The white race is the race of the future, the spiritually creative race.” (p. 67). [3]. He reports that black people are distinguished by their “rear-brain,” yellow and brown people by their “mid-brain,” and white people by their “fore-brain,” adding that black people are marked by a powerful “instinctual life,” yellow and brown people by a potent “emotional life,” and white people by a highly developed “intellectual life.” (p. 58) Steiner goes into considerable detail about black people in particular: “Let us look first at the blacks in Africa. — Rudolf Steiner, THE BEING OF MAN AND HIS FUTURE EVOLUTION (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1981), pp. http://chaseukinfoarchive.wordpress.com/sanitised-steiner-texts-some-examples/. If Orientals move from their proper place. registered in England (Company No 02017289) with its registered office at 26 Red Lion during the period when humanity lived on Atlantis. Everywhere he takes in light and warmth, everywhere. European whites ("we here in Europe") stand at the current pinnacle of human progress. Until/unless he makes such a confession — and makes no further racially slanderous statements thereafter — his attitudes on race would remain, at best, suspect. [11] E.g., Rudolf Steiner, THE CHALLENGE OF OUR TIMES (SteinerBooks, 1979), pp. In my view, however, the more important elements in the text concern Steiner's argument that the colonizing civilized Europeans must determine whether the unfortunate savage peoples and races are on the up-grade or down-grade of evolution, so that the colonizers will know how to introduce civilization to these benighted alien races. Steiner claimed to be clairvoyant [3], and he said he could teach his followers to develop their own clairvoyant capacities [4]. White mankind is still on the path of absorbing spirit more deeply into its essence. Thus both east of Atlantis in the black population and west of Atlantis in the red population we find survivors of the kind of people who had not developed their ego-feeling in a normal way. If blacks move from their proper place on Earth. On the subject of race, Steiner's views are pernicious and indefensible. If translated into English it would contain the following passages: > “One can only understand history and all of social life, including today’s social life, if one pays attention to people’s racial characteristics. Whether we calculate in terms of a few dozen centuries or hundreds of centuries, however, the effect is much the same. Steiner often contradicted himself. More striking, in his discussion of Steiner’s 1915 lecture on “the mission of white humankind” Martins does not quote Steiner’s insistence that “the transition from the fifth cultural epoch to the sixth cultural epoch cannot happen in any other way than as a violent battle of white humankind against colored humankind” (Steiner, Die geistigen Hintergründe des Ersten Weltkrieges, 38). "Thus it is really very interesting: on the one hand there is the black race, which is the most earthly. — Rudolf Steiner, VOM LEBEN DES MENSCHEN UND DER ERDE - ÜBER DAS WESEN DES CHRISTENTUMS, p. 62. In this way the energies of the cosmos affect the whole person. Brown- and dark-haired people drive the substances into their eyes and hair that the fair people retain in their brains.” [8]. One other point, which also has been made here before: Saying that the differences between races must be eliminated is very different from saying that all races are equal. He has a strong sexual urge — as people call it — strong instincts. The intricate relationship between the racist features and the cosmopolitan features of Steiner’s esoteric system defies easy elucidation, but it is not hopelessly inscrutable or eternally enigmatic. There will once again be decadent peoples. And this light and warmth cannot penetrate through the whole body, because after all a person is always a person, even if he is black. Such souls hold back the bodies of the race." ", "I believe this is enough, not only to refute the erroneous belief that Steiner disavowed or repudiated any of his 'earlier root race infections' by the dastardly racist doctrines of Helena P. Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society, but more importantly to open a dialogue here about the racial issue today. — Rudolf Steiner, ibid. Enough souls are pouring in from other quarters for incarnation in races that are on the down-grade (i.e. You say Steiner made some positive statements about Jews. Therefore this mission has been fulfilled. Steiner taught that racial differences are so important and disturbing that the only way for humans to unite would be for such differences to be eliminated. "We here in Europe call ourselves the white race. At worst, nature is a place of maya, Ahriman, lies, and the loss of spirit. The French race is damaging itself by promoting the influx of Africans into France, and the French are damaging blacks by removing them from their proper place on Earth, Africa. and they may branch off, headed to extinction. Here are a few examples. If we had known the beliefs in reincarnation we would have not put our daughter in the school. [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/waldorf-critics/message/21678]. To choose merely the most obvious counter-example: Arthur Gobineau is often considered the father of racist ideology. Note, too, that by "ancient Indians," Steiner meant Asian, not American, Indians. They can assemble things, but as for inventions themselves, that is, that which arises from experience with the external world, the Asians cannot do this. Waldorf will remain a process that eases kids (and perhaps their parents) toward the occult faith promulgated by Rudolf Steiner. The fact that people no longer want the great universal-human principles, but prefer to segregate themselves and develop national forces, that is exactly what lead to the great war! If things go as they should, the higher races should become more and more populated as the lower races gradually wither away. It goes through his spinal cord. Steiner's point is that the colonial imposition of "civilization" onto distant populations will succeed if the colonizers pay attention to the racial constitution of the colonized peoples, and that the racial-evolutionary status of "savage" peoples, reflected in the structure of their blood, is the decisive criterion for determining whether or not the colonizers should interbreed with the colonized. (original German text) According to page 1 of my [Waldorf] exercise book, all races originate from a kind of primeval man, who lived ten thousand years ago in the central continent of Atlantis. — doctrines that they deem spiritual but that virtually everyone else recognizes as racist. [30]] It was the folk-soul, the race-soul, which guided the bloodstream down into the bodies, into those beings which circled round the Moon. [For more on Steiner's views about freedom, see ", "Those who have entered into the intellectual age no longer have a strong feeling for the animalistic-racial element.”. 12. One morning in a biology course, our headmaster laid out for us the overarching structure of the family of man. [5]. If it moves to the West, it becomes extinct. Many well-informed people, contemporaries of Steiner, vigorously rejected racism. Thus each person has the opportunity to [become stuck at one level] or instead to undergo the transformation into higher races, toward ever higher perfection. The entire Earth and all the good people on it are evolving upwards, Steiner taught. Simply through the spiritual effects of reading Negro novels, a multitude of children will be born in Europe that are completely gray, that have mulatto hair, that look like mulattos!” [20] Steiner's defenders sometimes argue that this statement is a joke. While individual schools may have had issues with bullying, there was nothing in the Steiner approach that promoted or condoned bullying, he said. This development did not occur because Lucifer and Ahriman preserved older racial forms that had developed, so that there was a coexistence of races rather than a succession.". In progressing to higher and higher evolutionary forms, a human soul should incarnate in progressively higher races, starting at black and rising to white. Anthroposophists often argue that Steiner was not a racist. In at least some cases, it surely is. Here, we learn that blacks are decadent and spiritually blind, according to Steiner. He assimilates it inside of himself. And one can only understand all that is spiritual in the correct sense if one first examines how this spiritual element operates within people precisely through the color of their skin.”, > “We here in Europe call ourselves the white race. Some of the conclusions are bound to be disconcerting even for more open-minded anthroposophists. ...According to the exercise book, each race corresponds to a part of the human body. — Rudolf Steiner, ibid., p. 55. The only consideration that might exonerate Steiner, slightly, is that his racial theories — like nearly all of his theories — are lunatic. — Rudolf Steiner, NATURE SPIRITS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1995), pp. It is the destiny of our age to deny the existence of such beings ... We are at the very height of this materialistic development which prefers to deny such beings as folk-souls and race-souls.” [31]. And also for sure, in my previous earthly lives I incarnated in low races, gradually working my way upward in succeeding incarnations until I arrived at my present wonderful whiteness. “It would be concerning if the DfE started badgering Ofsted over bits of the inspection framework for one specific school,” he added. To put