantly with the strong drive for nationhood
which culminated in the unification of Germany
in 1871. It was given further impetus by German
imperialism and reached its climax of development
under Hitler who found it an effective weapon in
his drive to recreate German power and self-respect
after the disastrous defeat of World War I. It is
probable that imperialism rather than nationalism
was the dominant situational factor in Great
Britain. And in the United States the presence of
a large slave population in a society ideologically
committed to liberty, equality, and Christian
ethics played a decisive role. It is significant in
this regard that the first English translation of
de Gobineau was by H. Hotz of Montgomery,
Alabama, whose labor of love was undertaken as
a piece of pro-slavery propaganda.22Furthermore,
the people of the United States were engaged in
the conquest and consolidation of a continental
nation which involved the liquidation, removal,
or forcible segregation of the original inhabitants
who differed from themselves both racially and
culturally.
These situational factors were not present in
modern Scandinavia. Scandinavian countries were
not engaged in imperialistic enterprises and the
national states of Denmark and Sweden had been
established for a long time. And Norway's nationalism, though not regained fully before 1905, was
realized in a struggle where the contestants were
fellow Scandinavians, very much alike in both
culture and race. In other words, though the ideology of racism was readily available the logical
and psychological necessity for it was lacking. In
Germany, Great Britain, and the United States,
however, both the cultural tradition and the historical situation created a favorable climate for
racism to develop.
CONCLUSIONS

The existential basis of the racist ideas which

were to be so fateful for the Twentieth Century
22"The full title read: 'The moral and intellectual
diversity of races, with particular reference to their respective influence in the political history of mankind,
from the French of Arthur de Gobineau, with an analytical introduction and historical notes by H. Hotz
to which is added an appendix by J. C. Nott.' " Snyder,
op. cit., p. 114. Hotz translated only the first part. The
first volume was translated by Adrian Collins (Putnam's, 1915).

seem to have at least two essential loci. First a

tradition of racism existed in the cultural mass of
the nations who adopted it, and secondly, certain
situations and conditions arose which made racism
effective and consequential in countries where both
factors were present. On the other hand, in countries where either the tradition or the situation
was lacking racism proved to be of little consequence and socially ineffective.
The problem of the connection between this
existential base and the ideas of Nordicism can be
solved in terms of their functional relationship.
It is apparent from existing documents that de
Gobineau was motivated to produce what he did
to "prove in a scientific way" the superiority of
his own race and class. The relationship to the
historical situation becomes clear when it is recalled that de Gobineau was a passionate aristocrat
in an age where the status of all aristocrats was
under attack by forces created by industrialization and capitalism and liberated by the socialist
movement. It was also against such a background
of class conflict that Tacitus composed Germania,23
probably the first espousal of Nordicism. It would
thus appear that the Marx-Engels views on the
connectives between ideas and economic substructure would hold here; namely that ideas to
be effective in a society must have pertinence for
one or another of the conflicting classes. This view
seems to be supported too by the fact that the
Rigsthula was created in the Viking era by an
aristocratic class which controlled a "capitalistic"
society sharply stratified into classes of slaves,
freedmen, land owners, nobles, and royalty.
However, the Marx-Engels conceptual scheme
does not in the case of racism explain that some
Germans, Britons, and Americans, no matter what
their class position, have supported racism at
various times to give political movements based
on racism a broad base. In fact, Nazism in Germany, the Know-Nothings, and the Ku Klux
Klan and Silver Shirts in the United States seem
to draw the majority of their members not from
the upper class but rather from classes of a comparatively marginal economic position. Nor does
the racism arising primarily out of nationalism
seem to be explained completely within the class
23 "It is in his thirty-page essay on Germany, Its
Geography, Manners, Customs and Tribes that we
find the combined elements of history and moralization
which form the fruitful germ of the Nordic idea."
Quoted by Barzun, The French Race, p. 20.

RACISM IN NORTH WESTERN EUROPE

warfare frame of reference. The humblest denizen

of Limehouse as well as the aristocrat of Mayfair
found spiritual sustenance and inspiration in Kipling's hymns to the destiny and superiority of
England, and the idea of Anglo-Saxon superiority
has always been dear to the heart of Englishspeaking peoples no matter what their position
in the social structures of their societies. In World
War I the solidarity of the socialist working class
foundered on the rocks of nationalism, and today
Communism has its Tito. And it was among the
pioneers and colonists, usually not of the upper
classes, that racism and the practices that follow
therefrom were to be found in their most extreme
form.
The problem is to find an explanation that will
integrate societal and structural components as
well as cultural and psychological elements involved in the genesis and persistence of racism.
The common factors present in the predispositioning situations (class, race, ethnic or national group
antagonism, and differentiation) are ego security
threats inherent in superordinationand subordination of groups and the individuals who identify
themselves or are identified with these groups
(classes, ethnic, racial, or national groups). It is
this common element which points to a possible
solution. Since groups are composed of interacting
persons and the policies of groups are the result
of the collectively organized attitudes of these
persons, the explanation of the occurrenceof racism
should logically be looked for in the mechanism of
personality integration. The personality with its
intense need for security and self-esteem evokes
mechanisms of a protective nature; it seeks to
neutralize whatever disturbs it by avoiding, forgetting, or in other ways nullifying whatever is
troublesome. Furthermore, the exigencies of situations in which a person finds himself may lead to

161

powerful antagonistic drives between idealistic

and moral attitudes and values and ego-centric
organic strivings and needs. Personality integration is achieved when the conflicting or competing
demands or psychic conflicts are kept to a minimum.
It is clear from an analysis of racism that its
specific tenets, ideas, and values facilitate such
mental mechanisms of personality integration as
rationalization, compensation, displacement, projection, identification, introjection, and phantasy.
Conquest, nationalism, imperialism, class, and
racial strife are movements which sharpen the
consciousness of differentiation, superordination,
and subordination, and thus bring into play the
psychological mechanisms which sustain the ego
in the adventurous struggle between groups and
individuals.
The kinds of mental productions which a people
create to meet such needs are limited and their
character determined by the cultural heritage
which they have at their disposal at the moment
of need. The mental productions which connected
the specific racial features of blondness, blue eyes,
tallness, light complexion, etc. with superiority,
and dark hair, short stature, dark skin, etc., with
inferiority were present in the cultural traditions
of the ancient peoples whose descendants created
the modern nations of northwestern Europe and
North America. The function of Romanticism was
to create a renaissance of these traditions latent
in the cultural mass; that of Social Darwinism to
give them a "scientificbasis" just at the time when
a favorable psychological climate for their acceptance and growth had been created by conquest, nationalism, and imperialism. Thus the
fateful racist doctrine of Nordicism arose, persisted and grew to its fearful proportions nurtured
on human needs created by the fortuitous juxtaposition of vast historical events in time and space.