Scientific racism framed Mormons as a biologically degenerate race

Evidence

Scientific racism further validated anti-Mormonism in the nineteenth century. Religion was instrumentalized by phrenologists and physiognomists who claimed that Mormons’ brains were small, thereby making them more susceptible to the evils of polygamy. As noted in W. Paul Reeve’s work, one army doctor wrote of Mormons in his report to the US Senate following the Utah War, “The yellow, sunken, cadaverous visage; the greenish-colored eyes; the thick, pro-tuberant lips; the low forehead; the light, yellowish hair; the lank, angular person, constitute an appearance so characteristic of the new race, the production of polygamy, as to distinguish them at a glance.” The doctor concluded that Mormons’ physical degeneracy was a result of their moral depravity. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 321

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the recurring pattern where scientific racism legitimizes religious prejudice — echoes the same mechanism used against Jews and Native Americans in this same chapter and elsewhere.