This alligator thing is nothing new
Trigger warning: Offensive and disturbing racist images and text
The Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport inside Big Cypress National Preserve in Ochopee, Florida, popularly known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” has sparked some pretty vile “humor.” Some of the vilest comes from Laura Loomer, who seems to promote feeding the entire US hispanic population to alligators.
Official US government accounts are also getting in on the “fun.”
Folks on Etsy and Amazon are trying to cash in.
These attempts at humor deflect the truth that detainees at the camp will suffer inhumane and dangerous conditions, and not just those posed by wildlife.
As grotesque as the “Alligator Alcatraz” term is to those of us with an ounce of humanity, the idea of feeding humans to alligators has a long, racist history that predates the Civil War.
“Alligator bait” has long been a racist slur, and images of people of color (including children, and especially babies) being fed to alligators adorned postcards, memorabilia, and the labels of consumer goods like soaps. As recently as 2020, “Gator Bait” was used as a cheer at University of Florida sporting events, until it was discontinued because of its “horrific historic racist imagery.”
Were African Americans really used as alligator bait? It’s hard to tell if these things really happened, or if it was just a threat and a slur. The Jim Crow Museum cited numerous reports of human beings being fed to alligators and/or used as bait to catch or kill the reptiles. (here and here)
Snopes, however, is skeptical, noting that “the common threads running through all these reports are racism, xenophobia, and the utter lack of specifics. If we take them seriously, we have no choice but to conclude that using human infants as alligator bait was incredibly widespread at some point in time; yet, we have not encountered a single report that included enough detail to verify that even one such incident actually took place. They're just tales.”
Snopes “checked this conclusion with folklorist and African American studies professor Patricia Turner, who has probably done more research on the "alligator bait" motif than anyone else in the world, and asked her if she had ever come across information suggesting that the phenomenon might be real. ‘I have not seen any evidence to suggest that it was true,’ she said, adding that it would have been all the more unlikely during the era of slavery, when a black child would have been a much more valuable commodity than an alligator.”
Whether it was true or not, the anecdotes and imagery were widespread, and horrible. Instead of subjecting readers involuntarily to these images, I am providing some links at the end of this post. If you do decide to click, brace yourself.
Sharing this awful trope just spreads dehumanizing attitudes. Even though most media outlets (e.g., ,CNN, CBS, Reuters, PBS, BBC…) are doing it, don’t buy into the racism by calling it “Alligator Alcatraz.” Call it what it is, a concentration camp.
A second facility is already in the works.
Images and anecdotes (click at your own risk)
I’m sad you had to write this to explain it all to us. And also, I’m grateful you did.
I've heard it called "Alligator Auschwitz," which is more fitting, but no less horrific. The US has interned Japanese-heritage people in the past, in the present it will be Latinx peoples. I am ashamed to be an American.