I
hope that all of you will pick up a copy of my recent book, Horror as Racism in H. P. Lovecraft: White
Fragility in the Weird Tales!
In two of his
earliest poems, “De Triumpho Naturae” (1905) and “On the Creation of
Niggers”(1912), Lovecraft upends Darwin’s theory of evolution by proposing a
theory of polygenesis, as opposed to genesis.
According to this theory, humans, including the superior types of humans—white Anglo Saxons—evolved from some type of highly developed quadruped, complete with pointed ears and a tail, like their distant cousin the monkey. However, Blacks evolved from different, lower quadrupeds.
Thus, or so the theory holds, since white Anglo-Saxons and Blacks are not descended from the same quadrupeds, they are separate species, and therefore, Lovecraft concluded, Blacks should not be considered as human beings.
You can read all about Lovecraft’s theory of polygenesis in Horror as Racism in H. P. Lovecraft, and how Lovecraft uses this theory to insist that Blacks, like monkeys and apes, must be kept separate from humans—that they represent, in fact, a threat to the purity of the white race.
JLS
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