DIY History | Transcribe | Hevelin Fanzines | Fandango, v. 2, issue 1, whole no. 5, Summer 1944

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Fandango, v. 2, issue 1, whole no. 5, Summer 1944

Page 11

In the discussion of racial interbreeding, you are missing the entire point. As a matter of fact, we do not _know_ how this would work; so far as I know, there have been no studies of this problem made on a basis of cold, scientific controlled experimentation.    In order to be able to state dogmatically that interbreeding is or is not a good thing, we should have to back us up the results of a long and intensive series
of experiments extending over several generations. Basically speaking, however, the only possible objections to racial interbreeding of any kind would be the inferiority of the mongrel product, in case the said product actually was biologically inferior. For example, if hereditary size of foetus failed to gibe with the hereditary size and flexibility
of the vagina (as is the case, I believe, in certain Eurasian halflings) obviously such interbreeding would be wrong.    Scores of other inherited
factors—resistance to certain diseases, longevity, quantity and quality of synapses, muscular tone, to name a few—would have to be considered before we were able to state with assurance that interbreeding in a given case was or was not right.
     However, matters such as these are not to be judged on an emotional basis of prejudice having its roots in the conditioned fears of a
former slave-owning caste.   Though you have repeatedly shown your ability to reason and evaluate intelligently, on this one problem at least you react without the faintest sign of mentality. Certainly you are
not to be blamed personally for the conditioned reflexes which were instilled in you as a child; on the other hand, your utterances on such topics surely should be taken for what they are, and  furthermore, you, as an intelligent person, should make every effort to keep unreasoning emotions out of what is merely an intellectual and scientific problem. In other words, Speer, your psychology is muddled on this one point; you should seek to recognize this fact, and attempt to rectify it.
     But I veer. In considering this problem of racial interbreeding, we will have to go beyond the scientific and biological concept, and
consider the social conditions which the children of such unions would confront. As long as we persist in treating the negro as an inferior, we must expect to have strong interracial feeling on both sides. As long as we insist on a person's having certain skin pigmentation in order to enjoy fully the rights which are the rightful expectation of all of us, we really have no right to demand that this situation be
faced by innocent individuals who had nothing to do with their heredity. This argument, if carried to its logical extreme, would of course call for a complete cessation of breeding in such a minority group. Racial instincts concerning such basic necessities as the survival of a species will of course militate against this, and rightly so.   Just who are any of us to say which species should be and which species should not?
     The greatest fallacy of Speer's arguments lies in the fact that he leaps to the conclusion that EQUAL RIGHTS for negroes implies INTER-BREEDING as a matter of course. Speer, in common with many thousands of others, seems to find the thought of intercourse with a chocolate cutie so irresistable that he must be kept from his desires by a system of repressive laws and taboos.    The sisters of such people are so overwhelmed by the thought of a black lover that they too must have a curb put on them by society. If these restrictions were to be lifted,
we would be treated to the spectacle of all marriageable whites rushing frantically after all marriageable negroes, with 85% of the whites being crowded out due to their much larger numbers. One can even imagine talented and beautiful, white girls committing suicide because
there were not enough negroes to go around. That sounds silly, doesn't it? Yet is this not the logical end of this terror of interbreeding?
In actual fact, if all interracial curbs and discriminations were
somehow lifted this moment, the next ten years would show surprisingly

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In the discussion of racial interbreeding, you are missing the entire point. As a matter of fact, we do not _know_ how this would work; so far as I know, there have been no studies of this problem made on a basis of cold, scientific controlled experimentation. In order to be able to state dogmatically that interbreeding is or is not a good thing, we should have to back us up the results of a long and intensive series of experiments extending over several generations. Basically speaking, however, the only possible objections to racial interbreeding of any kind would be the inferiority of the mongrel product, in case the said product actually was biologically inferior. For example, if hereditary size of foetus failed to gibe with the hereditary size and flexibility of the vagina (as is the case, I believe, in certain Eurasian halflings) obviously such interbreeding would be wrong. Scores of other inherited factors—resistance to certain diseases, longevity, quantity and quality of synapses, muscular tone, to name a few—would have to be considered before we were able to state with assurance that interbreeding in a given case was or was not right. However, matters such as these are not to be judged on an emotional basis of prejudice having its roots in the conditioned fears of a former slave-owning caste. Though you have repeatedly shown your ability to reason and evaluate intelligently, on this one problem at least you react without the faintest sign of mentality. Certainly you are not to be blamed personally for the conditioned reflexes which were instilled in you as a child; on the other hand, your utterances on such topics surely should be taken for what they are, and furthermore, you, as an intelligent person, should make every effort to keep unreasoning emotions out of what is merely an intellectual and scientific problem. In other words, Speer, your psychology is muddled on this one point; you should seek to recognize this fact, and attempt to rectify it. But I veer. In considering this problem of racial interbreeding, we will have to go beyond the scientific and biological concept, and consider the social conditions which the children of such unions would confront. As long as we persist in treating the negro as an inferior, we must expect to have strong interracial feeling on both sides. As long as we insist on a person's having certain skin pigmentation in order to enjoy fully the rights which are the rightful expectation of all of us, we really have no right to demand that this situation be faced by innocent individuals who had nothing to do with their heredity. This argument, if carried to its logical extreme, would of course call for a complete cessation of breeding in such a minority group. Racial instincts concerning such basic necessities as the survival of a species will of course militate against this, and rightly so. Just who are any of us to say which species should be and which species should not? The greatest fallacy of Speer's arguments lies in the fact that he leaps to the conclusion that EQUAL RIGHTS for negroes implies INTER-BREEDING as a matter of course. Speer, in common with many thousands of others, seems to find the thought of intercourse with a chocolate cutie so irresistable that he must be kept from his desires by a system of repressive laws and taboos. The sisters of such people are so overwhelmed by the thought of a black lover that they too must have a curb put on them by society. If these restrictions were to be lifted, we would be treated to the spectacle of all marriageable whites rushing frantically after all marriageable negroes, with 85% of the whites being crowded out due to their much larger numbers. One can even imagine talented and beautiful, white girls committing suicide because there were not enough negroes to go around. That sounds silly, doesn't it? Yet is this not the logical end of this terror of interbreeding? In actual fact, if all interracial curbs and discriminations were somehow lifted this moment, the next ten years would show surprisingly