Darwinian thought shifted charity views of poverty from moral failing to heredity

Evidence

Charity leaders were appalled. The burden now thrust upon them seemed especially heavy because under the impact of Darwinian ideas they were beginning to regard poverty— previously attributed to moral weakness—as an inherited tendency. … “The hereditary character of pauperism and crime,” said a leading welfare worker, “is the most fearful element with which society has to contend.” — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 256

Categorization

• XREF: This hereditarian turn toward pauperism is the intellectual bridge that later converts class/cultural hostility into racial nativism — supports reader’s thesis that racialization is a transitional form the enemy category passes through. — connects to: Biological determinism lets privileged subjects dismiss the social causes of inequality — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 118

Broader Connections

• Biological determinism lets privileged subjects dismiss the social causes of inequality #expands (0.82) — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 118