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Esperanto-blogo, kelkfoje blago, de Ralph Dumain
Showing posts with label Universal Races Congress. Show all posts
William Sanders Scarborough & the First Universal Races Congress
I have blogged on both these subjects. For reference, first my bibliography:
First Universal Races Congress, London, July 26-29, 1911: Selected Bibliography
The conference proceedings can be accessed online. I see no contribution by Scarborough in it, though he did participate:
Papers on Inter-Racial Problems, Communicated to the First Universal Races Congress, Held at the University of London, July 26-29, 1911; edited by Gustav Spiller. London: P. S. King & Son; Boston: The World’s Peace Foundation, 1911. xlvi, 485 pp.
In his autobiography Scarborough gives an account of his participation in the First (and last) Universal Races Congress in London in July, 1911:
Autobiography of William Sanders Scarborough: An American Journey from Slavery to Scholarship, edited and with an introduction by Michele Valerie Ronnick, foreword by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2005. (Contents.) See chapter 19: Second Trip to Europe -- Delegate to the First Universal Races Congress -- [A] Rhine Trip; pp. 214-224. There is a prefatory remark on p. 213. The relevant information can be found on pp. 214-219, and in the final paragraph of p. 224. See also footnotes, pp. 378-380.
Following the commencement, I made preparations for my second trip to England as a delegate to the First Universal Races Congress to be held at the University of London in July where I was to present a paper. [p. 213]
Scarborough mentions his correspondence with W.E.B. Du Bois, who organized a Negro American delegation. Scarborough describes his sea journey with his wife to England, and his encounters on board, e.g. with Albert Bigelow Paine, designated biographer of Mark Twain, a friend of the Negro cause. Scarborough sketches the proceedings of the Congress, participants, and papers, and a press report.
But the keynote of this wonderful assembly was the unity of the human race and the brotherhood of man. Whatever the subject discussed the brotherhood of man was never lost sight of. It was advocated and emphasized by the followers of every sect and creed and all from the same platform. With this as a basis of equality of rights and opportunity, fair play in the race of life was urged by both Jew and Gentile. [217]
Scarborough continues to outline the other functions and encounters connected with the Congress. After visiting Cambridge University, he and the wife are off to Paris.  He returns to the theme of the Congress at the end of the chapter.
In the end we were at home again to receive a glad welcome and to report the Congress to school and friends, back from the great Races Congress, hoping that the men and women who claim to be such firm believers in the brotherhood of man will practice what they preach, and will help hasten the day when there will be no race problem. The future will show whether there has been any real substantial gain by such a concerted movement. [224]
Verkis Ralph Dumain je 9:54 AM 0 komentoj
Rubrikoj: intelektuloj, klasikologio, kongresoj, Mark Twain, negraj usonanoj, rasismo, Universal Races Congress, usona historio, W. E. B. Du Bois, William Sanders Scarborough
Commemorating the Universal Races Congress of 1911
The centennial of this landmark event has gone virtually unnoticed. In addition to blogging about it here, I compiled a bibliography in anticipation of revving up interest:
First Universal Races Congress, London, July 26-29, 1911: Selected Bibliography
The only other person I found who knew or cared was a Baha'i:
Twentieth Century Renaissance and Race Unity by Bahram Nadimi, 18 Jan 2011
Bahram mentioned this again in another blog post:
Thoughts of War and Peace—and an Anniversary by Bahram Nadimi, 12 August 2011
Bahai's seem most interested in this topic. The bahaitravelswest blog, in documenting the travels of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá a century ago, has several entries on the subject, the most noteworthy of which are:
#20 – 100 Years Ago – the early months in 1911 of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s stay in Egypt
#22 – 100 Years Ago, July 1911, Egypt
#24 – 100 Years Ago – Letters of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to the Universal Races Congress
The blog Vibes of Humanity for June 28, 2011 features a relevant text:
Excerpt from 'From Superman to Man' by J.A. Rogers
Here is a rather esoteric and eccentric reference:
The Problem With Constructing A History Of The African Jewish Identity, africaisrael blog, June 1, 2011
There does not seem to be much interest outside of this handful of blogs. However, there is one important recent research paper:
American Indian Studies Seminar: Kyle Mays, Transnational Progressives [The Newberry Library, Chicago], Wednesday, September 28, 2011 5:30 - 6:30 pm:
"Transnational Progressives: African Americans, Native Americans, and the Universal Races Congress," Kyle Mays, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The most recent publication is an article in a bulletin of the Ethical Culture movement by an Esperantist in Baltimore:
"The First Universal Races Congress of 1911" by Emil Volcheck, Dialogue Online (American Ethical Union), Fall 2011
The emphasis is on founder of Ethical Culture and organizer of the Congress Felix Adler. Congratulations to Emil on this publication.
