{"id":7959,"date":"2001-05-23T16:13:00","date_gmt":"2001-05-23T16:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/?p=7959"},"modified":"2021-07-04T06:42:49","modified_gmt":"2021-07-04T06:42:49","slug":"lte-rhinelander-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/2001\/05\/23\/lte-rhinelander-case\/","title":{"rendered":"LTE: Rhinelander Case"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Date: Wednesday, May 23, 2001 4:13 PM
From: \u201cGeorge Winkel\u201d
Subject: Letter to the Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Re: Rhinelander Case<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I enjoyed reading the Bliss Broyard review, \u201cColor Blind,\u201d of the Lewis & Artizzone book on the Rhinelander case.<\/a> It\u2019s especially fascinating seeing a Broyard review, in light of the \u201cpassing\u201d accusations that were levied against Bliss\u2019s deceased father. But I wish Bliss had not gotten the \u201cone drop rule\u201d mixed up historically with \u201chypodescent\u201d (the automatic \u201cblack\u201d racial identity of slaves). Because \u201cone drop\u201d was the issue at the core of Bliss\u2019s review, and she should have tried to be more accurate discussing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was not \u201cone-drop,\u201d but \u201chypodescent\u201d dates back to the beginnings of lifetime \u201cblack\u201d chattel slavery in Continental America. (Btw, I think the 17th century hypodescent law originally was pushed by \u201cwhite\u201d planters\u2019 wives, and the Church. \u201cWhite\u201d wives had incentive to prevent their husbands\u2019 Mulatto children by slave mistresses from having \u201cwhite\u201d social equality with the wife\u2019s own \u201cwhite\u201d children. To me, the explanation that \u201cwhite\u201d men contrived hypodescent to deliberately \u201cbreed\u201d their own children for slaves sounds questionable \u2013 bizarre.) Anyway, as Bliss wrote, \u201crace\u201d definition was a muddled matter up to 1924, with each state using different \u201cblood fractions,\u201d some surprisingly tolerant. However, that fateful year (1924) the Virginia Racial Integrity Act substantially ended the \u201cmuddle\u201d by nailing down the strict \u201cone drop rule\u201d that we know today. Thereafter, all the Mulattos (millions) \u201cdisappeared\u201d \u2013 forced into identifying \u201cblack\u201d on the 1930 census, and other government documents. I have read that Hitler sent Nazi officers to study this American form of \u201cclassificatory genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All this is ancient history to today\u2019s youngsters (it should be so, that is). In 1967 Loving v. Virginia<\/em>, 388 U.S. 1 (1967)<\/a> overturned the Virginia Racial Integrity Act as unconstitutional. That meant all the \u201canti-miscegenation\u201d laws were overturned, all across the land. The nature of \u201crace\u201d and sexual access are so intertwined \u2013 being such interdependent ideas \u2013 that \u201crace\u201d could have been declared abolished that day, June 12, 1967. But the great civil rights movement of the \u201960\u2019s showed no interest in the Loving v. Virginia<\/em> case. It was just Mr. & Mrs. Loving alone, appealing their conviction, assisted by the \u201cwhite\u201d ACLU. \u201cBlack\u201d civil rights leaders then carefully avoided the subject of \u201cmiscegenation.\u201d They didn\u2019t want to further inflame \u201cwhite\u201d opposition to racial integration. Fear of \u201crace-mixing\u201d drove the \u201cwhite\u201d opposition. The whole purpose of Jim Crow segregation had been preventing \u201crace-mixing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think one of the great tragedies of the 20th century was, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., apparently failed to recognize the significance of the Loving v. Virginia<\/em> decision. Anyway, King never stood on the U.S. Supreme Courthouse steps proclaiming the end of \u201crace\u201d the end of \u201cblack & white.\u201d He had the nationwide moral leadership. He could have. And the quiet submission by which \u201cwhite\u201d America accepted the Loving<\/em> decision proves the magnitude of Dr. King\u2019s persuasive victory. By meekly submitting to the Loving<\/em> decision, \u201cwhite\u201d America showed it had been so moved by King\u2019s charismatic protest that it was willing to surrender its \u201crace.\u201d After all, \u201cwhite\u201d was defined by \u201cpurity\u201d which no longer can be preserved in the wake of Loving<\/em>. Is that option still open? In the whole country can a leader still be found with the charisma to mount those Supreme Courthouse steps, issue that historic proclamation \u2013 make those church bells ring, all across the land?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Clearly Alice Jones had herself an effective lawyer. The lawyer making her disrobe before the jury sounds shocking to us today, but it may have been a routine trial strategy in an era when the issue was what \u201crace\u201d did a \u201cwhite\u201d man\u2019s fiance reasonably appear to be. The jury needed to see enough of Alice to decide \u2013 a reasonable view \u2013 as a fiance might be expected to have. At that time, nearly 60 years after the Civil War, I doubt very many jurors remembered anything about female slaves on auction blocks. A sympathetic all-male jury I can believe, though. I\u2019ve heard Bliss (like her Dad), doesn\u2019t identify \u201cblack.\u201d Maybe she identifies liberal? She should get her history straight about \u201cone drop.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Date: Wednesday, May 23, 2001 4:13 PMFrom: \u201cGeorge Winkel\u201dSubject: Letter to the Editor Re: Rhinelander Case I enjoyed reading the Bliss Broyard review, \u201cColor Blind,\u201d of the Lewis & Artizzone book on the Rhinelander case. It\u2019s...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":347,"featured_media":7987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[223,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-george-winkel","category-reader-forum"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Letters-to-the-Editor.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p89tuq-24n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/347"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7959"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7960,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7959\/revisions\/7960"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/multiracial.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}