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urocyonIn the previous post, I made a reference to this article on eugenics and Buck vs. Bell.
While somewhat controversial, I think this take on the Buck case has a good bit of merit.
She was a marooned Eastern Siouan "Saponi/Tutelo" descendant who was, because of her origins, seen by the legal and medical clowns sealing her fate as belonging "to the shiftless, ignorant, and worthless class of anti-social whites of the South.” In Canada, people like us were called Métís. But the preceding quote from the man who ran the asylum to which she was committed, sums up what many of us were called stateside.
Indeed. Not only are a majority of Southern "poor whites" descended from former/escaped indentured servants for quite a lingering touch of classism, their European (and, frequently, formerly indentured African) ancestors also had a disturbing habit of going native.
If not completely relevant, very compelling to me is looking at Carrie and her mother and seeing that they could well be members of my family. The set of their eyes is striking--compare to Nikonha's (and, as my mother pointed out upon seeing his, my own.) Carrie also worked in Radford. My own great-grandmother had my grandfather thanks to similar circumstances*, and I have to wonder if in 1921, her being platinum blonde due to a quirk in the genetic lottery made some difference in their respective fates, beyond the difference in social background still obvious through local egalitarianism.
You just kind of gasp in awe at such a trenchant indictment of a people who would use the same word to describe the largest group of people on the planet, and mental retardation -- Mongoloid -- Mongolism. In the white, racist world of the twenties, apparently, the two were indistinguishable.
This point was really brought home, even before I read this article, by watching a mother carrying her toddler into a supermarket. I felt bad as soon as I did so, but I did a double-take and tried to decide if the little girl had Down's syndrome. No, I considered that she just had a rather strongly Indian set of features for such a fair child. I am still uncomfortable about my apparent need to evaluate the kid, but had to consider whether some of the stereotypes of hordes of half-witted** blond children running around the place barefoot might be rooted in groups of people who are not at all accustomed to seeing a good number of pale children with very prominent epicanthic folds and rather characteristic hybrid Gaelic-Indian flat cheekbones. That's what I am accustomed to, and I peered at that particular little girl.
Besides Nikonha's resemblance to a number of family members, come to think of it, the number of bright blue-derived eyes bearing remarkable similarity to his--likely to Powhatan's or Logan's, for that matter--really does say a lot about Southern Appalachia and about the fate of the "disappearing" majority of Eastern Siouan and other native people.
* The '20s were a particularly poisonous time socially to have a child without being married--no matter the circumstances--and both she and my grandfather were made horribly aware of this fact for most of their lives, not least by some relatives I don't have any use for even now. He would have been ashamed at my even mentioning it.
** Not my characterisation at all, but certainly the stereotype. *grimace*
While somewhat controversial, I think this take on the Buck case has a good bit of merit.
She was a marooned Eastern Siouan "Saponi/Tutelo" descendant who was, because of her origins, seen by the legal and medical clowns sealing her fate as belonging "to the shiftless, ignorant, and worthless class of anti-social whites of the South.” In Canada, people like us were called Métís. But the preceding quote from the man who ran the asylum to which she was committed, sums up what many of us were called stateside.
Indeed. Not only are a majority of Southern "poor whites" descended from former/escaped indentured servants for quite a lingering touch of classism, their European (and, frequently, formerly indentured African) ancestors also had a disturbing habit of going native.
If not completely relevant, very compelling to me is looking at Carrie and her mother and seeing that they could well be members of my family. The set of their eyes is striking--compare to Nikonha's (and, as my mother pointed out upon seeing his, my own.) Carrie also worked in Radford. My own great-grandmother had my grandfather thanks to similar circumstances*, and I have to wonder if in 1921, her being platinum blonde due to a quirk in the genetic lottery made some difference in their respective fates, beyond the difference in social background still obvious through local egalitarianism.
You just kind of gasp in awe at such a trenchant indictment of a people who would use the same word to describe the largest group of people on the planet, and mental retardation -- Mongoloid -- Mongolism. In the white, racist world of the twenties, apparently, the two were indistinguishable.
This point was really brought home, even before I read this article, by watching a mother carrying her toddler into a supermarket. I felt bad as soon as I did so, but I did a double-take and tried to decide if the little girl had Down's syndrome. No, I considered that she just had a rather strongly Indian set of features for such a fair child. I am still uncomfortable about my apparent need to evaluate the kid, but had to consider whether some of the stereotypes of hordes of half-witted** blond children running around the place barefoot might be rooted in groups of people who are not at all accustomed to seeing a good number of pale children with very prominent epicanthic folds and rather characteristic hybrid Gaelic-Indian flat cheekbones. That's what I am accustomed to, and I peered at that particular little girl.
Besides Nikonha's resemblance to a number of family members, come to think of it, the number of bright blue-derived eyes bearing remarkable similarity to his--likely to Powhatan's or Logan's, for that matter--really does say a lot about Southern Appalachia and about the fate of the "disappearing" majority of Eastern Siouan and other native people.
* The '20s were a particularly poisonous time socially to have a child without being married--no matter the circumstances--and both she and my grandfather were made horribly aware of this fact for most of their lives, not least by some relatives I don't have any use for even now. He would have been ashamed at my even mentioning it.
** Not my characterisation at all, but certainly the stereotype. *grimace*
