Final Draft The Rhetorical Analysis

Fatoumata Diagouraga

Dr.Bailie

Final Draft The Rhetorical Analysis

April 1, 2020

In my essay, I will be writing about Frederick Hoffman and the “Race Amalgamation.” Frederick Ludwig Hoffman was an industrial worker back in 1884. He based most of his statistical analysis on the data produced by social science research. This “Race Amalgamation” was written in August 1896. Around this time, the Supreme Court came up with the phrase ‘separate but equal’. 

There are consequences for race interbreeding. Different races being together is inferior and it will cause the offspring to be unintelligent. Blacks were inferior. Removing slavery created more issues. Also that he claims whites were superior and this causes fights. Frederick Hoffman’s ‘Race Amalgamation’ emphasizes that he is writing about the segregation issues between whites and blacks down south. Hoffman wants the readers to feel if what he says about having babies with women of other races is horrifying because that is what he led me to believe. Hoffman continues to explain to readers that blacks and whites shall not be together interracially because there are going to be aftermaths. According to the book on page 80 it states, “And it may be said, only with emphasis, that the cross- breed of white men and colored women is, as a rule, a product inferior to both parents, physically and morally.” Also the measures he uses to an extent. The unstated beliefs would be if he(Hoffman)  had witnessed something like what he says and why he’s sooo….. on the downside of interbreeding. You can tell that on page 78, it has been figured out that race has been used in many different types of ways. Also that today there still is no clear definition of race. Discrimination is something that is still in the world today but, it isn’t as famous as how it was before, especially in the southern states of the United States. Blacks or African Americans are often times awkwardly referred to as colored. When reading Frederick Hoffman’s “Race Amalgamation”, the reader has to have a build up of somewhat emotional fear. This is so because during this time period a lot was being said about racial intermixing and it gets to the point where it’s hard to give a good explanation. 

According to Thomas on Plessy V Ferguson, “since one of the arguments for the reasonableness of laws mandating segregation was that they would reduce possibilities of harmful interracial sexual contact, the conclusions that he draws are helpful in understanding the majority opinion of the scientific community on racial issues at the time of the Plessy decision.” This explains that the community had a say when it came to racial interbreeding. The passage tries to get it’s point across the fact that intermixing leads to complications like extinction of civilization. 

To be honest, I agree with Hoffman that racial interbreeding may be a cause to afar civilization. I also disagree with Hoffman on his stance that racial interbreeding can cause other things in society. Frederick Hoffman states that “The pure blooded African is in every way physically the equal to the European….Their mixture with the white race deteriorates very much from their physical development.” Hoffman is really on the downside of interbreeding here in the last sentence.  

This “Race Amalgamation” can be tied to concepts of socialization. Primary socialization is the socialization by parents and family. It is usually the first group where we learn about aspects of our culture. It is also the first and probably most important part of the socialization process and is usually centered on the family. People could argue that primary socialisation is more important because it is usually the first group that we learn about the aspects of our culture. In our opinion, secondary socialization is more important because you can learn a wider range of roles, norms and values through the agents of secondary socialisation. Sometimes there is a dark side to the family which can create bad roles, norms and values compared to school/education where you can learn the importance of these norms and values. In my opinion, people grow to think about their futures and some choose to be with those of opposite races. 

Works Cited

Thomas, Brook. Plessy v. Ferguson: a Brief History with Documents. Bedford Books, 1997.