The Idea Of Race by Michael Banton

Author:Michael Banton [Banton, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, General, Sociology
ISBN: 9781000302325
Google: oxGjDwAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2019-07-16T00:00:00+00:00

6

Social interaction

Any approach to race relations based on social Darwinism was bound to have major weaknesses. It had to emphasize organic evolution, to deal in speculative terms with long-term trends, and could cast little light upon superorganic or socio-cultural evolution within which the major historical events would have to be located. A historical explanation of the prevailing pattern of relations in terms of the expansion of economically progressive European powers had more to offer. Darwinist theories could not explain the variations between individuals or situations in the expression of ‘race antagonism’. They could not be used to formulate falsifiable hypotheses applicable to particular circumstances, but remained at a generalized level of justifying European pretensions.

A viable sociological alternative to such an approach first begins to appear in the work of Robert Park (1863–1944). Born in Pennsylvania, Park studied in the United States, and then in Germany, being deeply influenced by the teaching of Georg Simmel at Berlin and later writing a doctoral thesis entitled Masse und Publikum under Windelbanďs direction at Heidelberg. In between his studies, Park worked as a journalist on several American daily newspapers and afterwards served as an informal secretary to Booker T. Washington. While observing race relations in the South, Park wrote for a popular magazine a series of exposures of Belgian colonial atrocities in the Congo. Then at the age of fifty he returned to university teaching (Coser, 1971: 366–72; Park, 1973) publishing in 1921 with E. W. Burgess an influential textbook Introduction to the Science of Society which included many readings selected from other authors. A distinctively sociological approach to the study of race relations begins in the United States because sociology was established earlier and more centrally in their universities. Americans had long believed that their country had a ‘race problem’. The imperial nations of Europe perceived their relations with people of other race more in political terms. The kind of sociology that had obtained a limited academic recognition in Europe was not directed towards domestic social problems and there was scarcely any attempt to analyze the new social relations created by imperialism. In discussing race relations as a field of study this chapter and the one that follows therefore have to concentrate almost exclusively upon developments in the American academic world. They select for examination the books that did most to rise above national concerns and contribute to the establishment of a potentially international sociology of race relations.

Park was responsible for the sections of the book that dealt with questions of race. He rejected the theories of those who, like Gobineau, defined culture as a racial trait. His sympathies lay with Ratzenhofer, with Boas, and those who held that the differences were due to the geographical and cultural isolation of the less advanced races. A clear departure from the social Darwinist emphasis upon organic evolution is evident in his statement

The individual man is the bearer of a double inheritance. As a member of a race, he transmits by interbreeding a biological inheritance. As

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