Racism and Sexual Oppression in Anglo-America: A Genealogy

441 Pages·2009·6.59 MB·English

by  Ladelle McWhorter

Racism
Philosophy, Contemporary Issues
MCWhorter
An impassioned history

of the politics of oppression R
a
and
c
i
s
“A moving and engaged DOES THE BLACK STRUGGLE FOR CIVIL
m
rights make common cause with the Sexual
book that is evidently

movement to foster queer community, pro- a
the product of several test anti-queer violence or discrimination, n
and demand respect for the rights and d
years of intense research
sensibilities of queer people? Confronting S
worn eff ortlessly.” this emotionally charged question, Ladelle e Oppression
x
McWhorter reveals how a carefully struc-
u
—Eduardo Mendieta, tured campaign against abnormality in
a
SUNY Stony Brook the late nineteenth and early twentieth
l
centuries encouraged white Americans

O
to purge society of so-called biological
“A signifi cant in
contaminants, people who were poor, p
contribution to our disabled, black, or queer. Building on a p
r
legacy of savage hate crimes—such as the
understandings of the e Anglo-
killings of Matthew Shepard and James
s
concept of race, with Byrd—McWhorter shows that racism, sex- s
i
ual oppression, and discrimination against o
particular emphasis on
the disabled, the feeble, and the poor are
n
all aspects of the same societal distemper,
its intersections with
America
and that when the civil rights of one group i
n
concepts of sexuality, are challenged, so are the rights of all.

A
and more largely,
n
LADELLE McWHORTER is the James
abnormality.” Thomas Professor of Philosophy and g
Professor of the Women’s, Gender, l
—Shannon Winnubst, o
and Sexualities Studies Program at the
A G E N E A L O G Y
The Ohio State University
University of Richmond. She is author of -
A
Bodies and Pleasures: Foucault and the
m
Politics of Sexual Normalization (Indiana
University Press, 1999). e
r
i
INDIANA c
a
University Press
Ladelle M Whorter
c
Bloomington & Indianapolis
INDIANA
http://iupress.indiana.edu
1-800-842-6796
Racism and Sexual Oppression
in Anglo-America

Racism

and
Sexual
Oppression
in
Anglo-
America
A Genealogy
Ladelle McWhorter
Indiana University Press
Bloomington and Indianapolis
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
601 North Morton Street
Bloomington, IN 474043797 USA
http://iupress.indiana.edu
Telephone orders 800-842-6796
Fax orders 812-855-7931
Orders by e-mail [email protected]
© 2009 by Ladelle McWhorter
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by
any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publisher. The Association of American University Presses’ Resolution on
Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed
Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1984.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McWhorter, Ladelle, date–
Racism and sexual oppression in Anglo-America : a genealogy /
Ladelle McWhorter.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-253-35296-5 (cloth : alk. paper) —
ISBN 978-0-253-22063-9 (paper : alk. paper)
1. Minorities—Civil rights—United States—History. 2. African
Americans—Civil rights—History. 3. Gays—Civil rights—United States—
History. 4. Racism—United States—History. 5. Homophobia—United
States—History. 6. Whites—United States—Attitudes—History.
7. Eugenics—United States—History. 8. Abnormalities, Human—
Political aspects—United States—History. 9. United States—Race relations.
10. United States—Social conditions—1865–1918. I. Title.
E184.A1M357 2009
305.800973—dc22
2008048274
1 2 3 4 5 14 13 12 11 10 09
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: Two Great Dangers 1
1 Racism, Race, Race War: In Search of
Conceptual Clarity 17
2 A Genealogy of Modern Racism, Part 1:
The White Man Cometh 63
3 A Genealogy of Modern Racism, Part 2:
From Black Lepers to Idiot Children 97
4 Scientific Racism and the Threat of
Sexual Predation 141
5 Managing Evolution: Race Betterment,
Race Purification, and the American
Eugenics Movement 196
6 Nordics Celebrate the Family 245
7 (Counter) Remembering Racism:
An Insurrection of Subjugated Knowledges 294
Notes 333
Works Cited 401
Index 421

Acknowledgments
The research for this book was made possible in part by four grants,
three from the University of Richmond (faculty research grants in
1998 and 2006 and an enhanced sabbatical grant in 2006–2007)
and one from the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at the City
University of New York, the Heller-Bernard Fellowship, awarded in
2006. I am extremely grateful for this financial support.
I am also extremely grateful for the collegial generosity of Dr.
Todd May, Lemon Professor of Philosophy at Clemson University,
and Dr. Ellen T. Armour, Carpenter Professor of Feminist Theology at
Vanderbilt University. Both read entire drafts and some redrafts of this
manuscript at various stages of development and offered extensive and
invaluable criticism. Without their help and friendship over the years,
this would have been a very different and much inferior piece of work,
and I would be a much inferior philosopher.
Dr. Eduardo Mendieta, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Stony
Brook University, supplied me with many important references and
copies of papers at crucial junctures, read and critiqued the entire
manuscript near the final stage of writing, and offered much-needed
(and much-appreciated) encouragement, as well as good advice. Dr.
Davonya Havis, Associate Professor of Philosophy (then at Virginia
Union University, now at Canisius College) read several chapters of
the work in progress and engaged me in wide-ranging philosophical
conversation over many lunches and cups of coffee throughout my
sabbatical year, thus helping me stay sane and relatively focused in the
midst of what has been at times an almost overwhelming project. Both
have my deepest gratitude.
I would also like to thank my editors at Indiana University Press,
Dee Mortensen and Laura MacLeod, without whom this book could
not exist, and an anonymous reviewer for the press, who offered
extensive and helpful criticism as well as encouragement and enthu-
siasm for this project.
Finally, I would like to thank Carol Anderson, who as my line
dance teacher was merely footnoted in Bodies and Pleasures but now,
as my life partner, deserves to be featured here prominently. Carol
viii Acknowledgments
patiently read (or in some cases patiently listened to me read aloud)
every draft of every chapter of this manuscript; offered advice and
suggestions for intelligibility, clarity, and tone; and never doubted
that this at times strange and unwieldy book would get finished and
make sense, even on days when I very much did. More than anyone,
she has shared with me the pain and joy of this work over the past
eight years. Words can’t express how grateful to her I am for that.
Racism and Sexual Oppression
in Anglo-America