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Tarred and Feathered

Tarring and feathering

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarring_and_feathering

The photo here is of John Meints, a German-American farmer who was tarred and feathered in Minnesota in August 1918.

Yes, I know today is Pearl Harbor day and my thoughts may seem to have turned to the 'wrong' World War. But hey, I can't tame them to obey a calender.

I include Meints' photo here as a reminder that racism can victimize anyone, even those nasty "north Europeans."

And to suggest that when it happens we should call it "racism," and not use word magic to try to say that Meints was the victim of something else, or wasn't really a victim at all.

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  1. HenryDecember 7, 2019 at 7:18 AM

    Before World War I, H.L. Mencken, who was of German descent, was an anti-black racist. As a result of the prejudice he faced during World War I, he realized how black people felt, and he became an advocate for their civil rights. That shows an admirable capacity to empathize. It would be good if the anti-defamation leagues and civil rights groups that look out for Italians, Jews, African Americans, and all other groups combined into one, because we are all of the human race, and, if one segment of us is discriminated against, then we should care as much as if it is our segment.

    But what Meints, Mencken, and other German-Americans experienced during World War I was not racism, and it is not "word magic" to use a more accurate word. Unfortunately, however, I am not aware of one. "National-origin discrimination" is not only awkward, but is often inaccurate, because Mencken (I don't know about Meints) was not of German origin; his forebears were.

    Sometimes national-origin prejudice and racism overlap. Trump's bigotry again Latin American immigrants is both, as he has acknowledged that he'd welcome Norwegian immigrants. His bigotry is racism as well as national-origin discrimination because people from Latin America tend not to look like Northern Europeans. This is not only because people from Spain tend not to look like Northern Europeans (though they are of the same race), but because people from Latin America tend to have forebears of African or Native American ancestry (making them in part of a different race from Northern Europeans). Even if some Latin American people could pass for Northern European, it doesn't seem too much of a stretch to say that they are victims of Trump's racism.

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