Kardec, racism and Spiritism - a reflection

Do not speak nor write Something that degrades
or causes iniquity; Racism is an open wound
In the body of Humanity.
(Cornelio Pires) (1)

Racism ⁽²⁾ is a topic seldom addressed in the hosts of the doctrine. The literature is scarce. The Brazilian spiritist writers and scholars have not yet offered more profound insights into the subject. For some, the few analyses on the issue of segregation and slavery of black people in Spiritism betray the influence of the Arian theory ⁽³⁾, the idealistic and positivistic view of history, ignoring the facts in their relativism and contradictions.

For the Kardecian research regarding the black, one should take into consideration the historical context in which the subject was discussed. It would be a mistake, under the historical point of view, to consider Allan Kardec tainted with prejudice or a racist. This word has a very strong semantic load and would be unsuitable to define the ideals of the master from Lyon. There is no indication that he has discriminated against any individual or group of black origin or any individuals, whether in or outside the Spiritist movement. The journalist Dora Incontri, master and doctor in Education from USP, in her book Understanding Kardec brings us an interesting fact that will shed some light on who was Mr Rivail. Consider this: "It's good to remember that at the Society of Spiritist Studies of Paris there was a Camille Flammarion, an astronomer, and a paver (a labourer who made ​​the pavements of Paris, whose death is reported by Kardec) and both were members of the Society”. (4)

Kardec's opponents rely on texts published in the Spiritist Magazine and especially in the Posthumous Works, Part 1, Chapter IX, on the "Theory of Beauty." Strictly speaking, we do not consider this theory a doctrinal point and it is not part of the Basic Works. This is just a piece of research which Kardec did not publish. It became public after his disembodiment when some notes he left were gathered in the aforementioned book, whence it is inferred that that thought was not yet fully consolidated.  

Phrenology, for instance, advocated a relationship between intelligence and strength of the instincts 

For the sake of fairness, it should be noted that Kardec did not claim ownership of Spiritism. He introduced it to us as the Doctrine of the Spirits. So, the distinction must be done between what the Spiritual Benefactors revealed under the principle of universal consensus of the Spirits and what Kardec wrote and thought in private, including what was published in the Spiritist Magazine.

Amid the basic literature of the Third Revelation, the Codifier notes that "with belief in reincarnation, the prejudices of race and caste fall dead, since the same spirit can be re-born rich or poor, lord or beggar, master or subordinate, free or enslaved, man or woman. If, then, reincarnation is founded upon a law of nature which is the source of universal brotherhood, it is based upon the same law as that of equality of social rights and of freedom." ⁽⁵⁾

Faced with the dictates of the plurality of existences, still according to Kardec, "the prejudices of race become weak, people begin to consider themselves as members of one big family." ⁽⁶⁾

As noted, these ideas radically mischaracterize a biased Kardec. However, despite the attitude (for some biased) imputed to Kardec regarding the black, as a result of the context in which he lived (we repeat) on discrimination and prejudice of a certain ethnicity, his work remains untainted by all the criticism in the ethical sense. In order to approach the issue, it is essential to contextualize it by considering the theories of racial superiority in vogue at the time.

Phrenology, for instance, advocated a relationship between intelligence and strength of the instincts in an individual with his skull proportions, in a kind of pseudoscientific "unfolding" of physiognomy.  

If not the difference of spiritual evolution, then what  
makes men unequal? 

In an article in the Spiritist Magazine of April 1862, "Spiritualist and Spiritist Phrenology - Perfectibility of the black race," Kardec does a kind of replay of this "science" with a spiritualist focus, demonstrating that the "backward" of the blacks should not be due to biological causes, but because their incarnate spirits were still relatively young. ⁽⁷⁾

We wonder: are there people more advanced than others? Is it possible to ignore the gap between townsmen and savages? If not the difference of spiritual evolution, then what makes them unequal?

Clearly, the terms to "complex or simple" cultures can be tailored so as to replace "advanced or backward," which in essence does not change the situation of either one. It is also known - and it is indisputable - that anthropology and sociology are born Eurocentric. And anthropology was a kind of sociology created to study the primitive people. ⁽⁸⁾Nevertheless, the Spiritist Doctrine is broader than this whole issue.

