Quoting Albert Einstein

"What a sad era when it is easier to smash an atom than a prejudice."
Albert Einstein



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Albert Einstein on Minorities and Majorities

"As long as I have any choice in the matter, I shall live only in a country where civil liberty, tolerance and equality of all citizens before the law prevail."
Albert Einstein



In 1930, "father of social science" and editor-in-chief of The Crisis W.E.B. DuBois contacted Albert Einstein while he was living in Berlin and asked him for a contribution to the official journal of the NAACP.

Sir:
I am taking the liberty of sending you herewith some copies of THE CRISIS magazine. THE CRISIS is published by American Negroes and in defense of the citizenship rights of 12 million people descended from the former slaves of this country. We have just reached our 21st birthday. I am writing to ask if in the midst of your busy life you could find time to write us a word about the evil of race prejudice in the world. A short statement from you of 500 to 1,000 words on this subject would help us greatly in our continuing fight for freedom.
With regard to myself, you will find something about me in “Who’s Who in America.” I was formerly a student of Wagner and Schmoller in the University of Berlin.
I should greatly appreciate word from you.
Very sincerely yours,
W. E. B. Du Bois

Albert Einstein replied two weeks later:

My Dear Sir!
Please find enclosed a short contribution for your newspaper. Because of my excessive workload I could not send a longer explanation.
With Distinguished respect,
Albert Einstein

DuBois translated Einstein's short essay (original in German) and introduced the following "Note form the Editor":

The author, Albert Einstein, is a Jew of German nationality. He was born in Wurttemburg in 1879 and educated in Switzerland. He has been Professor of Physics at Zurich and Prague and is at present director of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Physical Institute at Berlin. He is a member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Science and of the British Royal Society. He received the Nobel Prize in 1921 and the Copley Medal in 1925.

Einstein is a genius in higher physics and ranks with Copernicus, Newton and Kepler. His famous theory of Relativity, advanced first in 1905, is revolutionizing our explanation of physical phenomenon and our conception of Motion, Time and Space.

But Professor Einstein is not a mere mathematical mind. He is a living being, sympathetic with all human advance. He is a brilliant advocate of disarmament and world Peace and he hates race prejudice because as a Jew he knows what it is. At our request, he has sent this word to THE CRISIS with “Ausgezeichneter Hochachtung” (“Distinguished respect”).

It seems to be a universal fact that minorities, especially when their Individuals are recognizable because of physical differences, are treated by majorities among whom they live as an inferior class. The tragic part of such a fate, however, lies not only in the automatically realized disadvantage suffered by these minorities in economic and social relations, but also in the fact that those who meet such treatment themselves for the most part acquiesce in the prejudiced estimate because of the suggestive influence of the majority, and come to regard people like themselves as inferior. This second and more important aspect of the evil can be met through closer union and conscious educational enlightenment among the minority, and so emancipation of the soul of the minority can be attained.

The determined effort of the American Negroes in this direction deserves every recognition and assistance.

Albert Einstein

photographs by Philip Halsman (1947) via and via, information via

Albert says...

"Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind."
Albert Einstein



photograph via

A Genius' Stance on Racism

"a disease of white people"
Albert Einstein

Many biographies have been written on the life of Albert Einstein (1879-1955), "the" genius. Before Jerome and Taylor published "Einstein on Race and Racism" in 2006, one aspect of his life remained ignored: Einstein's public attitude to racism (via).



The scientist, pacifist and Jew Einstein was forced to leave Germany in 1932. He left and renounced his citizenship. In 1933, he ended up in Princeton where he discovered another kind of racism, one that targeted black US-Americans. Princeton University did not accept black students.
Einstein spent much time with the local African-American community "Witherspoon" (via). In 1946, he visited Lincoln University, "the first degree-granting college for African-Americans" where he was supposed to give a lecture on physics and where he also addressed racism calling it "a disease of white people" (via). The same year he wrote a letter to President Truman and asked for a passage of an anti-lynching law (Jayaraman, 2007). Einstein made it clear that it was not his intention to be quiet about his opposition to racism (via). His "courage in defending the right to the freedom of expression is all the more remarkable for the great lack of it that characterized academic life, particularly in the sciences, in the United States even in the post-McCarthy era." (Jayaraman, 2007).
He supported Princenton's black community, paid one student's tuition, formed relationships with black leaders, such as W.E.B. Dubois (who he witnessed for at the beginning of McCarthyism), invited the famous black American contralto Marian Anderson to stay in his home when she was refused a room at the Nassau Inn in 1937 and together with Paul Robeson worked on the American Crusade to End Lynching (via).



A Message to my adopted country (Einstein, 1946):

(…) In the United States everyone feels assured of his worth as an individual. No on humbles himself before another person or class. Even the great difference in wealth, the superior power of a few, cannot undermine this healthy self-confidence and natural respect for the dignity of one’s fellow-man.
There is, however, a somber point in the social outlook of Americans. Their sense of equality and human dignity is mainly limited to men of white skins. Even among these there are prejudices of which I as a Jew am clearly conscious; but they are unimportant in comparison with the attitude of the “Whites” toward their fellow-citizens of darker complexion, particularly toward Negroes. The more I feel an American, the more this situation pains me. I can escape the feeling of complicity in it only by speaking out.
Many a sincere person will answer me: “Our attitude toward Negroes is the result of unfavorable experiences which we have had by living side by side with Negroes in this country. They are not our equals in intelligence, sense of responsibility, reliability.”
I am firmly convinced that whoever believes this suffers from a fatal misconception. Your ancestors dragged these black people from their homes by force; and in the white man’s quest for wealth and an easy life they have been ruthlessly suppressed and exploited, degraded into slavery. The modern prejudice against Negroes is the result of the desire to maintain this unworthy condition.
(…) I believe that whoever tries to think things through honestly will soon recognize how unworthy and even fatal is the traditional bias against Negroes.
What, however, can the man of good will do to combat this deeply rooted prejudice? He must have the courage to set an example by word and deed, and must watch lest his children become influenced by this racial bias.
I do not believe there is a way in which this deeply entrenched evil can be quickly healed. But until this goal is reached there is no greater satisfaction for a just and well-meaning person than the knowledge that he has devoted his best energies to the service of the good cause.
That is precisely what I have tried to do in writing this. (via)



- Jayaraman, T. (2007) in Wadia, S. R. (ed.) The Legacy of Albert Einstein. A Collection of Essays in Celebration of the Year of Physics. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing
- photos via and via and via
- inspired by Open Culture