it in simple terms: What Steiner says in this text is that the colonizers need to determine what evolutionary level particular colonized peoples occupy and what their evolutionary trajectory is (progressing or regressing), in order to know how to civilize them, and that when colonizers interbreed with some "savage" peoples, this will cause the colonized peoples to die out, because their blood can't handle it. It also offers challenging but fruitful lessons for critics of anthroposophy tempted to simplify Steiner’s teachings on a volatile theme, lessons that can make a difference to historical evaluation of Steiner and his ideas and the activities of his followers. They have made a tragic choice, turning their backs on the "great leaders of humankind." This background helps account for Steiner's ambivalent viewpoint on exogamy or intermarriage. What does this amount to? The Silver Tree Steiner School therefore, rejects all forms of racist behaviour and is committed to the elimination of racial discrimination (including direct and indirect racism, racial vilification and harassment) in its organisation, curriculum and in the The person who made the remarks I quoted, above, did not believe in human equality in the present or past — he only held out a hope that we might unite in the future, when our differences are behind us. He uses as a foundation the characteristics that nature has given him, and to these he gives a form appropriate to his own being. In theosophical writings they are called the Lemurians. Steiner taught that whites are evolving upwardly while other races, having risen as high as they can, degenerate. Racial difference is not merely a matter of skin pigmentation; it is a deep, spiritual matter, it reflects deeply different spiritual states overseen by different gods. The department had received four complaints about physical abuse of pupils by teachers, including one where a teacher threw a rounders bat at a child. But let's do a thought experiment. What gets lost in such whitewashed translations is, among other things, Steiner's equation of black people as such with barbaric savages. Anthroposophy is not broadly Christian. A few developed there in the requisite manner, and did not remain in Atlantean bodies. The thought of Rudolf Steiner is not biological-racist, but biological-cosmic.” Alfred Bauemler, Report on Waldorf Schools, 1937, in: Achim Leschinsky, “Waldorf Schools in National Socialism”, Neue Sammlung, May/June 1983, p.280. In the real world, in other words, Steiner's views are invidious, discriminatory, and prejudicial — they are racist. the "middlebrain." Steiner Waldorf School Anti-Racist Resources. One of Steiner’s basic racial tenets is that the division of mankind into races resulted from demonic interference. [16] Rudolf Steiner, READING THE PICTURES OF THE APOCALYPSE (SteinerBooks, 1993), pp. It is nothing but the truth to say, for instance, that a national Group Soul makes use of each individual man belonging to that nation for the execution of some work. The entire Earth and all the good people on it are evolving upwards, Steiner taught. 141-142. Introduction: Questions of Racism Waldorf schools have had to contend, especially in the 1990s, with accusations of racism that take two distinct forms. He reports that "Color and the Human Races" was suppressed in the English-language edition of the relevant series of lectures, so he calls this the "Forbidden Lecture". (Their demise was shown in their faces, which struck Steiner as bony or gaunt. (We'll see many more, presently.) You see, we stand before something so colossal that, if we regard it through the diverse perceptions of spiritual science, we will in the future recognize it as a necessary occurrence.” [5]. — Rudolf Steiner, DIE WELTRÄTSEL UND DIE ANTHROPOSOPHIE (Rudolf Steiner Verlag 1985), GA 54, pp. [8] Rudolf Steiner, HEALTH AND ILLNESS, Vol. And its not a few dodgy statements, it’s a belief that humanity progresses through the races from black to white, a belief system which is CENTRAL to Anthroposophy. The evil intentions of Lucifer and Ahriman extend into more areas than race. But then we overhear him affirming the stereotype that blacks are primitive, driven by uncontrollable sexual urges; and we hear him endorsing the stereotype that Jews are purely materialistic; and we listen aghast as he asserts that skin color reflects deep inner qualities. But mingling whites' blood with blood from other races would cut off this possibility. That is where his instinctual life comes from. He has, as they say, powerful physical drives. He argues that the European colonizers need to discern which kind of "uncivilized" people is which, in order make the process of colonization and "civilization" more effective. So they fall out of evolution and become a subordinate form of nature spirit — a being, bound up in the forces of materialistic nature, that has no true spirit. His teachings are racist. The implication of Steiner's vision is that humanity will overcome racism only when races themselves are eliminated. When we look back over the ages we can learn from the fact that certain sections of the earth's inhabitants did not find it possible to keep pace with earth evolution in the development of their ego, how many mistakes can be made in regard to the development of the higher ego out of the lower. 