The Appeal., 1911-05-13
When Is a Caucasian Not a
Caucasian?

(From the New York independently
This is conundrum whicn is no
joke. It is a 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, have a
dark complexion, and have been sus-
pected of negro blood, which they
angrily deny. Louisiana has an elab-
rat Technology 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 a 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 few drops of negro blood. Such
a case has lately stirred up the State
A young woman of a good family, a
graduate of a 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 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 colored That put the
whole family into 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
Th dead girl had sister happily
married to man of German origin.
There was no question that he was
full Caucasian. But he had imbibed
the Louisiana prejudice and terror of
invisible and infnitesimal 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 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 thc rest Of her family Thus in
| this case two legal maxims had illus
trsltion, one by it's truth, "Summa lex,
summa injuria," and the other by it's
| extreme contradiction, "De minimis
lex non curat." The law does care a
great deal for the smallest things. 1t
cares in Louisiana for what. is so at
tenUated as to be invisible
Now such a law and such enforce
! ment is ebarbarous beyond expression.
It puts a suspicion in mutitudes. of
| families. 1t 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 of a SINH
lar case in one of the parishes. A
!, suit for SANDER was brought for call
ing a family colored. The sheriff
/ looked up the records and found the
l nh c%oS, oN1 .r
ton amused him, he looked farther
| and found one of his own ancestors
! recorded as colored-but fortunate
fire soon after destroyed the proof.
| Now, what should be done? If
Louisiana must maintain it's infamous
law against intermarriage, it should
at least set a 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.
| Ii we do not misremember, South
Carolina has such law It is adding
stupidity to cruelty to allow the taint
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 girl is
white or black Let them leave as
| y hite people and be received as white
people. 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, and
| ot all Creoles.: Thus, as the bleacr
I ng process goes on, the conundrum
will cease to concern them, When is a
Caucasian not Caucasian7