A childish act of violence

[sovay]

Today I learned about the depopulation of Malaga Island in 1912. The short course: after ordinarily existing for half a century on a small island off the coast of Maine, a mixed-race fishing community was demonized as physically and mentally degenerate, its families eventually evicted en masse by order of the state governor, dispersed into the mainland population or forcibly institutionalized. All traces of habitation were razed right down to emptying the island's cemetery. Innsmouth, no fish people needed. No one has built or lived on the island since. I am glad to read that some of the descendants are now reuniting. Otherwise it is simply more evidence that white supremacy is why we can't have nice things.

Comments

[the_future_modernes]

This is so infuriating that I cannot even. Not even the fucking cemetery was left in peace. White supremacy man. White supremacy.

[sovay]

Not even the fucking cemetery was left in peace. White supremacy man. White supremacy.

I know that the dead are dead and don't suffer more than the living, but something about the cemetery is just gratuitously cruel. If those bones were my family, I would want them reburied where they died.

[sara]

Moving a people's dead has long been a means of social control in this country.

[sovay]

Moving a people's dead has long been a means of social control in this country.

Or we would not need things like the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, yes. The other thing it made me think of was European: Jewish gravestones broken to pave Polish streets.