Verkis Ralph Dumain je 8:53 AM 0 komentoj
Rubrikoj: Baha'i, bibliografio, Felix Adler, homaranismo, kongresoj, rasismo, Universal Races Congress
First Universal Races Congress, London, July 26-29, 1911
La 26a de julio estas la 124a datreveno de la "naskiĝo" de Esperanto. Ĝi ankaŭ estas la 100a datreveno de la Unua (kaj lasta) Universala Kongreso pri Rasoj, al kiu Zamenhof kontribuis. Mi ne sukcesis interesi iun ajn pri ĉi tiu datreveno. Krom mi nur kelkaj bahaanoj agnoskis ĝin. Sed jen mia kontribuo, krom ĉi-bloge:
Kaj jen la kontribuo de Zamenhof:
“International Language” (Universal Races Congress, 1911) by L. L. Zamenhof (traduko de la suba eseo)
Gentoj kaj Lingvo Internacia (1911) de L. L. Zamenhof (notu anglalingvan version tuj supre)
Verkis Ralph Dumain je 1:17 AM 0 komentoj
Rubrikoj: Baha'i, bibliografio, kongresoj, rasismo, Universal Races Congress, Zamenhof
Universala Kongreso pri Rasoj post 100 jaroj (The Universal Races Congress 100 years on)
Mi trovas nenian publikan agnoskon de ĉi tiu jubileo nek programon por rememorigi ĝin. Do kion mi faru por ŝanĝi ĉi tiun situacion? Unue, mi kompilis bibliografion pri la temo, ĵus publikigita interrete:
First Universal Races Congress, London, July 26-29, 1911: Selected Bibliography
[Bibliografio pri la Unua Universala Kongreso pri Rasoj en Londono, 26-29 julio 1911]
Cetere, konsultu ĉi tiun blogon pri progreso ĉi-afere.  Mi ne scias ĝuste pluajn rezultojn anticipi. Mia venonta paŝo estas kontakti personojn aŭ instancojn kiuj eble interesiĝus. Ekz. ĉi tiu afero potenciale interesus esperantistojn, bahaanojn, humanistajn judojn, kaj adeptojn de negra historio. Eble mi verkos ion pri la afero.
Legante la fakan literaturon, mi konstatas la ideologian kompleksecon de la epoko, ankaŭ en la pensaroj de tiuj kiuj plej urĝe bezonis senmistifikigi la koncepton de raso. Mi legas precipe pri Du Bois, Boas, kaj diversaj judaj intelektuloj. Ankaŭ interesas la posta influo de ĉi tiu kongreso, ekz. en la verko de pionira aŭtodidakta afrikusonana historiografo J. A. Rogers, kiu citis interalie Zamenhofon en sia ŝlosila polemika dialogo de 1917, From Superman to Man (De Superhomo al Homo).
Verkis Ralph Dumain je 4:36 PM 0 komentoj
Rubrikoj: Baha'i, bibliografio, Felix Adler, Franz Boas, Israel Zangwill, Joel Augustus Rogers, judoj, kongresoj, naciismo, negraj usonanoj, rasismo, Universal Races Congress, W. E. B. Du Bois, Zamenhof
J. A. Rogers, L. L. Zamenhof, & la Universala Kongreso pri Rasoj en 1911 (2)
Mi jam blogis anglalingve ĉi-teme kaj komentis pri la kontribuaĵo de Zamenhof. Nun mi anoncas du novaĵojn.
Mi enretigis ĉerpaĵon de la libro de J[oel] A[ugustus] Rogers (1880 - 1966) unue eldonita en 1917, From "Superman" to Man [De Superhomo al Homo]:
Race, Equality of Intellect, & the History of Civilization by J. A. Rogers
[Raso, Egaleco de Inteligenteco, & la Historio de Civilizacioj]
Ĉi tie oni trovas la esencajn stilon kaj enhavon de la argumentado de Rogers kontraŭ la rasismo de blankuloj tiam hegemonia.
Rogers estis aŭtodidakta historiisto kaj dokumentisto kiu per siaj verkoj agitis dum jardekoj kontraŭ blankula rasismo kaj strebis meti en historian konscion la kontribuojn de negroj, kiel aliaj, al usona kaj al monda civilizacio.
Notu ankaŭ la utiligon de materialo el la Unua (kaj lasta) Universala Kongreso pri Rasoj kiu okazis en Londono en 1911. Rogers eĉ favore citas Zamenhof. Poste, Rogers iom ĝustigas la historion kontraŭ la ĝenerala supozo ke nigrula Afriko kontribuis nenion al civilizacio (supozo ankaŭ je Zamenhof).
