Honestly, "his mother had sickle-cell" feels less like a 'damn big clue' and more like a 'vague, subtle hint'.
I definitely think that people should have figured out he wasn't white from the dialogue with the guard.
But when I read that she had sickle-cell, I just assumed it was meant to imply that Shadow's mom was too sick to take care of him a lot as a kid. Hell, I always knew Shadow wasn't white, and it didn't occur even to me, until this thread, that his mother's chronic illness could be in any way relevant to his mother's race/ethnicity.
I understand, that for a lot people, sickle-cell is a "black" disease - but that connection just does not exist for me. Diseases and medical conditions aren't that racialized for me, and I expect that the same goes for a lot of other people out there, including a lot of readers of American Gods.
no subject
I definitely think that people should have figured out he wasn't white from the dialogue with the guard.
But when I read that she had sickle-cell, I just assumed it was meant to imply that Shadow's mom was too sick to take care of him a lot as a kid. Hell, I always knew Shadow wasn't white, and it didn't occur even to me, until this thread, that his mother's chronic illness could be in any way relevant to his mother's race/ethnicity.
I understand, that for a lot people, sickle-cell is a "black" disease - but that connection just does not exist for me. Diseases and medical conditions aren't that racialized for me, and I expect that the same goes for a lot of other people out there, including a lot of readers of American Gods.