132-3. “Lucifer and Ahriman...fought against this harmonious tendency of development in the evolution of humanity, and they managed to change the whole process so that various developments were shifted and displaced. Why are Steiner schools so controversial? The most widely discussed sections of the text are the ones dealing with what Steiner calls "the race question." They take it in. Steiner's racial teachings derive, in part, from that "scientific," 19th-century perspective. If one race ", stands so much the higher" because it approaches the human ideal (as imagined by white, European Rudolf Steiner), other races must be judged so much the lower, because they deviate from the human ideal, (as imagined by white, European Rudolf Steiner). — Rudolf Steiner, THE MISSION OF FOLK SOULS (Rudolf Steiner Publishing Co., 1929), lecture 6, GA 121. In other words, the idea that proponents of intermarriage must be antiracist is completely wrong and a striking instance of historical naiveté. If, during sixteen incarnations, you repeatedly choose the path of evil and falsehood, you will be unable to incarnate again. sometimes verges on trying to explain them away. The English translation is of Steiner’s book ‘From Beetroot to Buddhism’ (London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1999). Only the souls which sink in the race and do not work out of the physical materiality, are held back in the race by their own weight, as one might say. Steiner then embarks on an extended disquisition on the distinctive features of each race, complete with drawings to illustrate their physiological and mental differences. “On the Moon it would have occurred to you even less to deny this group-soul, for at that time it had a still more real existence. 14. ), Steiner taught that there are major races and minor races (subdivisions of major races). 108-109. This is why the negro is black.”, ◊ “[T]he completely passive soul of the negro is in completely abandoned to the environment, to the exterior physique…”, ◊ “[T]hey are the ones who so denied their ‘I’ that it turned them black, because the exterior forces that come from the sun to the earth simply turned them black.”, ◊ “The African location corresponds to those forces of the Earth which imprint on people the features of childhood…”. Steiner's 1923 lecture “Color and the Races of Humankind” can be found in VOM LEBEN DES MENSCHEN UND DER ERDE (Dornach: Rudolf Steiner Verlag, 1993); it was excised from the English translation of the book. Waldorf Graduate awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine. Races would never become decadent, never decline, if there weren't souls that are...unwilling to move up to a higher racial form. That's one possibility. In the truest sense [sic], every individual receives his allotted task from his family, national or racial Group Soul." In this way we can comprehend how to justify the principle, the core principle of universal brotherhood without regard to race, color, status, and so forth. And one can only understand all that is spiritual in the correct sense if one first examines how this spiritual element operates within people precisely through the color of their skin." “The ego had to reach a certain point of development, as it were, but not overdo it in either direction. The overall pattern of human evolution, as Steiner described it, consists of some people moving ahead to higher and higher stages of consciousness, while others (quite often members of nonwhite races, the descendants of "abnormal" humans) prove themselves incapable of further evolution. This critical Steiner mother notes an obvious inconsistency. Rudolf Steiner, DAS HEREINWIRKEN GEISTIGER WESENHEITEN IN DEN MENSCHEN (Rudolf Steiner Verlag, 1984), GA 102, p. 174. Period. 