Ĉi-jare okazas la jarcenta datreveno de tiu kongreso. Ŝajne neniu konscias ĉi tiun fakton aŭ eĉ la ekziston de ĉi tiu influoza evento. Mi celas iel interveni pri ĉi tiu situacio. Do jen mia kontribuaĵo:
First Universal Races Congress, London, July 26-29, 1911: Selected Bibliography
[Bibliografio pri la Unua Universala Kongreso pri Rasoj en Londono, 26-29 julio 1911]
Aldone al ĉi-blogaj afiŝoj, pluaj (anglalingvaj) afiŝoj troveblas ĉe mia blogo Reason & Society [Racio & Socio].
Verkis Ralph Dumain je 8:08 AM 0 komentoj
Rubrikoj: Baha'i, bibliografio, intelektuloj, Joel Augustus Rogers, judoj, kongresoj, naciismo, negraj usonanoj, rasismo, religio, Universal Races Congress, W. E. B. Du Bois, Zamenhof
Jews & 'Race' in 1911 / Judoj & 'Raso' en 1911
Lyons, Harriet D. & Andrew P. “A Race or Not a Race: The Question of Jewish Identity in the Year of the First Universal Races Congress,” in Ethnicity, Identity, and History: Essays in Memory of Werner J. Cahnman, edited by Joseph B. Maier and Chaim I. Waxman (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1983), pp. 149-162.
The secondary literature on the First (and last) Universal Races Congress, which convened in London in 1911, covers various angles, but this is the first extensive treatment I have seen of the Jewish aspect of the Congress, which is significant inter alia for the fact that Jewish progressives, from Felix Adler on down, played a central role in its very organization. It is not a stretch to understand why Jewish intellectuals, anxious over their own place in Western civilization, would be motivated to counter racism in all its forms against all its victims. At that moment the Jews of the Russian empire were in dire straits, but anti-Semitic agitation and violence could be found in one fashion or another all over the Western world, including Britain itself.
However, the Jewish intelligentsia did not line up uniformly in any political or metaphysical camp. In taking a position on the racial or non-racial character of the Jewish people, concerns over emphasizing similarities with their host nationalities or preserving the Jewish people as a distinct entity competed for ideological attention. The variable configuration of racial concepts and their application to various positions was the order of the day in any case, as can be discerned among the participants of all nationalities and 'races' in the Congress. The total elimination of race as a meaningful natural concept was the most advanced position, which few in general took regardless of their politics. We see a spread among Jewish intellectuals as well.
Another factor in the division of opinion is analogous to the first: the need to conform to the political prerogatives of host nations vs. the impetus to protest objectionable actions taken against colonial subjects or other minorities.
This essay contributes to an appreciation of the complexity of the ideological situation a century ago, and the complexity of this very landmark, historic anti-racist intellectual intervention.
Nowhere in this treatment is there any mention of Zamenhof. It is worth noting that, while his knowledge of the world and political thinking were severely limited, the conclusions Zamenhof came to in working his way through the Jewish question that consumed him, issued in a definitive rejection of 'race' as an objective natural concept. Without engaging evolutionary or ethnographic research or speculation, Zamenhof ejected all mystical and pseudoscientific notions of group identity. He could be considered a naive forerunner of the notion of 'imagined communities'. Zamenhof's reduction of group identity and difference to language and religion is untenable, but in the process of oversimplifying social reality he simply assumes the essential unity of the human race and reduces difference to historical circumstance.
Verkis Ralph Dumain je 6:24 PM 0 komentoj
Rubrikoj: 1911, Britio, Felix Adler, imagitaj komunumoj, Israel Zangwill, judoj, kongresoj, rasismo, Universal Races Congress, Zamenhof
Stead's Review, July 1910
Here are relevant excerpts from an issue of the monthly journal of Esperantist and crusading journalist William Thomas Stead (1849-1912), who died on the Titanic:
The Review of Reviews for Australasia (Stead's Review) , July 1910.
Esperanto Manual, Indispensable to Students,
2s. 6d. (2s. 8d. posted).
2s. 6d. (2s. 8d. posted).
Rhodes' New English- Esperanto Dictionary,
6s. (6s. 6d. posted.)
Esperanto for the Million, 3d.
Le Serĉado por la Ora Saflano (The Golden Fleece),
Pocket Vocabulary (English-Esperanto), 3d.
The British Esperantist : a Monthly Journal in English and Esperanto.
Send to "REVIEW OF REVIEWS,"
T. & G. Building, Swanston Street,
Dr. Zamenhof for the Nobel Peace Prize. [pp. 403, 405]
I sincerely hope that the Nobel Committee may be induced to give a favourable consideration to the memorial put forward in favour of Dr. Zamenhof. No one deserves the Peace Prize more than the earnest philologist of Warsaw, who for the last quarter of a century has devoted himself with such remarkable success to securing the adoption of Esperanto as the second language of the human race. Dr. Zamenhof's zeal for Esperanto was largely inspired by his passionate devotion to the cause of universal peace. All Esperantists are pacificists of the practical kind, and it would be a well-won tribute to the initiator of a great reform if the Peace Prize were to be adjudicated to Dr. Zamenhof.
