Snake oil
Could this common term have a racist history? Probably. The story of a real Chinese treatment.
A Chinese water snake, copyright Dan Rosenberg, from Alchetron, the “World’s Social Encyclopedia.”
In the mid-1800s, Americans brought thousands of Chinese men to the U.S. as indentured workers to help build the burgeoning western railroad system. As you might guess, saying they were treated less than fairly is an understatement, according to this National Geographic piece by Ray Rogers:
"An estimated 10,000–20,000 Chinese men joined the Central Pacific Union to complete the backbreaking labor of clearing the way for the railroad. Working 10–12 hour shifts during six-day work weeks, they dug through some of the most treacherous stretches of terrain, crawling into gaps and carving tunnels through the Sierra Nevada mountains from the inside out. They were paid less than other workers and denied room and board.”
An old remedy
To ease aching joints and muscles, Chinese laborers used a remedy that had probably existed for hundreds of years: an ointment made from the oil of the Chinese water snake. And it must have worked. Here's the Pharmacy Times' explanation, from Alana Hippensteele:
"In traditional Chinese medicine, snake oil was used to relieve pain and inflammation and treat arthritis and bursitis. This is due to the high Omega-3 fatty acid content of Chinese water snakes, which, when used appropriately, can work as an anti-inflammatory."
Sounds good. People must have wanted to get their hands on it, don’t you think?
Enter the cowboy, Clark Stanley.
A cowboy makes a splash
In 1879, a former cowboy, Clark Stanley, claimed he had learned the "secrets" of snake oil from the Hopi Indians. He began selling his remedy, and even demonstrated how it was made in a kind of snake oil "pop up" at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, where he boiled a snake, scooped off the scum, and mixed it in ready-made jars of ointment. That snake, reportedly, was a rattlesnake.
Dear reader, was it the real deal? Surprise. It was not. In fact, it had no snake oil at all. He got his comeuppance, sort of, according to this well-sourced Wikipedia article:
"In 1916, subsequent to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906, Stanley's concoction was examined and found to be of no value. It was found to contain mineral oil, a fatty compound thought to be from beef, capsaicin from chili peppers, and turpentine.[4] He was fined $20.00 (approximately to $470 in 2019).[5]"
Turpentine. Cool.
Snake oil=fake?
So how did snake oil, a real remedy, come to mean a charlatan's nostrum? I think the reason comes down to a) greed and b) racism. Hm, those forces still fuel most of the problems in our country, don't they? Here’s some context from a fabulous piece by NPR’s Lakshmi Gandhi:
"The origins of snake oil as a derogatory phrase trace back to the latter half of the 19th century, which saw a dramatic rise in the popularity of "patent medicines." Often sold on the back pages of newspapers, these tonics promised to cure a wide variety of ailments including chronic pain, headaches, "female complaints" and kidney trouble. In time, all of these false "cures" began to be referred to as snake oil."
Many of these medicines were later banned as frauds, taken off the market by the newly enacted law and precursor to the Food and Drug Administration, the Pure Food and Drug Act.
Racist erasure:
Perhaps people who used that term long ago weren’t aware of the benefits of Chinese water snake oil (I have never used it, but maybe I’ll start… these old bones are aching for something).
But the fact that it persists reveals a familiar injustice. It seems to me that the stories of the contributions of marginalized people are often forgotten or deliberately erased, their accomplishments co-opted to make a buck. Why attribute that success to the originator when you see them as less than human?
Pro-tip: only buy your snake oil from a reputable establishment.
I think I also need some myself!