1928: Race Realism
December 23, 2022
By AHNZ
This text book for 9 year olds at New Zealand schools is scandalously Politically Incorrect in the 2020s for its Race Realism.
The book was published during a Fourth Turning/Crisis which is to say a time in our history where great emphasis was placed on the placing of boundaries. At other times our mainstream culture loosens the distinctions between different people, even between different sexes and genders (as well we know today.)
The cover of Whitcombe’s Human Geography. Standard III (1928) shows lots of children with distinct cultural dress and physical appearance, including a Maori girl.
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Image ref. Whitcombe & Tombs ([1928); AHNZ Archive (2021)
Ref. Whitcombe’s human geography. Standard III, Alexander Turnbull Library
2 thoughts on "1928: Race Realism"
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I recall my father’s 1930s atlas, published locally I think, whose maps and sepia photographs introduced exotic places such as Manchuko and showed one quarter of the world as red. It also included photographs of typical races, including, IIRC, two Swedish sisters famous for their elegant and ‘serene’ beauty which was contrasted with the ‘lively’ Spanish senorita; there was also a Latin American peon whose worn face was either ‘cunning’ or ‘sly’.
Funny you should mention that. I was just reading that same book earlier today hoping to find information about Dusky Sound. But I paused over the big Empire map and the Swedish girls so I know exactly what you mean.
If you refresh the post you ought to see the link of those pages I have just posted to the FB site. The Modern Pictoral World Atlas, New Zealand Newspapers Limited (1939.)
Your peon is on pg.100. Mixed race native of Nicaragua, Central America with “subserviant cunning” face. Dude looks like he could give Rabuka and Bainimarama a run for their money in Fiji!