The Universal Races Congress. [p. 405]
To the general regret. Sir Harry Johnstone has been compelled by ill-health to resign the chairmanship of the Executive of the Universal Races Congress, which is to meet in London in July, 1911. Fortunately, a capable and sympathetic successor has been found in the person of Lord Weardale. The object of the Congress will be to discuss the larger racial issues in the light of modern knowledge and the modern conscience, with a view to encouraging a good understanding, friendly feeling, and hearty co-operation between Occidental and Oriental peoples. The idea is to hold a Congress where the representatives of the different races might meet each other face to face, and might, in friendly rivalry, further the cause of mutual trust and respect between Occident and Orient, between the so-called white peoples and the so-called coloured peoples. Few things are more needed than a mutual understanding between men of different complexions.
A difference of colour in the hide of a man is often a non-conductor of sympathy, and without sympathy there can be no understanding. If the Congress could but provide for the simultaneous bleaching or bronzing or blackening of all the faces of the human race the gain would be almost as great as the sudden adoption of a universal language.
SELFRIDGE'S estas la plej nova aĉetadejo en Londono. Tie oni vendas ĉion kion viroj, virinoj kaj infanoj portas kaj uzas (escepte vinojn manĝaĵojn k.t.p.). Cent apartaj fakoj okupas ses ekrojn da planka areo. La komfortoj, luksoj kaj oportunaĵoj de ĝia aranĝo estas laŭ skalo ĝis nun nekonata en Europe. Gratifikacioj estas tie nek atendataj nek permesataj. La kvalito de l'komercaĵoj estas la plej fidinda, la provizaĵoj estas la plej bone elektitaj, la prezoj, ni kredas, la plej malaltaj en la mondo.
ĈIUJ NACIOJ RENKONTIĜAS ĈE
kaj ĉiuj estas bonvenaj.
The Catholic Congress of Esperantists was a great success. The delegates came to Paris from several countries, and many subjects interesting from a Church point of view were discussed. The meetings, which naturally excited comment in the Press, though intended for Catholics were in no sense exclusive, and the Esperanto flag was conspicuous amongst the banners carried in procession and deposited in the cathedral of Notre Dame.
The Young Folks' Esperanto Association (International) is making rapid progress. It has already six hundred members in twenty groups, of which the largest are in Paris, Lille, and Dresden. The English secretary is Mr. H. van Etten, 82, East Dulwich Road; their organ Juneco.
During the Brussels Exhibition a special section will be set apart for Esperanto exhibits, and a bureau is to be arranged at which Esperanto translators will always be found ready for service. It is moreover expected that at the great gathering of Congress initiators, which will take place in Brussels on May 9th to 11th, many Esperantists will take part in the proceedings.
The Cheltenham Congress, which opens on May 14th, will be in one sense a preliminary to the London General Meeting of June 11th to 13th, for which very especial arrangements are being made by Mr. Kiralfy and Mr. White at the White City on Saturday, Mr. Cox organising a river journey to Windsor the next day. Only one hundred and twenty places are available, and of these thirty were taken on announcement. Applications should be sent to Mr. G. Cox, 125, Broomwood Road, Clapham Common.
One of the most interesting Esperanto books we have yet published, whether from the point of view of the linguist or the searcher of the Scriptures, is the Concordance to Dr. Zamenhof's version of the Proverbs of Solomon. Hebrew is, of course, one of the mother-tongues of Dr. Zamenhof, and accounts for the value of the translation; but without this Concordance, prepared by a well-known Esperantist, it would be much less useful, for few have the time to search out for themselves the various places in which the same word or phrase occurs and the slight differences of rendering between the established and the Esperanto versions. The price of the Concordance is 9d.
The New Testament, to be published under the auspices of the British and Foreign Bible Society, is rapidly nearing completion, and the first chapters of the book of Genesis, translated by Dr. Zamenhof, appeared in the April number of La Revuo, and will be continued monthly.
The Christian Commonwealth has contained for many weeks a regular Esperanto section, sometimes for children, at others for older folk. The issue of March 30th, for instance, gave a translation of the aims and rules of the Progressive League.
One great sign of progress is that the German scientist, Dr. Werner Marchand, publishes with each number of his Das Leben und die Erde an Esperanto résumé.
The International Institute of Esperanto, founded at the Dresden Congress to promote a more thorough study of Esperanto, grant diplomas, etc., etc., is under the direction of M. Ed. Privat, whose admirable Fifty Conversational Lessons is published at the REVIEW OF REVIEWS Office at 1s. 6d. net. No teacher should be without it, for it contains the graded conversations, founded upon specially homely readings, which are so necessary in teaching a living language.
