Colonial accounts invoked Lamarckian contamination, not biological race, to explain white decline.

Evidence

Not least important to the credibility of these accounts were shared beliefs about the psychological and physical vulnerabilities of whites in the tropics. These were beliefs that called more on Lamarckian notions of acquired character than on the biological surety of race. Europeans were susceptible to cultural and moral contamination by those degraded whites within their midst and by those they were there to manage and rule. — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1043 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Colonial credibility drew on Lamarckian acquired character rather than biological race — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1043; Colonial race was judged by conduct and affiliation rather than appearance

Related

• Colonial credibility drew on Lamarckian acquired character rather than biological race (similarity 0.94)
• Colonial race epistemology merged physical traits with moral character assessments (similarity 0.86)
• Colonial policy disputes centered on how race should be assessed, not what race is (similarity 0.82)
• Colonial dispositions are trained, contested, and deliberately interpreted (similarity 0.79)
• Colonial commissions treated everyday sensory details as proof of racial character (similarity 0.78)
• Colonial blame narratives rested on shaky dichotomies that crumbled under mixed acts (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Colonial credibility drew on Lamarckian acquired character rather than biological race #corroborates (0.90) — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1043
• Colonial race was judged by conduct and affiliation rather than appearance #corroborates (0.70)