For us "there are not many species of men, there are merely people whose spirits are more or less backward, but all subject to progressing through reincarnation. Is this principle not more in conformity to the righteousness of God?" ⁽⁹⁾

In the book Renuncia (Resignation), a magnificent work of the mediumistic literature, we have identified a passage that caught our attention and made us reflect upon the subject. Robbie, the son of slaves and adopted brother of Alcione, after disembodying he told her: "provided that I sent the gendarmes ⁽¹⁰⁾ to free the coachman for realising that I was the one to blame (...) I feel that I no longer have the black skin, that my hand and leg are healed (...) (...) look Alcione and she explains: These are the redeeming proof, my dear Robbie! God has restored you the health of the soul for considering you worthy again."⁽¹¹⁾ Can one imagine the Spirit Alcíone a racist? And why would the blacks have suffered so much from slavery?  

Jesus, before the eyes of man, is the greatest archetype of perfection that a spirit can attain 

According to Humberto de Campos, the slaves were the "former fighters of the crusades, feudal lords of the Middle Ages, priests and inquisitors, rebellious and angry spirits, lost in the paths filled with darkness of their impure consciences." ⁽¹²⁾

The idea that a man can be re-born as a white, black, mulatto or indigenous substantiates a rupture with racial prejudice and discrimination. Do not forget, however, that even today in Great Britain many supporters of neo-spiritualism reject the theory of reincarnation for not admitting the possibility of having had incarnations in lower positions on race and social status.

With this vision, a spirit reincarnated in a body of black origin, will be subject to discrimination and that will be for him a condition, an evolutionary contingency to be overcome. For some it may be an atonement, for others a mission. With the Spiritist principles "all distinction between men is extinguished according to the bodily and worldly advantages, on which pride founded caste and the stupid prejudices of color."13).

As noted, a libertarian doctrine such as Spiritism does not condone under any pretexts with any ideology that seeks to ethnic discrimination among social groups.

The truth is that in the great debates of sociological, anthropological, philosophical, psychological nature, Spiritism will cause the greatest historical revolution in the human thought, as it is registered in the questions 798 and 799 of The Spirits' Book, especially when it takes the place it deserves in the human culture and knowledge, for its moral precepts will warn men of the compelling solidarity that will unite them as brothers, pointing, in turn, that the intellectual and moral progress in the life of all spirits is a universal law and having Jesus as a model, who, in the eyes of man is the greatest archetype of perfection that a spirit can attain.^14. 

Sources:

1. Xavier, Francisco Candido. Caminhos da Vida (Paths of Life), dictated by the Spirit Cornelio Pires, São Paulo: Ed CEU, 1996.

2. Racism, according to the meaning of "Novo Dicionário Aurélio" is "the doctrine that supports the superiority of certain races." The Count de Gobineau was the main theorist of the racist theories. His work, "Essay on the Inequality of Human Races" (1855), laid the foundations of the Arian theory, which regards the white race as the only pure and superior, taken as the philosophical foundation by the Nazis, supporters of pan-Germanism.

3 Among the theorists of German racism, it was said of the Europeans supposedly pure-bred descendants of the Aryans.

4. Incontri, Dora. Para Entender Kardec (Understanding Kardec), Grandes Questões, São Paulo: Lachâtre Publications, 2001

5. Kardec, Allan. Genesis, Rio de Janeiro: Editora FEB, 2002, p. 31.

6. Ibid pp. 415-416

7. Kardec, Allan. Spiritist Magazine April 1862.

8. Primitive was all those people who had not reached the level of culture and technology as Europe's. It was certainly a point of view of the European in that time, which saw blacks and Latinos as savages.

9. Kardec, Allan. The Spirits's Book, text written by Allan Kardec and constitutes Chapter V item 6, Rio de Janeiro: Editora FEB 2001

10. Soldier of the Force responsible for overseeing the security and public order in France.

11. Xavier, Francisco Candido. Renúncia (Resignation), 7th ed. Dictated by the spirit Emmanuel, Rio de Janeiro: Ed FEB 1973, p. 412.

12. Xavier, Francisco Candido. Brasil, Coração do Mundo Pátria do Evangelho (Brazil, the Heart of the World Land of the Gospel) Dictated by the Spirit Humberto de Campos, Rio de Janeiro: Ed FEB, 1980.

13. Kardec, Allan. Spiritist Magazine April 1861 297-298).

14. Kardec, Allan. The Spirits' Book, Rio de Janeiro: Editora FEB, 2003, 3rd party, q. 798 and 799, Ch. VIII Item VI - Influence of Spiritism on Progress. 

Note from Editors:

We suggest the reader to read on the subject of an editorial issue 213, available at http://www.oconsolador.com.br/ano5/213/editorial.html as well as the text contained in section Spiritism answers published in the issue 68 of 10.8.2008, available at http://www. oconsolador.com.br/ano2/68/oespiritismoresponde.html