i want to just reiterate since i see a frankly concerning amount of people in the most recent reblogs acting like this wasn’t a big deal or was somehow “basically just plain old archeology”: this person was desecrating modern human remains, at least partially for profit, in a graveyard for poor people (primarily poor people of color).
quotes from the Wiki (bolding for emphasis by me):
Darling said that the bones came from a “poor man’s graveyard” where bones often rose to the surface when it rained. Much of New Orleans is below sea level, so this risk is usually mitigated by above-ground entombment, but many who cannot afford it are interred below-ground instead.
One [witchcraft Facebook group] member identified the unnamed graveyard as likely being Holt Cemetery, a potter’s field* for the indigent—which Darling initially denied—but Darling’s critics argued that the bones they were collecting were disproportionately of poor, non-white people. One user wrote, “you are implementing white supremacist and colonialist tactics to do your bidding”.
*for those unfamiliar, a potter’s field is another term for a place of burial for unknown, unclaimed, or poverty-stricken people.
(also worth noting here that a lot of folks were rightfully pointing out the wider cultural context attached to this, which was the gentrification of New Orleans in the years following Hurricane Katrina, an event that was especially awful for people of color)
the state of Louisiana took Darling’s actions seriously enough that they literally made a new law about it after the fact. as an American, do y’all understand how serious it has to be for the Louisiana state government to get off their asses and do something like this?
In parallel to the criminal investigation of Darling, the Louisiana State Legislature responded to Boneghazi with the Louisiana Human Remains Protection and Control Act (LHRPCA), introduced by Senator Neil Riser in March 2016 and signed into law by the governor on June 17. Removing human remains from a cemetery was already illegal under state law, but the new law clarified the relevant definitions, contained stronger penalties for violating the law, and found that “Louisiana law has never permitted, recognized, or sanctioned ownership rights in human remains”.
even many of their fellow witches called them out on their behavior, and there was absolutely no evidence to support the idea that their actions had any actual basis in legitimate cultural practices:
Alex Mar, the author of the book Witches of America, concluded based on discussions with witches in New Orleans that Darling was inexperienced with witchcraft. She said that while Darling’s practice of witchcraft may have stemmed from an interest in African diaspora religions like Palo, it was not consistent with that religion’s practices, nor was Darling’s taking of strangers’ bones consistent with any tradition Mar knew of.
TL;DR no, this wasn’t harmless, and though i do hope they’ve since learned from it, the backlash that Darling received was not unwarranted (as a previous poster pointed out, they very much did briefly go to jail over it).
dailybridgerton
turnnoffyourmind
romaincrisis
titsay
prguitarman
blakekathryn
tangentwithtanner
