Nature/Nurture (and Race)

Nature/Nurture (and Race)- Takaki shows in chapter 3 "The Giddy Multitude" in his book A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America that white society thought that other races were effectively incapable of being nurtured to the same status of whites, and that they were all naturally inferior because that is how nature deemed it to be. This is evident in his discussion with Jefferson, who thinks that blacks lack the mental faculties that whites have, and are naturally inferior on p. 71. Jefferson think nature has amde "real distinctions" between blacks and whites. The video Race: The Power of an Illusion, Part II, The Story We Tell also visits this concept of nature and nurture in terms of race. Whites for a while thought that natives could be nurtured to become a part of white society, but hte view didn't last. All races all around the globe were seen as naturally inferior and could not be nurtured to the status of whites. Even if attempts to "civilize" them were made, they could never be at the same elite status of being white.