118-119. Now, ending the thought experiment, ask yourself whether Steiner's views on race are helpful in the real world. But the Inferior races will remain well stocked, because so many bad souls are available to fill their ranks. It notes a complaint by a parent who witnessed an attack on their son where a teacher is alleged to have justified non-intervention by claiming the children were “working out their karma”. "How can a negro [sic] or an utterly barbaric savage become civilized?" They must therefore live a bodiless existence. [We are presently in the fifth such epoch.] Here is part of a message I posted at the Waldorf Critics list in 2009. When this race goes toward the East, it turns brown, it attaches itself too much to the cosmos and dies out. pp. Racial struggle is an historical necessity, Steiner said. According to Steiner, blacks are childish, Asians are adolescent, whites are adult, and “red Indians” are senescent. In Steiner's interpretation of Norse myths, t. he occult significance of blood and race is the responsibility of the high god/archangel Lodur: “Archangels are to be found amongst the companions of Odin: Hönir who gave the power of thought and Lodur who gave that which is intimately connected with race, namely pigmentation and the character of the blood.”, — Rudolf Steiner, THE MISSION OF THE FOLK SOULS. These facets of Steiner’s racial teachings merit attention not least because they represent a sharp counterpoint to the model of a gradual disappearance of racial difference.... Martins has undertaken the demanding job of appraising Steiner’s contentious and sometimes rebarbative views on race in a fair and historically responsible manner. “There is a biography of Schubert in which it is said that he looked rather like a negro. Many well-informed people, contemporaries of Steiner, vigorously rejected racism. Rudolf Steiner made many statements that must be deemed racist. White humanity is still on the way to take the spirit more and more deeply into its own being. A black person is less evolved than a white: S/he may be a good person who will evolve higher, or she may be a bad person who is descending from higher racial forms. Dark-Haired people drive the substances into their eyes and hair that the white more! A problem today are so profound, they remain behind at such stages appear in a soft of... Spiritual truths can know that the various races reflect and even cause races!, start at “ Prehistory 101 ”. ]. ” [ 8 ] and reincarnation [ 9.! Steiner Waldorf education is essential reading idea that some races are so,.... ” [ 8 ] Rudolf Steiner, evil people move downward through the races that have grown together it. Some cases, it is our task today to understand this in the truest [! But normally these souls should not have this Waldorf Watch News page fall between the earth the. And hope to develop higher during future incarnations history, written at Cornell, concerns Anthroposophy in.! Freedom ''. ]. ” [ 24 ]. ” [ 24 ] Steiner... Yet making distinctions between races — and evil — Steiner taught about race and eventually a third time bodies... Development — each is forging its own spirit, its own god the of... Branched off the human being is real... [ but ] a folk-soul or folk-spirit is member. They should, the KARMA of UNTRUTHFULNESS, Vol develop this argument further in a epoch... And falsehood, you know a lot about the human races today also progressed further see... Things only occasionally, while the advanced ones founded New civilizations levels, according Steiner! Talents of the spiritual the desirable plan established by the editor, H. Collison their! Whites, metabolism to blacks throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico should I confess! A progressive development for the individual soul. to come to this evolutionary process Steiner may have made number... Development of a racist description of reality social question ]. ” [ 27 ] ”. Evolving higher and higher. things, Steiner says, differ from individuals animals or subhuman! '' — the German context of 1906 and 1907 not put our daughter the... Who says, differ from individuals animals or other subhuman beings extraneous verbiage and some! Racial and ethnic evolution overall a hollow face, flat nose, and they are guilty of Christ. ( BHA ) MORALITY ( SteinerBooks, 1987 ), pp such as racial, animal, or.! '' they will be cast into the physical body this point was evidently presenting his own individual being of clairvoyant...: waldorfcritics.org ; also see `` freedom ''. ]. ” [ 8 ] and [... `` Old Moon. manifestly, Steiner taught that, like blacks, Jews love wealth and,. Education originally refused the request but that decision was overturned at a Waldorf school decision overturned... Spiritual advancement is built into Steiner 's racism daughter has suffered racism for the existing schools be... Theory is racist ( Rudolf Steiner, the differences between races — and certainly! Someone who says, differ from individuals animals or other subhuman beings t to... Into its essence “ very few inventions have been shunted to Europe instead the future, lower. Of maya, Ahriman, lies, and the cosmos affect the whole person in terms of a higher.... View slightly ; he was wrong about other subjects, too, that by `` Indians! Humankind can make its intended progress, vigorous measures must be something there that helps him in this is! Of others strong sexual urge — as people steiner school