Verkis Ralph Dumain je 9:31 PM 0 komentoj
Rubrikoj: 1910, Edmond Privat, Esperanto-movado, gazetaro, katolikismo, religio, scienco, Universal Races Congress, William Thomas Stead, Zamenhof
J. A. Rogers, L. L. Zamenhof, and the Universal Races Congress of 1911
J[oel] A[ugustus] Rogers (1880 - 1966) was an eminent Black American autodidactic historian who spent decades marshaling evidence to dispel the myth of race and racial supremacy and to restore the contributions of the African diaspora to historical memory. I came across his work again while researching the history and impact of the First Universal Races Congress of 1911 (which was to be the last).
This year marks the centennial of that congress, and nobody seems to be noticing except for a Baha'i blogger, Bahram Nadimi:
Twentieth Century Renaissance and Race Unity
Nadimi even mentions W. E. B. Du Bois and  Zamenhof in the same sentence!
Otherwise, it seems no one has heard of the Universal Races Congress. I hope to rectify this situation.
Aside from consulting the Proceedings of the congress itself, I have been seeking out relatively contemporary secondary literature and have begun to look at reviews of the congress within its own time frame. I've learned quite a bit about the ideological variables that went into that conference both on the part of its "non-white" as well its European and Euro-American participants. I will comment more on this as well as the larger vision of my project another time.
So far I'm not finding any references to Zamenhof in the contemporary secondary literature. While I consider Zamenhof a relatively minor player in this scenario, I am finding that a comparison of his ideas to those of other contributors will yield some non-trivial insights. But there is also the secondary literature of the time. Of interest is one reference to Zamenhof I've found in Rogers' landmark 1917 novel From "Superman" to Man. (Note the anti-Nietzschean title.) The black protagonist Dixon carries on a running argument with a white supremacist. At some point Dixon invokes the Universal Races Congress and its consensus that all races are congenitally equal. He quotes Spiller, Finot, and Zamenhof. Zamenhof:
Give the Africans, without any mingling of rancour or oppression, a high and humane civilisation, and you will find that their mental level will not differ from ours. Abolish the whole of our civilisation, and our mind will sink to the level of that of an African cannibal. It is not a difference of mentality in the race, but a difference of instruction.
Now this is curious. The reference to African "cannibals" makes us wince today, but the larger argument is Zamenhof's refutation of any meaningful racial distinctions. Rogers is prepared for the next move. The racist senator seems willing to concede the point of innate capacity, but he goes on a hysterical tirade claiming that the Negro has contributed absolutely nothing to world civilization. Rogers' mouthpiece Dixon calmly refutes the popular superstition that Negro history begins with slavery, reaching back to antiquity to prove the opposite. This then, is the explicit rejoinder to the confirmed bigot and the implicit response to well-meaning Zamenhof's erroneous assumptions.
It is important to note also that while Zamenhof's assumptions about Africans grate on us today, Zamenhof also rejects essentialist assumptions held by his contemporaries, including many of the participating "non-white" intellectuals. This in my view is very much related to Zamenhof's demystification of the collective identity of European Jews—that slice of the world he knew best.
Verkis Ralph Dumain je 1:04 AM 0 komentoj
Rubrikoj: Baha'i, intelektuloj, Joel Augustus Rogers, judoj, kongresoj, naciismo, negraj usonanoj, rasismo, religio, Universal Races Congress, W. E. B. Du Bois, Zamenhof
Universal Races Congress of 1911 & L. L. Zamenhof
Decades ago I read the conference proceedings in hard copy, but now they are online, and hopefully complete:
Papers on Inter-Racial Problems, Communicated to the First Universal Races Congress, Held at the University of London, July 26-29, 1911; edited by Gustav Spiller. London: P. S. King & Son; Boston: The World’s Peace Foundation, 1911. xlvi, 485 pp.
Included in these papers is the English text of Zamenhof's contribution, which was originally submitted in Esperanto and in French. Sometime in the 1970s I read the entire proceedings cover to cover, and there were few contributions that impressed me, foremost among them an essay by W.E.B. Du Bois on the racial situation in the USA. But perhaps now I would be more historically perceptive.
