From page 46: The writings of the widely recognized ‘father of modern racism,’ Count Arthur de Gobineau, further suggest some of the overlooked intricacies of racist thinking in regard to the Jews in the nineteenth century…
Gobineau pushed what could be called the essentialist core of racist thinking to its logical conclusion: environment did not explain the rise of civilizations but rather inherent racial genius did; the decline of civilizations was due to the dilution of that genius through race mixing. The phrase in Disraeli’s novel, ‘all is race; there is no other truth,’ was thus consistent with Gobineau’s theories. Revealingly, Gobineau considered the Jews to be one of the superior ‘white’ races and approved of their efforts throughout history to remain racially pure…
Gobineau’s racism was widely criticized, especially in his own country, but in one revealing regard it was widely accepted both in Europe and among people of European descent in the Americas: African Blacks were, he asserted, a distinctly inferior race. For Gobineau, Africans and the European lower orders had common traits — low intelligence, lack of self-control, and proclivity to violence. For all its claims to scientific validity, this view had deep roots in the European and Judeo-Christian past, going back to texts of the Bible as well as commentary on it. Indeed, the terminology of modern racial theory derived from biblical mythology in the account of Noah and his sons (Gen. 9:21-27): Shem, from whom the Semites descended; Ham, from whom the African Hamites descended; and Japheth, from whom the Europeans descended…
Some rabbinical commentary also contained proto-racist elements, enhancing for example the derogation of Blacks more than the bare biblical text in making the sons of Ham ‘ugly and dark-skinned’. The influential Jewish medieval philosopher Moses Maimonides wrote that ‘the Blacks’ nature…is below that of man and above that of a monkey.’ So Disraeli might be said to have drawn from both modern scientific and age-old sources when he concluded that if the white population of the United States were to continue to ‘mingle with [its] negro and coloured population’, an inevitable degeneration of the civilization of the young republic would be the result…
Blacks were often described as lacking in intelligence, Jews as cunning, dangerously intelligent. Blacks allegedly lacked self-control, whereas Jews were seen as disciplined and devious. Insofar as Jews were described as inferior, it usually had to do with moral issues, although their small stature, weak bodies, and odd ‘Oriental’ appearance were also mentioned. In short, negative visions of Blacks tended to describe them as animal-like, at a lower stage of evolution; they could be used in the way beasts of burden were used and were dangerous int eh way that such animals could be dangerous. But there was no concern in nineteenth-century Europe or America that Blacks were taking over the world through clandestine power and financial manipulation.
