Albert Einstein

By Elaine Magliaro

On December 2nd, Dennis Overbye (New York Times) reported that Digital Einstein would soon be introduced–and that anyone with an Internet connection would “be able to share in the letters, papers, postcards, notebooks and diaries that Einstein left scattered in Princeton and in other archives, attics and shoeboxes around the world when he died in 1955.”

On the same day, Scott Kaufman wrote an article for Raw Story titled Albert Einstein: American ‘sense of equality and human dignity limited to men of white skins’. In his piece, Kaufman wrote that Albert Einstein had addressed “what was called, in 1946, ‘the Negro question’ in another document belonging to the so-called ‘Dead Sea Scrolls of physics.’”

Kaufman:

“I am writing seriously and warningly,” he began, before noting that as a newcomer to America, he might not have the right to speak “about things which concern [Americans] alone, and which no newcomer should touch[.]”

But “I do not think such a standpoint is justified,” Einstein wrote. “One who has grown up in an environment takes much for granted. On the other hand, one who has come to this country as a mature person may have a keen eye for everything peculiar and characteristic.”

Kaufman noted that one characteristic that Einstein had observed was that the American “sense of equality and human dignity is mainly limited to men of white skins.”

Einstein:

“Even among these there are prejudices of which I as a Jew am clearly conscious, but they are unimportant in comparison with the attitude of the ‘Whites’ toward their fellow-citizens of darker complexion, particularly toward Negroes. The more I feel an American, the more this situation pains me. I can escape the feeling of complicity in it only by speaking out.”

Kaufman said that Einstein went on to address complaints of people who had had “unfavorable experiences…living side by side with Negroes” which had led them to believe “[t]hey are not our equals in intelligence, sense of responsibility, reliability.”

Einstein wrote, “I am firmly convinced that whoever believes this suffers from a fatal misconception…Your ancestors dragged these black people from their homes by force; and in the white man’s quest for wealth and an easy life they have been ruthlessly suppressed and exploited, degraded into slavery. The modern prejudice against Negroes is the result of the desire to maintain this unworthy condition.”

Kaufman said that Einstein “maintained that this position was, in part, a conditioned response that Americans had ‘unconsciously absorb[ed] as children from [their] environment.’”

I think that Einstein’s words are pertinent today. Have too many people in our country “unconsciously” absorbed this attitude toward Black people? What do you think?

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Digital Einstein: The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein

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SOURCES

Albert Einstein: American ‘sense of equality and human dignity limited to men of white skins’ (Raw Story)

Albert Einstein’s profound observations on entrenched racism in America: Americans’ “sense of equality and human dignity is mainly limited to men of white skins” (Salon)

Thousands of Einstein Documents Are Now a Click Away (New York Times)