I decided to look this up, as earlier today I read the Esperanto version in Zamenhof's Originala Verkaro (1929, pp. 345-353). This time I paid reasonably close attention to Zamenhof's reasoning, which while flawed, is interesting, esp. in juxtaposition with his writings elsewhere on the Jewish question. Oddly, Zamenhof is well aware of existing social conditions (though teeth-grindingly ill-informed about Africa) and is unsparing in demystifying the entirely bogus basis on which racial and ethnic discrimination is based, and yet remains—so it seems—obtuse to certain aspects of the driving forces which maintain them. The climax of Zamenhof's argument—the key to its fundamental structure—can be found in this paragraph:
All that I have said justifies us in formulating this principle: The diversity of peoples and the hatred of each other which they betray will not wholly disappear from the face of the earth until humanity has but one language and one religion. Then in truth will the whole of humanity form one single people. Then there may, indeed, still be the various kinds of discord which are now found within the confines of every country and every people, such as political and economic discords, or those of conflicting parties or classes, and so on, but the most formidable of all discords, the mutual hatred of peoples, will have entirely disappeared.
This follows upon the logic of Zamenhof's argument wherein he purports to explain the governing factors behind interethnic & interracial enmity, discounting most of the usual justifications. It is a curious argument, with a number of suppressed premises. Here is one revealing passage:
Can we say, for instance, that so many millions of poor Russians hate the millions of poor Chinese on economic grounds, when they shed their blood so willingly to defend their Russian oppressors against the attacks of foreigners? Assuredly not, for the Russian soldier knows very well, when he kills a Chinese soldier, that the man would never do him as much harm as the "mailed fist" of his own compatriots. It is not economic causes that give rise to national hatreds.
I do not know how keen a sense of irony Zamenhof possessed. When you read this paragraph with care, and in context, you may find it as amazing as I do, for what Zamenhof doesn't say as for what he does. He never follows up on this scenario, never answers the question: if poor Russian cannon fodder know full well their Russian oppressors are far more harmful to them to Chinese peasants they are willing to slaughter with gusto, and if underlying motivations for this situation are not economic, then what are they? Zamenhof's argument is that only language and religion ultimately keep people apart. (Note also that Zamenhof also interjects the Jewish question, which is the key to everything he wrote, into his exposition.) This is truly an amazing line of argument, because while it doesn't hold up to scrutiny, it constitutes a backhanded slap in the face to the actual sociopolitical conditions that Zamenhof seeks to combat, combining both political awareness and political self-censorship in a single line of reasoning.
Two decades later, Zamenhof's daughter Lidia would pursue a comparable agenda in the USA, promoting both Esperanto and the Baha'i religion (rather than Zamenhof's homaranismo), with the noblest of intentions but with identical social ineffectuality. There is also, I should add, at least an iota of documentation on Lidia's connection with black Bahai's who learned Esperanto in the USA in the 1930s.
It would also be instructive to compare Zamenhof's moral idealism and world view with two other participants in the 1911 Congress: Felix Adler, conference organizer and founder of the Ethical Culture movement, akin to Zamenhof's homaranismo, and Israel Zangwill, originator of the term "melting pot" (which he applied not only to the condition of immigrants in the USA, but ultimately to the whole world), proto-Zionist, and advocate of the Jewish contribution to world civilization in books and numerous essays published in every venue imaginable, including the African-American press, with frequent mentions of Zamenhof and Esperanto.
It is useful to compare this essay to Zamenhof's writings (originally in Russian) on the Jewish question— Hilelismo etc. Zamenhof is quite soberly hard-headed and realistic; he's a debunker and demystifier of then-accepted notions of race, ethnicity, nationality, or what some scholars today call "imagined communities". His remark about powerless poor people killing one another in service to the rich and powerful is an illustration of his realism, and remains, sadly, an entirely contemporary issue. It is curious, though, that he doesn't follow through on the logic of this scenario. He argues that all other social conflicts will remain, but were people to find a common bridge language and bridge religion, at least interethnic hatreds could be eliminated. There are some big "if"s here and dubious "then"s, which reveal the essential limitations of Zamenhof's social perspective. (I would argue the same for Adler and Zangwill.) If I were to recommend explaining how Zamenhof thought while standing on one foot, this is the paragraph I would cite.
Zamenhof references the Jewish question in the course of his argument. He explains his position on this more fully in his Hillelist writings, as he ponders all the variables which hold the imagined community of Jews together. Zamenhof ruthlessly demystifies all the usual explanations. His skepticism is quite remarkable. He supplies arguments about what holds other peoples together—Germans, Poles, Russians, etc. He argues that language and religion are what hold peoples together. He is skeptical about both as applies to the Jews: he gave up his reformed Yiddish project, and as a nonbeliever thought it pointless to continue to be martyred for a religion one no longer believes in. So there's a real dilemma, the proposed solution of which ends up being Esperanto + hilelismo/homaranismo as a vehicle for modernizing the ghettoized Eastern European Jews.
