Guthrie, Robert V. : Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
Summary
The classic edition of Even the Rat Was White presents a history of prejudice toward African-Americans within
the field of Social Psychologyùnow at a more affordable cost!
Even the Rat Was White views history from all perspectives in the quest for historical accuracy. Histories and
other background materials are presented in detail concerning early African-American psychologists and their scientific
contributions, as well as their problems, views, and concerns of the field of social psychology. Archival documents
that are not often found in mainstream resources are uncovered through the use of journals and magazines, such
as the Journal of Black Psychology, the Journal of Negro Education, and Crisis.
The text is divided into three parts. Part I, Psychology and Racial Differences, expands and updates historical
materials that helped form racial stereotypes and negative views towards African-Americans. Part II, Psychology
and Psychologists, is updated with specifics of what and how psychology was taught in the pre-1970 Black colleges,
and brings forward the contributions of Black psychologists. Part III, Conclusion, discusses the implication of
the previous chapters and the impact of new historical information on the field of psychology.
Features :
Contributions of Black Psychologists in the history of Psychology from the first Ph.D. until 1950 provides
both students and professors with interesting historical perspectives.
Descriptions of roles that the profession played in contributing to existing problems in racial differences
helps explain obsessions for discovering racial differences and clarifies the utilization of brass instruments
in psychology.
Provides specifics on the development and creation of the 1938 and 1968 Association of Black Psychologists
that illustrate why these organizations were formed.
Descriptions of roles that anthropology and psychology played in an alliance to understand physical differences
in humans bring to light the heavy emphasis placed on physical and intellectual attributes of individuals.
New To This Edition :
Repackaged format; more affordable to students.
A new foreword by William Grier.
The Noble Savage chapter discusses not only the views and concerns of European explorers and slavers but also
views from the Africans themselves (Ch. 1).
The Psychology of Survival and Education chapter explains early diagnostic categories of mental disorders such
as drapetomania (runaway slave) (ch. 5).
The Psychometric Scientism chapter provides a different view of the history and application of the g factor
in intelligence (Ch. 3).
Association of Black Psychologists features the reasons why this organization was founded and clarifies objectives
and goals of the organization.
Table of Contents
I. PSYCHOLOGY AND RACIAL DIFFERENCES.
1. "The Noble Savage" and Science.
Religious Views.
Philosophical and Scientific Views.
The Noble Savage View.
Skin Color Measurement.
Hair Texture Measurements.
Measuring Hair Color.
Measuring Thickness of Lips.
Anthropometry and Blacks.
Defining Racial Differences.
Classification of Black-White Mixtures.
Cultural Anthropologists.
Early Black Anthropologists.
"No Scientific Basis for Discrimination."
2. Brass Instruments and Dark Skins.
Ethnical Psychology.
Racial Designations.
Literary and Philosophical Biases.
Nativism: Themes of Racial Differences.
American Psychology and Racial Investigations.
Archives of Psychology and Racial Studies.
3. Psychometric Scientism.
How Significant Are Significant Differences?
Mental Tests.
Stanford-Binet Revisions.
Lewis Terman.
Black-White Mental Testing.
Children to Adult and Individual to Mass Testing.
Postwar Psychological Measurements.
The United States Indian Schools.
Mexican Americans and IQ Testing.
The Mulatto Hypotheses.
Reactions of Black Scholars and Communities.
Black Graduate Students Respond.
Intelligence Testing and the Courts.
Wechsler-Bellevue Scale.
Personality Testing of Minority Groups.
Race Studies and Anti-Semitism.
4. Psychology and Race.
Suspicious Statistical Shenanigans.
White Rats and Mazes.
Psychology and Eugenics.
Carnegie Station for Experimental Evolution.
Applied Eugenics and Euthenics.
Findings of the Research Committee.
Sterilization Laws.
"Degenerate" Families.
Eurocentrism: Cycle of Scientific Racism.
The Pioneer Fund.
Black Americans and Psychology.
II. PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGISTS.
5. Psychology of Survival and Education.
The Psychology of Survival.
Identification with the Slave Master.
Flight and Escape Reactions.
Aggressive Reactions.
The Emergence of Black Colleges.
Teaching Psychology in Black Colleges: Similarities, Not Differences.
Library and Research Facilities in Black Colleges.
6. Black Psychologists: Training, Employment, and Organizations.
Philanthropic Foundations.
Employment in the Black College.
Black Psychologists Organize.
Toward a Black Psychology.
Toward Traditional Psychology.
7. Production of Black Psychologists in America.
8. Francis Cecil Sumner: Father of Black American Psychologists.
III. CONCLUSION.
9. The Past Is Prologue.
The Myth of Mental Measurement.
Psychology and Politics.
Old Wine, New Bottles.
The Bell Curve: 'Round and 'Round We Go.
