Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2019 November 20

= November 20 =

Did Darwin say this?
I’ve seen the following quote floating around the Internet attributed to Charles Darwin. Usually it’s either quoted approvingly by racists on sites such as Chimpmania, or else by creationists to attack him.

“At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace, the savage races throughout the world. At the same time the anthropomorphous apes ... will no doubt be exterminated. The break between man and his nearest allies will then be wider, for it will intervene between man in a more civilized state, as we may hope, even than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as a baboon, instead of as now between the Negro or Australian and the gorilla.”

Given that other racist quotes have been falsely attributed to Darwin in the past by creationists and racists for their respective purposes (one such quote was from Thomas Dixon’s novel, The Clansmen), I’m skeptical the above quote was actually Darwin. But you never know. 2600:1014:B024:12AF:D8C:772B:5474:843E (talk) 23:20, 20 November 2019 (UTC)


 * &mdash;eric 23:37, 20 November 2019 (UTC)
 * See also this section int the Decent of Man article, there is probably more commentary than Why Freud Was Wrong, but that is all that is mentioned in that section.&mdash;eric 23:55, 20 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Since we're citing sources, perhaps we could cite it correctly. The word is Descent. --76.69.116.4 (talk) 03:54, 21 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Especially as there's nothing decent about racism. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 04:03, 21 November 2019 (UTC)
 * spelling is beneath me.&mdash;eric 04:07, 21 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Then kindly bid your adieux to the human race. --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  20:07, 21 November 2019 (UTC)
 * of all my failures, i never imagined spelling would be the one to class me with the savages.&mdash;eric 20:36, 21 November 2019 (UTC)
 * No, spelling being beneath you means you are above. Non-human, for sure, yet not savage but divine! ---Sluzzelin talk  22:28, 21 November 2019 (UTC)