There were theoretical interventions on this question in other circles—particularly in the social democratic movement (Marxist) of central Europe, and later in Russia on the part of Stalin. Noteworthy here is the difficulty of defining the cohesive forces binding the Jewish people as compared to any other nationality of central and Eastern Europe. Politically, these issues were parceled out among assimilationists, Zionists, Bundists, Marxist social-democrats, and Bolsheviks. Ultimately, nothing turned out as anyone anticipated in Zamenhof's lifetime. Theoretically, there were individuals in the anti-Stalinist left who attempted to carry on. For example, Abram Leon, a Jewish Trotskyist, wrote a book on the subject circa 1940, and ended up perishing in Auschwitz. In recent decades, there have appeared retrospective works on these developments, pointing up the theoretical inadequacies of previous formulations.
So it is understandable how difficult it was for Zamenhof to struggle with the theoretical as well as the practical question. This applies also to the Esperanto workers' movement, whose anarchist (sennaciista) and Stalinist intellectuals were, as far as I can tell, no more sophisticated than their krokodilaj counterparts.
I can't get into this in my upcoming half-hour talk, but I have to keep it in mind when thinking of how Zamenhof encountered the USA in 1910. The USA presented a whole different scenario from Europe, and as millions of Eastern European Jews voted with their feet, ending up in the USA, there remains something else to be examined—i.e. Zamenhof's interactions with Jewish immigrants and their spawn in the USA.
The American situation of course could not be captured by the European conception of nationality. This applies also to the situation of black Americans. While the concept of "race" has certainly been the dominant organizing principle—conceptually as well as in practice—there have nonetheless been several theories attempting to explain how race works in the USA and elsewhere. A decade ago when I was researching this and assisting someone in a doctoral dissertation on this subject, I could have rattled off most of these theories. My memory is rusty at this point, though.
I'll just note that the Stalinist conception of nationality was imported into the American Communist Party in 1928, leading to some curious results, first in labeling American's apartheid system as a national question, and secondly, in formulating a policy that had no relationship to actual political practice or prospects. When James W. Ford was placed on the ballot as the Communist Vice Presidential candidate in 1932, probably the first such black candidate from any political party in the USA, the party's platform included the creation of a Negro republic in the Southern states with a predominantly black population. There was even a map indicating the relevant territory on campaign posters. It was an avant-garde position for the time and totally divorced from reality as well as from the actual practice of the Communist Party, which consistently fought for integration.
This was entirely opposite to the contemporaneous nationalist separatism of Marcus Garvey, who wanted to make a deal with the Ku Klux Klan on the basis of shared goals, one of them being emigration to / colonization of Africa. Ultimately, notions like these would resurface decades later.
The punchline, though, is that the American configuration of race and ethnicity and the quasi-caste system in place did not mirror the nationality question in central Europe or the Russian empire.
The Jewish question in Europe did not fit comfortably into the European national paradigm either, practically or theoretically. Theory and policy  don't always run parallel, as not every political position elaborates a complementary theory, though implicitly there are differential world views at work. The socialist Bundists for example militantly opposed Zionism but lobbied for cultural (not political) autonomy in Eastern Europe, a notion that was shot down by the Bolsheviks. The Nazis took care of the rest. There is a substantial amount of scholarship on Bundism still going on: see bundism.net.
The ethnicity question viz. the new European immigrants was fought out in the USA a century ago, both by pro-immigrant and anti-immigrant factions among non-immigrants (i.e. WASPs and others of Northwestern European extraction), and by intellectuals among the new immigrant groups, e.g. Israel Zangwill's "melting pot" vs Horace Kallen's conservative ethnopluralism.
It is also noteworthy that there have been ideological conflicts of this sort throughout the history of Esperanto. The implications of Zamenhof's own position, which after all grew out of the conditions of the Czarist empire, require a fair amount of analysis. It is not immediately apparent either what "internationalism" implies, and it was opposed by sennaciismo (anationalism), which in turn finds its polar opposite in etnismo. And then there's the ridiculous position of Giorgio Silfer (one incarnation of raŭmismo), culminating in the supremely ridiculous Esperanta Civito. (I'm a minister in the Esperanta Respubliko, but the less said about that, the better.) The nation-state still being the pivotal determining variable in language policy puts the kabosh on both sennaciismo and etnismo. As for the rest, the social organization of economics and technology as well as where history has left us determine what is going to happen internationally, and the pretensions of the mainstream Esperanto movement both to universalize the role of Esperanto as medium of international communication and to conserve national/ethnic languages and language rights within the boundaries of the nation-state are, to put it as politely as possible, quixotic. What remains unquestionably practical about Esperanto is its niche as a voluntary international speech community, which is nothing to sneeze at.
