Bertrand Russell's Opinion of Negroes

In extreme cases, there can be little doubt of the superiority of one race to another. North America, Australia, and New Zealand certainly contribute more to the civilization of the world than they would do if they were still peopled by aborigines. It seems on the whole fair to regard negroes as on the average inferior to white men, although for work in the tropics they are indispensable, so that their extermination (apart from questions of humanity) would be highly undesirable. But when it comes to discriminating among the races of Europe, a mass of bad science has to be brought in to support political prejudice. Nor do I see any valid ground for regarding the yellow races as in any degree inferior to our noble selves.

- Bertrand Russell, from Marriage and Morals, published in 1929

https://russell-j.com/beginner/MaM1929-TEXT.HTM

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Bertrand Russell was a celebrated philosopher, mathematician, logician, and essayist. In 1950 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was a democratic socialist. He was also an early critic of the Communist government in Russia, when other democratic socialists in the West were praising it, and ignoring or making excuses for its injustices. In 1919 and 1920 he visited the Soviet Union and wrote about his experiences and reflections in The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism, which I reviewed for Amazon here:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R1MCAOQUQTDMHZ/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1604500840

After the Second World War Bertrand Russell maintained that nuclear bombs should never be used under any circumstances. He was a noted critic of the War In Vietnam.

In his book review of Bertrand Russell's Power: A New Social Analysis, George Orwell wrote, "Few people during the past thirty years have been so consistently impervious to the fashionable bunk of the moment. In a time of universal panic and lying he is a good person to make contact with."

This was published in Aldelphi, January 1939.

Unfortunately, after the Second World War, Bertrand Russell was pervious to the fashionable bunk of a moment that has lasted far too long. When Bertrand Russell wrote Marriage and Morals his opinion of Negroes was the informed and the popular consensus. Following the revelations of the Holocaust fewer people wanted to believe that racial differences existed, or that they even existed.

Following the Second World War, Bertrand Russell, retracted his statement about Negroes, although no evidence had been discovered to disprove his early statement. There is still no evidence that he was mistaken.

It is ironic that the Nazi effort to exterminate the most superior race in existence has led to the dogma that there are no inferior races. I call it a dogma, because I doubt that many people genuinely believe it.