The Genuine Jewish Type: Racial Ideology and Anti-Immigrationism in Early Medical Writing about Tay-Sachs Disease

Abstract

Abstract: This article presents a critical, genealogical analysis of discourse of Tay-Sachs disease (TSD), a genetic metabolic disorder perceived as exclusive, or nearly exclusive, to Jews. Drawing on medical case reports from period between 1881 (when disease was first observed) and 1943, i.e., early years of Second World War, study examines how Tay-Sachs was discursively constructed as a Jewish disease. In particular, study provides an analysis of TSD in context of anti-immigrationism, especially in 1910s and 1920s US, when both eugenics and Jewish emigration from Eastern Europe were on rise. The argument illustrates reification of Jews as raced in and through this disease, demonstrating that knowledge about Tay-Sachs (and other group-specific genetic diseases) needs to be examined in socio-cultural terms alongside existing biological accounts. Resume: Cette etude retrace la genealogie du discours sur la maladie de Tay-Sachs, un desordre genetique du metabolisme, historiquement concu comme exclusif aux juifs ou pratiquement exclusif a ceux-ci. Elle en propose une critique. Fondee sur l'analyse de rapports medicaux allant de 1881 (date a la quelle la maladie a d'abord ete identifiee) a fin 1943, c'est-a-dire les premieres annees de la seconde guerre mondiale, cette etude decrit comment les discours prononces autour de la maladie de Tay-Sachs en ont fait un probleme juif. Elle se penche en particulier sur le contexte anti-immigration des decennies 1910 et 1920 aux Etats-Unis alors que l'eugenisme et l'emigration en provenance de l'Europe de l'Est prenaient de l'essor. Elle tente d'etablir comment les juifs furent reifies en tant que > a travers et grace a cette maladie, et montre comment le savoir relatif a la Tay-Sachs (ou a toute autre maladie genetique specifique a un groupe) releve tout autant de termes socioculturels que des donnees biologiques existantes. Introduction--Towards a Genealogy of Medical Racialism Howard Omi and Michael Winant propose a theory of formation, which they define as the sociohistorical process by which categories are created, inhabited, transformed, and destroyed. They link formation to evolution of hegemony and argue that it is a process constituted by a series of historically situated projects in which human bodies and social structures are represented and organised. Racial projects, they argue, can be found at both macro and micro levels, and as examples they cite both neoconservative and liberal politics as well as everyday encounters. Thus, they maintain that although it no biological validity, idea of plays a fundamental role in structuring and representing social world. In other words, because it a social reality we cannot abandon concept of in our analyses of racism and racial politics (1994:55-6; emphasis in text). Omi and Winant's position--one assumed by many sociologists interested in relations--is evocative of Thomas and Thomas' famous assertion that situations defined as real are real in their consequences (1928). While there is no biological basis for race, there are certainly social implications of idea of biological race; if idea of has a social reality that is independent of its utility as a biological construct, then thinking is that it must therefore remain central in any social analysis of relations (Satzewich, 1990:318). Miles and Torres (2000) challenge this view, arguing that continued use of race as an analytic category legitimizes and reinforces misconception that biological races exist and are cause, rather than consequence, of racism. Instead of studying race, they argue, we are better off studying social processes of racism and racialisation, or social process through which individuals or groups are constructed as being members of a race. …