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Transcription
The episode discusses the history and impact of eugenics, a movement that promoted selective breeding of humans to improve genetic quality. It originated from Aristotle's beliefs in a hierarchy of nature and was later supported by Francis Galton and Henry Goddard. Eugenics led to the establishment of state-run institutions and forced sterilization of marginalized groups. It reached its extreme under Nazi Germany, resulting in the Holocaust. While eugenics is no longer accepted, remnants of its ideas still exist today, such as forced sterilization, discriminatory reproductive policies, and language that perpetuates discrimination. Understanding and addressing these issues is crucial for a better future. Imagine you are transported back to the early 20th century, a time of democracy and nuclear households. You wake up and your mother tells you to get dressed quickly, put on your Sunday best and brush your hair. You're going to the fair, but instead of going on roller coasters and getting cotton candy, you stand in a tent next to your brothers and sisters while judges ogle over you, pick you apart like prized cattle. You are participating in Fit or Family for Future Firesides, a contest in which families are ranked and evaluated for their overall quote-unquote desired traits. Families can earn points for things like straight teeth, broad shoulders, creative ability or fit appearance. This is only one shocking and abhorrent example of eugenics. In this episode of History Rediscovered, we will be talking about a movement stemming all the way from ancient Greece and Aristotle called eugenics. This movement was a pseudoscientific ideology that promoted the idea of selectively breeding humans to improve the genetic quality of the human population. It was rooted in racist, ableist, and discriminatory beliefs about genetic superiority and inferiority in different groups of people. It is important to look at this movement from all sides, as it is often erased from the classroom. Eugenics still finds its place in society today, but that I'll get to later in the episode. Right now would be a good time for some historical context. I mentioned that this movement stemmed from Aristotle and ancient Greece. To give you a little historical perspective, I want to tell you about one of Aristotle's shining works, his Hierarchies of Nature. Coined Scala Naturae, this tiered list emerged in ancient Greece and classified nature according to a mixture of the four elements along a fixed ladder of perfection. Air compositions at the top, or gods, were based on the Greek male form, centering the ideal human in a position of power and superiority immediately. This god-like tier was followed by fire-human category, water organisms, and then earth, or worms. This idea became widespread throughout communities and unknowingly began the indoctrination of people to think that there is a superior race of humans. This idea weaved its way throughout history, eventually coming to a head in many countries in the early 1900s. Francis Galton, a famed eugenicist, coined the term eugenics, rooted in the Greek word for well-born. Eugenicists were racist and discriminatory. They believed that certain races and groups of people were genetically superior to others. They promoted the idea that human traits like intelligence, personality, and capability were entirely inherited genetically rather than influenced by environment or upbringing. To understand the eugenics movement, you must understand its scientists and proponents and how they succeeded so easily on weaving outright discrimination into every household in America. I mentioned Francis Galton earlier, but it is important for you to know more about him as he is often deemed the father of eugenics. His contributions laid much of the unethical and pseudoscientific foundation for the eugenics movement. Heavily influenced by Darwin's theories on evolution, Galton took the incorrect leap of trying to apply this science in a discriminatory way to human populations. Galton made incorrect assertions lacking scientific evidence that human traits like intelligence, personality, and character were entirely inherited genetically rather than influenced by environment. He even attempted to construct numerical data meant to quantify the concentrations of genius among different races, social classes, and families. Galton claimed that flawed data proved the existence of stratified genetic classes, with the white race and upper social classes being inherently superior stocks. Because of this, he argued that selective breeding policies could concentrate these perceived positive traits and create a better breed of human. His philosophies were rooted in prejudices about genetic hierarchies and desperate attempts to prove the scientific legitimacy of those discriminatory beliefs. His work laid the framework for many eugenicists to come after him, namely Henry Goddard. Henry Goddard was a psychologist who studied mental conditions. He falsely claimed that low intelligence was a hereditary genetic defect that could be scientifically measured using IQ tests. He created an intelligence test to categorize people into morons, imbeciles, or idiots. He