Who are the Whittakers, “America’s Most Inbred Family” who communicate through grunts

To the whittaker They are known as “America’s Most Inbred Family”. Its members and, consequently, their particular way of life, were discovered a few years ago, when the photographer and documentary filmmaker Marco Laita He visited them to photograph and record them.

The protagonists of a YouTube video from two years ago who have already seen more than 36 million of users are called Betty, Lorraine and Ray. They are all children of first cousins ​​in Odd, West Virginia.

The other that appears in the documentary is Timmythe cousin of the trio. Freddie, the fourth of the Whittakers, died some time ago. There are also rumors that there is an unnamed fifth sister and other family members that Laita has never met.

The director claims that some of the Whittakers communicate with each other with growls, howls and barks.. “It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen,” he recalled recently in his participation on the Konkrete podcast.

The 63-year-old director’s decision to record the family’s impoverished life in a remote mountain town of 800 people was widely questioned by audiences. Does Laita make fun of them? Do you ridicule them by asking questions? For what purpose do you register them? Do you do everything for reproductions?

In response to these questions, the photographer explained that he wanted to show “the level of poverty” the Whittakers face every day. So to help them, he created a GoFundMe with a goal of $75,000. And it went well: He has already raised 50,000.

in the best style Liberation, Laita was initially approached by an armed climber. “They don’t like people coming to ridicule these people,” she told the podcast.

The photographer said the Whittakers, with the exception of Betty, have several physical and mental abnormalities related to their parents.

It’s worth noting, according to Thought.Co, a hub for “expert-created educational content,” inbreeding can lead to a host of side effects ranging from smaller adult size and reduced fertility to increased risk of disease. genetics.

“There are these people walking around and their eyes are going in different directions and they’re barking at us,” Laita described. “The only guy that you would look him in the eye or say something and he would scream and walk away. He ran away and his pants fell down to his ankles and ran outside to kick the garbage can. This would happen again and again.

A relative of the Whittakers told the documentary maker that “they understand what you’re talking about. If they don’t like him, they start yelling, letting you know that he doesn’t like that idea.”

Comments on YouTube

The videos on Mark’s YouTube account, Soft White Underbelly, have been commented on by more than a hundred thousand people. As you can imagine, the reactions range from disastrous to very good. Sure: the most popular posts revolve around Ray.

One of the most popular comments about the video reads: “The man named Ray made me really sad. He clearly wanted to communicate and was thrilled that there was someone new around. His own limitations frustrate him more than they offend society, I promise you.”

Another person agrees with the above: “If someone could teach Ray some sort of sign language or something like that, he would definitely tell some stories. It’s clear that he has some sort of understanding of language. Bless their souls.”