My Take | Albert Einstein’s racism is all relative
Einstein has been labelled a racist after “offensive” views of Chinese were found in his newly published private diaries. But if we use the standards of contemporary political correctness, very few people in the past would not be considered racist
Shock, shock, shock! Albert Einstein was a racist because he had low opinions about Chinese as a race.
His “offensive” views were found in his newly published private diaries, translated into English, which detailed his tour of Asia in the 1920s. Could you be racist – or discriminatory in general – when you were only writing in your own private diaries, which is like talking to yourself in your own head?
If so, we are well into the territory of “thought crime”. If we use the standards of contemporary political correctness, very few people in the past would pass muster.
Einstein described Chinese as “industrious, filthy and obtuse”. To be fair, he also thought badly of most other Asians, except Japanese, of whom he thought highly.
“I noticed how little difference there is between men and women; I don’t understand what kind of fatal attraction Chinese women possess … It would be a pity if these Chinese supplant all other races. For the likes of us the mere thought is unspeakably dreary.”
There are more unflattering observations on Indians and Asian women. Suppose Einstein wrote highly of Chinese, would that have made his observations any more accurate and less misguided – or equally shallow, only in the opposite direction?