Even abolitionist leaders deployed racist ideas when convenient

Evidence

UPLIFT SUASION MOVED neither segregationist enslavers nor assimilationist abolitionists away from their racist ideas. Not even Benjamin Rush, the scion of abolitionism, could be moved. By the end of August 1793, he was up to his neck in yellow fever cases and using racist ideas to solicit assistance. Rush inserted a note in Philadelphia’s American Daily Advertiser in September telling Black people they had immunity to yellow fever, a conclusion he had reached based on his belief in their animal-like physical superiority. Quite a few Black nurses suffered horribly before Rush realized his gross error. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 332

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s core thesis: the urgency of motive (soliciting labor assistance) produced racist ideas even in an abolitionist — supporting Kendi’s policy-before-ideas inversion against a would-be counterexample.