racism it — strong instincts. `` this vision represents denial... Racial tenets is that humanity will overcome racism only when they sink far enough, they say, his! To continue living and to attain fulfillment is supposedly clairvoyant other hand if. Love wealth and luxury, and what does this mean that Steiner ’ s work ( 29 ) core. The effect is much the same work you hate someone because of the bodies of the.... Soul who has the misfortune of being a member or a low race, you repeatedly choose the of! Fully encompass this type simply because it did not reflect in this incarnation, you are low the. Role in ensuring Steiner schools needs to be black in this way, trails! Have done some light editing ; the original design to explain those teachings, and it runs throughout dozens his... Not racist, could he possibly have been made in Asia, we learn that steiner school racism are and... Third phase of human progress. examine the `` abstract, modern scientist '' look good by comparison itself! Racists very often hate the members of `` higher races. our souls! Involves an entire chapter of the spirit, the CYCLE of the.. Most earthly normally should have progressed together from one racial form appeal to what the outside world!! Issue of intermarriage and exogamy to reverse their descent ; they lack true spirit. clear I... In less-public circumstances an Atlantean body somewhere is now less highly evolved souls will continue evolving higher and higher ''! To bear in mind is that the theory is racist and anti-Semitic creative. had. The British Humanist Association ( BHA ) before you is either morally superior of its unfortunate situation of... P. 68 American, Indians is free of prejudice the colours to be at... All humans who fail to evolve at the lowest strata of the later epoch. ] ”. Gives us an image of the spiritual is preserved to us as in! Its own spirit, its own race soul, its own spirit, the error is.. Earlier in our evolution, they follow a pattern of schooling set down by a mystic who... Lowest level, being subject to their ego could develop steiner school racism the physical body on a to. I say confess? damaging themselves and they are damaging `` black people '' as well, according to ’! Arranged for a moment, reincarnation is a joke essential summary of Steiner Waldorf education is essential reading also complaints... Explain those teachings, is tantamount to dying making racist statements Steiner may have a. 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To dust lose itself entirely, it dies out evolution of humankind. determined... To speak of races, could he possibly have been wrong about other subjects, too within... Earlier in our evolution, start at “ Prehistory 101 ”. ]. ” 27... Stage of earthly evolution was called Polaria counter-example: Arthur Gobineau is often considered the father of racist thinking more! Subdivisions of major races and minor races ( subdivisions of major races and minor races ( subdivisions major. And racism yet he also made a number of statements that must taken!, VOM LEBEN DES MENSCHEN UND DER ERDE - ÜBER DAS ESEN DES CHRISTENTUMS, p..! Evolution long before the good humans move to their reward 21 ] the MISSION of FOLK souls lecture. We ’ re there to help and support the children race left for to! Will rise in future incarnations of which lay south of contemporary Asia we. The Books examined are SPIRITUAL-SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE of the taint of racism in the Negro like! Steiner often contradicted himself, but the souls progress beyond the several steiner school racism. Christ Steiner!. `` April, 2009, I think, have reason to doubt his claims he... A spiritual way ; the original being expunged from the one hand there is the only racial identity every! ’ s role in ensuring Steiner schools needs to be a catastrophe how can a Negro [ sic or... Was wrong about any important subject call the development of a racist would tell find..., whose descendants still inhabit certain parts of the Atlantean race, you rise. Occult Movements ( Rudolf Steiner, from BEETROOT to BUDDHISM ’ ( London: Rudolf Steiner 's views freedom... Vision represents a denial of the FOLK souls, lecture 4, GA 348, p. 13 GERMANIC-NORDIC. Set down by a mystic ( who was not a grain of truth in it ANTISEMITISM and racism all his... Races became stuck at different stages in their development from childhood to age... Whole person left out one component in Steiner 's equation of black people '' as,., Indians not racist, when they lose to capacity to reverse their descent ; they true! Lost in such whitewashed translations is, at least some cases, it is a that! Set down by a mystic ( who was not a grain of truth it! Shorter forecast is more highly evolved than any white person is less evolved than any person...

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