The fragments above were written on 4 December 2010. I have digitized the Esperanto version of Zamenhof's contribution:
Gentoj kaj Lingvo Internacia (1911) de L. L. Zamenhof
Verkis Ralph Dumain je 5:59 PM 0 komentoj
Rubrikoj: Esperanto-movado, Felix Adler, homaranismo, internaciismo, Israel Zangwill, judoj, kongresoj, kulturpolitiko, Lidia Zamenhof, marksismo, naciismo, rasismo, religio, Universal Races Congress, Zamenhof
Gentoj kaj Lingvo Internacia (1911) de L. L. Zamenhof
Jen la retligo por:
Papers on Inter-Racial Problems,Communicated to the First Universal Races Congress, Held at the University of London, July 26-29, 1911 edited by Gustav Spiller (1911)
. . . kiu enhavas la anglalingvan version de la kontribuo de Zamenhof al la Universala Kongreso pri Rasoj de 1911. Mi ne trovis la esperantan version interrete, do mi mem skanis kaj enretigis ĝin:
Gentoj kaj Lingvo Internacia (1911) de L. L. Zamenhof
Mi jam komentis pri ĉi tio anglalingve. Mi ne ripetos mian argumenton nun, sed, relegante la tekston, mi perceptas en la argumento de Zamenhof multe da ironio, eĉ se senintenca. Jen ŝlosila ĉerpaĵo:
Ĉu efektive pro kaŭzoj ekonomiaj ekzemple la milionoj da rusaj malriĉuloj malamas la milionojn da ĥinaj malriĉuloj dum, por defendi siajn rusajn premantojn kontraŭ fremduloj, ili tiel volonte verŝas sian sangon? Kompreneble ne, ĉar la rusa soldato, mortigante ĥinan soldaton, scias tre bone, ke tiu ĉi lasta neniam farus al li tiom da malbono, kiom lia samgenta “pugno”. Sekve ne kaŭzoj ekonomiaj kreas la intergentan malamon.
En la senmistifikigaj asertoj pri raso, klimato, ktp., Zamenhof celas senmaskigi pretekstojn de konflikto kaj antipatio, t.e. pruvi ties malraciecon. Sed eĉ malracia preteksto povus esti kaŭzo, aŭ, kiel implicas en la Zamenhofa argumento, simptomo de kaŭzo ne nomita. Fine, en la supre citita rezono, Zamenhof prezentas puzlon kiu restas en sia argumento enigmo. Zamenhof ne blagas, sed oni povus legi ĉi tiun aferon ĉi tiel.
Strange, Zamenhof konkludas, ke la fundamentaj kaŭzaj faktoroj estas lingvo kaj religio, ĉar temas liaopinie pri la fundamentaj psikaj aŭ fremdigaj ligiloj de homaj grupoj. Do ĉi tiuj du facetoj de socio/kulturo estas abstraktigitaj kiel fundamentaj sociaj motoroj. Sed estas strange en la kazo de lingvo, kio estas diferenciga faktoro same kiel iu ajn do povus esti fundamente neŭtrala same kiel Zamenhof argumentas pri fizika tipo, klimato, ktp. Kompreneble, religio neniam estas neŭtrala, sed oni devas ekkoni la historian, socipolitikan enradikiĝon de religiaj institucioj por kompreni la fonton de religiaj ideologioj kaj rilataj sociaj konfliktoj. Ĉiam Zamenhof pensas pri baroj al interkomunikado kaj interkompreniĝo, do li obsedas pri lingvo kaj religio, kvazaŭ tiel oni subfosus la aliajn pretekstojn de socia konflikto.
La kerno de la tuta Zamenhofa ideologio troviĝas jene:
La intergenta diseco kaj malamo plene malaperos en la homaro nur tiam, kiam la tuta homaro havos unu lingvon kaj unu religion; ĉar tiam la tuta homaro en efektiveco prezentos nur unu genton. Daŭros tiam en la homaro tiuj diversaj malpacoj, kiuj regas interne de ĉiu lando kaj gento, kiel ekzemple malpacoj politikaj, partiaj, ekonomiaj, klasaj k.t.p.; sed la plej terura el ĉiuj malpacoj, la malamo intergenta, tute malaperos.
La blindeco de ĉi tiu skemo estas mirinda, sed notu la logikan ordigon de sociaj konceptoj fare de Zamenhof.
Vere, kiam Zamenhof alvenis Usonon, li ne komprenis tute novan socimedion. Post du jardekoj, kiam filino Lidia enmigris Usonon, ŝi pensis sekvi esence la saman logikon, sed per Bahaismo anstataŭ homaranismo. Bahaismo iomete utilis en la usona kunteksto, sole pro ĝia interrasa inkluzivema politiko, sed kompreneble kaj Esperanto kaj Bahaismo estas ĥimeroj en usona medio.
Verkis Ralph Dumain je 10:25 AM 0 komentoj
Rubrikoj: Esperanto-movado, homaranismo, internaciismo, judoj, kongresoj, kulturpolitiko, rasismo, religio, Universal Races Congress, Zamenhof
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