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Introduction to Geophagia
Published in Anil Gupta, Geophagia, 2019
GeophagiaGeophagia is the compulsive eating of soil, clay, or earthen materials (Luby 2009; Gupta 2017).
Classless: Classism in Social Work Practice and the Example of White Rural Proverty
Published in Smith College Studies in Social Work, 2020
During the same period in US history, southern social workers set out to assist in the campaign to eradicate hook worm among the “dirt eating poor” (Wray, 2006). Geophagia, or the practice of eating dirt, was common among poor whites of the South as it was believed to be rich in minerals and supplemented the sparse diets of poverty (Wray, 2006). Geophagia carried the risk of hookworm infestation. Hookworm was rampant in the deep south and rendered those afflicted fatigued, glassy-eyed, and nearly immobile, lending to the stereotype of the “lazy Southern redneck.” Considered the “germ of laziness,” the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission established efforts to eradicate the disease that was caused by lack of proper sanitation, shoelessness and the historic practice of geophagia (Isenberg, 2016). The “10,000 Hookworm Family” from Alabama was used by eugenics enthusiasts in Fitter Family competitions that were popular at the time, as an example of what a “white trash, unfit American family” looked like (Isenberg, 2016). As recently as the 1950s, hookworm created an entire class of Southerners who were regarded as “shiftless, lazy, good-for-nothings who can’t do a day’s worth of work” (Nuwer, 2016, ‘How a Worm Gave the South a Bad Name, para 16). Although the Rockefeller campaign was successful, it relied on shame, stigma and stereotyping, which became part of the larger cultural narrative. The campaign took advantage of the ravishes of the disease to promote the idea of the moronic, lazy and backward poor rural white, by publishing images of those afflicted with hookworm paired next to healthy equivalents, fostering the negative stereotypes of the rural poor (Isenberg, 2016). Many social workers were employed by the Rockefeller Sanitation Commission to satisfy this mission and were again called upon to employ and promote negative stereotypes to satisfy this agenda just as in the eugenics campaign (Ettling, 2000).