studied family history and determined that morons passed their inadequacy through generations. He believed that if you solved feeble-mindedness, you would solve defective ancestry. He argued that this justified segregating and preventing reproductions of those deemed quote, feeble-minded. Goddard, as well as many other proponents of this movement, deeply believed this wildly unscientific ideology and deemed that society should deliberately limit the reproduction of individuals deemed genetically feeble-minded. This discriminatory ideology laid the groundwork for the establishment of many state-run institutions known as Homes for the Genetically Unfit. These facilities were opened across the United States and other countries. Advocates asserted that segregating these individuals from society and preventing their reproduction was necessary to create a superior genetic stock. Individuals were often committed to these institutions against their will or under coerced circumstances, torn from their families and communities. Residents faced dehumanizing conditions, invasive procedures like forced sterilization, and long-term institutionalization solely based on discriminatory assessment of their intelligence or social adequacy. One of the most notable individuals kept at these institutions was someone named Carrie Buck. Carrie was a 17-year-old woman who was pulled from school, raped, and then discarded to the colony of the feeble-minded. She came to view a child, and because of her pregnancy out of wedlock, it was recommended that she be sterilized, to not bring any inadequate children into the world. She refused and went on to appear in front of the Supreme Court, fighting her case to not be forcibly sterilized, but unfortunately lost. Her case, however, started a chain reaction of states passing anti-sterilization laws. Before this could happen, however, tens of thousands of people in the United States were forcibly sterilized against their will under state eugenic laws targeting the mentally ill, poor, disabled, minorities, and other marginalized groups. Still today, modern coerced sterilization exists in some areas, often targeting marginalized women, disabled individuals, and incarcerated people. Galton, Goddard, and Buck were just a few of the figures prominent in the eugenics movement. However, there were countless other activists and protesters to the ideology. It is important to remember, however, that eugenics did not only exist in America. This movement had some of its most detrimental effects overseas. During World War II, the eugenics movement reached its most extreme and horrific culmination under the Nazi Germany regime. Nazism fully embraced and institutionalized eugenic ideas of creating a supposed master race by increasing the Aryan birth rate and eliminating those viewed as racially inferior or genetically unfit. Extensive programs were implemented, including the compulsory sterilization of over 400,000 people with physical and mental disabilities. The worst, however, was the genocidal policies rooted in eugenic ideology, leading to the industrialized mass murder of millions in the Holocaust, including 6 million Jews, Romani people, Slavic civilians, LGBTQs, and other deemed subhuman under Nazi racial myths. All of this is historical context, but equally as important is the role eugenics plays in today's society. While the eugenics movement itself is no longer embraced by mainstream science or government policies, some of its troubling remnants and ideas persist in more subtle forms today. As mentioned earlier, forced sterilization still happens in the 21st century. People in prison, for example, are often being sterilized without proper informed consent or under coercive circumstances. Another example of eugenics today is discriminatory reproductive policies. Restrictions on birth control, abortion, and assisted reproductive services for disadvantaged communities is a modern extension of the historical goal to limit reproduction of undesirable groups. Finally, another leftover from this horrible movement is the language of eugenics, like referring to disabilities as defects or worth preventing. This still permeates some social attitudes and portrayals, even if inadvertent. And while biological theories of racial superiority have been scientifically debunked, aspects of race science ideology still persist among some white supremacy groups who adopt portions of eugenics thoughts to discriminate. The eugenics beliefs in general led to catastrophic policies and human rights violations targeting racial minorities, disabled individuals, poor people, and other groups that were deemed unfit. These practices were very unethical, discriminatory, and caused immense suffering for millions of victims over many decades. Eugenics is just one of the many problems pervading our society today, but it encompasses a lot that is wrong with our world. Looking at another human as inherently inferior to you has no basis in scientific fields or society in general. Inherent biases must be unlearned for the sake of humanity's future. I hope you enjoyed this episode of History Rediscovered and that you learned something, because as Winston Churchill once said, those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
