Cultural Continuity Quotes
Russell like the rest of the Southern Congressional delegation, though members of the President’s own party were vehemently opposed to any civil rights legislation that would erode the legal racism and segregation that was prevalent in the South. The irony of Russell’s statement is that by Russell’s definition of a “mongrel race” the South was just that. And in a very real genetic sense all the great civilizations were characterized by interbreeding which is what Russell and other Southerners were paranoid about. The Southern institution of slavery was rife with the sexual abuse of the female slaves by the white masters and/or members of their family, overseers and other whites with power over the slaves. While many of the offspring were identifiable as mixed race (defined as Black by the laws at the time) many appeared to be white and light skinned enough to “pass” and did. A very large percentage of Southern white and black families had mixed blood in the family when Russell was complaining. More to the point, although it was not known at the time, we now know that every human being on earth can be genetically traced back through myocardial DNA to Blacks emanating from Africa. However, even using his narrow vision of race, his history was wanting. A number of great civilizations were of mixed race. One dramatic example was the great dynasties of Egypt. Cleopatra, herself, was from the union of Alexander the Great’s Greek General Ptolemy and the traditional line of Egyptian Pharos. Alexander’s Greek Soldiers interbred, as part of Alexander’s policy of occupation as suggested by Aristotle. All those societies thereafter were “mongrel” races at least in the ruling and upper classes. Actually the United States and the Soviet Union, the two super powers of the day both were ethnically and racially, highly diversified and both had a great deal of miscegenation. Scientists had made a very good argument that miscegenation strengthens a people—not weakens it.
