The Appeal., 1911-05-06
When Is a Caucasian Not
Caucasian9

When Is Caucasian Not a
Caucasian9
(From the New York Independent. J
This is a conundrum which is no
joke. 1t is very serious matter with
many of the first Creole families of
Louisiana. To us outside who look
on it is absurdly amusing, as the an
tics of those who make fools of them.
selves always are, no matter how
serious to the participants.
Louisiana was settled by the French.
The French used to have less fear of
race admixture than English settlers.
Many Creoles, like Cubans,t have a
dark complexion, and have been sus-
pected of negro blood, which they
angrily deny. Louisiana has an elab-
rat terminology for the successive di-
lutions, from the mulatto and the
quadroon downward-or upward
which we printed some weeks ago.
When the dilution reaches the six
teenth fraction it is almost indistin-
guishable, and at the sixty-fourth no
test can discover it, For all prac-
icable purposes the man is eau
casian-but not for Louisiana law.
Of all States, Louisiana ought to be
the last to enact law forbidding in
ter-marriage of white person with
any one who has the least infusion of
negro blood. There is no knowing
where it might hit, for in Louisiana
beyond doubt many pass for white in
whose genealogy research would dis
cover a few drops of negro blood. Such
case has lately stirred UP the State.
A young woman of good family, a
graduate of fashionable ladies' semi
nary in New Orleans, was killed by be-
ing run over in the street. =. A news
paper spoke of her as colored. That
was a mortal offense. Her brother
brought suit for SANDER, and the edi-
tor, by referring to ancient records,
showed that one of her ancestors was
recorded as co1ored. That put the
whole family into a horrible plight.
They had always thought of them
selves as white, and had associated
only with white people. Now nobody
would associate with them. They
must sink, tho visibly white, to the
rank and caste and associations of
negroes. Hitherto they had been good
enough to associate with anybody
Now, with no fault of their own, and
no change in themselves, they were
thrust, with all their whiteness, into
the outer blackness.
TIL dead girl had a sister happily
married to a man of German origin.
There was no question that he was a
full Caucasian. But he had imbibed
the Louisiana prejudice and terror of
Invisible and infinitesimal nigritude
He discovered-and his wife did
from the newspaper account that she
had this bar sinister He could not
continue to live with such a banned
woman. Besides, the law forbade it
He was liable to Imprisonment for
maintaining marital relations with her
He appealed to the court to have his
marriage annulled, and the court could
do no less. So she was sent adrift
with tic rest of her family. Thus in
tlls case two legal maxims had illus
tration, one by it's truth, "Summa lex
sumna injuria,' and the other by its
e.treme contradiction, "De minimis
lex non curat." The law does care a
great deal for the smallest things. II
cares in Louisiana for what is so at
tenIated as to be invisible.
Now such a law and such enforce
ment is barbarous beyond expression
1t puts suspicion in mutitudes OF
families. It is against all common
sense as againt all Christianity. Who
knows where, thru personal malice
it may strike next? The story is told
in the Sun-very likely so-of a SINH
lar case in one Of the parishes. A
, suit for slander was brought for call
ing family colored. The sheriff
looked up the records and found the
charge sustained. AS the investiga
tion amused him. he looked farther
and found one of his own ancestors
recorded as colored-but a fortunate
fire soon after destroyed the proof.
| Now, what should be done? II
Louisiana must maintain its infamous
law against intermarriag 1t should
! at least set line where the prepotent
| negro blood is to be held as washed out
Set it at one-eighth or one-sixteenth
or one-thirty-second, or one-sixty
fourth, but at least set it somewhere
If we do not misremember, South
Carolina has such a law. It is adding
stupidity to cruelty to allow the taint
i to go on forever.
And once more, we advise all white
! negroes in Louisiana, or anywhere else
in the South to change their residence
! and leave their pedigree behind. There
is such case now in Baltimore, where
the doctors can't tell whether a girl is
white or black. Let them leave as
v hite people and be received as white
feople. We do not doubt there are
thousands Of such people. both North
and South, who have, by changing
their home, changed their race and col
or. We have known such cases, ant
Ut all Creoles. Thus, as the bleacr
ing process goes on, the conundrun
will cease to concern them. When is {