J.M. Barrie Links Black Racial Slur to His Imagined Indigenous American Tribe in Peter Pan
For those who do not know, J.M. Barrie is the author of the childhood book "Peter Pan".
I saw a post on Instagram that pointed out something I overlooked about Peter Pan's author. What I overlooked was Barrie's usage of a slur reserved for non-immigrant Black people in the USA as the name for his imagined Indigenous American tribe in his story. A subliminal slip, perhaps, that acknowledged White people's perception that Indigenous people in the USA and the Africans they brought over via the Trans Atlantic Slave trade were indistinguishable from each other and, therefore, deserving of the exact same terminology. This visual similarity was especially seen in Southeastern tribes whom were reclassified as "Negro" - which is why you do not see this slur having a history of being used for non-black "Federally-recognized Natives", especially non-black "Western Plain Natives".
Due to Paper Genocide many Southeastern Indigenous people were placed on Southern plantations right along side African slaves and, even though these black people were Indigenous (not "African"), they were subjected to the same anti-black racial slurs used against black people from Africa.
#PaperGenocide #PeterPan #JMBarrie #Indigenous #Black






