Race and Reality: A Search for Solutions By Carleton Putnam (review)

BOOK REVIEWS Race andReality: A Searchfor Solutions. By Carleton Putnam. Washington, D.C.: Public Affairs Press, 1967. Pp. 192. $4.50. Continuing the same theme elaborated in his Race andReason, Putnam challenges what Henry Garrett calls "the equalitarian dogma," the doctrine ofthe inherent equality ofall races, and proposes a slightly modified segregation system as the solution to the "race problem." Modern anthropology, politically motivated, according to Putnam, follows the path of untruth blazed by the Columbia UniversityJewish professor, Franz Boas. His students, Benedict, Chein, Clark, Dobzhansky, Dunn, Herskovitz, Klineberg, Mead, Montagu, and Weltfish—Jewish, or socialist, or both—have promoted equalitarianism, even to the point of creating the UNESCO Statement on Race in which "the no-race-differences dogma was flung like a banner high and wide." The facts of genetics, again according to Putnam, and especially the statements ofthe late Carleton S. Coon to the effect that "the Negro race is 200,000 years behind the white race on the ladder ofevolution" have been brushed aside by Boas' students. Arising from Boas' long-extended shadow, a "scientifichierarchy" has grownup which has successfully suppressed all opposition to the truthexceptinahandfulofcourageous scientists, especially by control over academic departments and access to public news media whose editors, commentators, and publishers have been, Putnam believes, brainwashed by our modern universities. The truth, nevertheless, will not be put down. Putnam claims that Negro brains that have been measured are inferior in size, weight, and structure to white brains, a contention the editor ofthisjournalhas characterized as based onworthlessevidence. It is obvious that Negroperformancejudged bywhitestandards doesnotmeasureup to whiteperformance. Intellectually, Negroes on the average score significantly below whites, even when class differences are partialled out. The writer oíRace andReality further maintains that, efforts to prove the contrary notwithstanding, Negro civilizations have nowhere equaled Caucasian or Mongolian civilizations. Indeed, it is concluded that "the facts" from anatomy, histology, physical anthropology, kinesthetics, electrophysiology, genetics, psychology, andhistory substantiatethe claim ofNegro inferiority—not that ofequality asseverated by "the Boas cult." In orderto lay to rest the ghost ofBoas, who sits not only in academic chairs but also on the Supreme Court, Doctors Clairette Armstrong, sometime chiefpsychologist at Bellevue Hospital; Henry E. Garrett, long-time head ofthe Columbia University Psychology Department; Wesley Crites George, professor emeritus of histology and embryology, North Carolina Medical School; R. T. Osborne, professor ofpsychology, University of 33.S Georgia; Ernest van den Haag, professor ofsocial philosophy, New York University; and Mr. Putnam, retired chairman ofthe board ofDelta AirLines, together with theirlawyers, gathered in Savannah, Georgia, in May of1963. Here, the case ofStellvs. Savannah Board ofEducation "seemed to offer an opportunity to correct the situation at last. Now it would be possibleto exposethefallacies andsupply thedeficiencies in Brownvs. BoardofEducation ofTopeka. The proponents ofthe environmental sociology, the cultural anthropologists, the Montagus, the Klinebergs, and the Clarks could be cross-examined under oath on the witness stand. So could the Garretts and the Georges. Finally, adequate press coverage would permit a beginning in the education ofthe public about the facts." But Jack Greenberg and Constance Motley ofthe NAACP understandably failed to co-operate in this grand strategy by not producing any egalitarian scientific witnesses and, ofall things, by using clever lawyers' tricks to try to discredit the legitimate scientists' testimony. In addition , the news media on the whole found other things to report that May than Stell. As Putnam observes ofthe ruling in favor ofthe white children, "The Opinion andJudgment dropped into a deep well ofsilence." He reports with incredulity the succeeding reversal ofthatjudgment by the Fifth Circuit of Appeals and the refusal of the Supreme Court to review the Fifth's decision. As in Race and Reason, most ofthe latter portion ofthe book is given over to "point counter-point" questions or criticisms addressed to Putnam's position and his replies. Most ofthissectionseems likeso much nit-picking andnotworthreviewing indetail. Nevertheless , the main position and its implications exemplified here and elsewhere in the book are too important to overlook. Perhaps theoft-quoted dictum thatscientifictheories are not so much refuted as replaced by othertheories applies withpeculiarforceto Putnam's thesis: Whitepeopleare inherently superior to other races. This statement of his position might not be acceptable to Putnam . But one cannot help getting the...