Sociologist Proposes Intermarriage As Solution for Problems of World

A woman sociologist last night urged extensive intermarriage as the solution for most of the world's problems.

Speaking at the second Lemann Lecture, Mrs. Ruth H. Useem, research consultant in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Michigan State University, called for the end of taboos which presently discourage marriage between people of different races, religions, nationalities, social statuses, and educational backgrounds.

"These rules are making bastards of us all," Mrs. Useem declared. "They may have made sense in the past for some families, but they are utter nonsense for the survival of today's family unit--the family of man."

Blaming Hitler's persecution of the Jews on Jewish refusal to marry Gentiles, she said that the Jews were punished because they decided to be endogenous rather than to intermarry. Similarly, she attributed the bombing of Negroes in the South to "people being kept out of the family of man."

With the destruction of the old taboos, however, it will not be difficult to bring about extensive intermarriage because "sex is on our side."

Intermarriage does not mean miscegenation, according to Mrs. Useem. She said that miscegenation means sexual mixing which does not lead to mixed marriage. Such sexual mixing has always existed between in groups and out-groups, she stated, but it often had no social status. "For example, look at Harvard boys and town girls."

Mrs. Useem called also for a reform of adoption rules along "family of man" lines. White parents should be able to adopt Negro children, and Negro parents to adopt white children, she declared. Conceding such an innovation would cause the demise of present cultural groups, she said it was the only way to preserve the family of man.