May 30, 2020
Eugenics, alive and well in America and how Racism can be Eliminated
After the Nazis imported the eugenics movement from the United States it took off. During the holocaust, it was considered the “science” that justified the atrocities. (Abate) Sadly, the eugenics moment is alive and well in America today. Eugenic philosophy will continue to be the primary underlying philosophy in American politics. The underbelly of the American belief system and American law.
Eugenics was originally coined by Francis Galton in 1883. Galton gained a lot of his theories and life philosophy by following his half-cousin Charles Darwin’ book “On the Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection or Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life”. In 1883 Galton publishes his book “Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development”. This book launches a deep and long embedded philosophy in America and the world that still haunts us until today. In the early 1900’s hundreds, eugenics was a prominent movement and considered science fact. Eugenics pioneers advocated that certain people were biologically better than others. It determined through a set of IQ testing and bias observations some races where more intelligent and capable than others. The stringed anthropometry was the science of the day. This made the 14th Amendment a sham and true hypocrisy. Perhaps this was an “ideal” at best a falsehood and self-righteous notion at worse. Therefore, not all were created equal and not worth advocating for. These people were considered, genetically inferior, feebleminded, idiots, and damaged. Americans could not bear euthanizing imperfect children or developmentally challenged so they opted for the second-best choice and began a sterilization campaign in marginalized communities, that continues till today.
Because of the eugenics movement & popularity at the time and acceptance of it, the Nazis felt it was their right to implement this newfound science in Germany. Americans refused to allow over two million Jewish immigrants in the country during the Nazi war. However, it was in 1897 when Americans began creating laws to “eliminate” degenerate aspects from the nation’s bloodstream. In 1907 the very first sterilization laws passed in the US. (Head) This was long before the Nazi war, a clear sign that long before Hitler there was the United States setting laws in place to maintain a “pure race” consisting of Anglo Saxons and of Nordic ancestry. In fact, it was the case that Hitler got his inspiration for “the purity theory” via mainstream American scientific research papers being published at the time. “Hitler actually wrote a fan letter to one of the biggest backers of eugenics in America, a wealthy lawyer named Madison Grant, who wrote a book, “The Passing of a Great Race.” “Your book was my bible,” Hitler told Grant. (HistoryChannel)
It was Charles Davenport, a prominent American biologist and eugenicist that continued Francis Galton’s work and propagated inferior races. In one instance he is found quoted saying “Can we build a wall high enough around this country to keep out the cheaper races” he also stated the following: “Just as we have strains of scholars, military men, we have strains of paupers, of sex offenders, strains with strong tendencies toward larceny, assault, lying, running away,” “The costs to society of these strains is enormous.”
Oddly enough over one hundred years later the forty-fifth president is found saying almost the same thing and sees the world the same way. In most recent years the forty-fifth president has been quoted saying the following: “I will build a great wall — and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me — and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.” “These aren’t people. These are animals.” “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best,” “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” In 2016 he stated, “I love the poorly educated. “Sorry losers and haters, but my I.Q. is one of the highest -and you all know it! Please don’t feel so stupid or insecure, it’s not your fault.” 2013 on Twitter
It’s hard to believe that in the most admired and innovative country in the world our president would say such feeble remarks however in many ways it’s to be expected. This is possible because in America we have been entrenched with the philosophies of Francis Galton, Charles Darwin, and Charles Davenport, and many like them. It has been so embedded within our language and our culture that we simply do not notice.
For example: In this article by the New York Times by Emily Bazelon interviewing Justice Ruth Bander Ginsburg, she is aware of this common understanding that marginalized communities can and have been controlled through abortions and sterilization. It is all in her language and she is not even aware of it. It is just part of how all Americans have been educated. Educated to believe that some races are superior to others and unknowingly or maybe knowingly behave as such.
Emily Bazelon: “Q: Are you talking about the distances women have to travel because, in parts of the country, abortion is essentially unavailable, because there are so few doctors and clinics that do the procedure? And, the lack of Medicaid for abortions for poor women?
JUSTICE GINSBURG: Yes, the ruling about that surprised me. [Harris v. McRae — in 1980 the court upheld the Hyde Amendment, which forbids the use of Medicaid for abortions.] Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of. So that Roe was going to be then set up for Medicaid funding for abortion. Which some people felt would risk coercing women into having abortions when they didn’t really want them. But when the court decided McRae, the case came out the other way. And then I realized that my perception of it had been altogether wrong. (Bazelon)”
At first, I couldn’t believe it. So, I dug deep and found the exact source and found what she said. I do not think she meant harm however I do know she is very aware of the eugenics movement and its attempts to wipe out those of us that don’t fit the Anglo Saxon or Nordic mold. It’s so matter of fact that people talk about it like it is normal. For years politicians have tried solving social problems by justifying euthanasia and sterilization with “It’s not personal it’s biology” excuse. Nevertheless, this rhetoric continues even though it has been proven unscientific. Why? Well, massive brainwashing and established laws that give credibility to this rhetoric.
Currently, in the United States, we have laws that pay addicts and inmates money if they get sterilized. Yes, this is happening, today and now in 2020. “A review of the law of eugenic surgical sterilization reveals that 22 states have laws that permit compulsory eugenic sterilization without patient consent. Even though a state does not specifically authorize eugenic sterilization, it does not mean that such a procedure cannot be done legally.” (Morton Birnbaum)
How to eliminate the poor? This was the primary question during the early 1900s. This was the case during the Robber Barron’s times when there was no middle class and they would do anything to stay in power. Institutes of the wealthy provided massive funding to organizations such as Carnegie Institute of Washington, Rockefeller foundation, Harriman’s Foundation, and Kellogg Foundation to gather scientific proof that the social problem was genetics. People like Jack London, Alexander Graham Bell, Theodor Roosevelt, Henry Ford, and Margaret Sanger were believers of this flawed science. Writing in Good Housekeeping magazine in 1921, Calvin Coolidge, then Vice-President-elect, argued that “biological laws show us that Nordics deteriorate when mixed with other races.” James J. Davis, Secretary of Labor under both Harding and Coolidge, went even further to argue that the older Nordic “immigrants to America were the beaver type that built up America, whereas the newer immigrants were rat-men trying to tear it down; and obviously rat-men could never become beavers.” (Raab) Again the language of that day is the same today. Today the United States President has been quoted calling maginilized communities “animals”.
Again, we go back to the importance of the language we use and the propagated ideas of one hundred years ago that persist today with the same tone yet different characters. This time around the masses has the power. Long are the days of the Rockefellers and JP Morgan’s that could tip the stock markets with a brief word or two and Carnegie who had the president’s ear with the stroke of a pen. Instead, we have Twitter and Tik Tok, the internet and we have cross-referencing at the tip of our fingers. Heck! We have Alexa. With so much information at our fingertips, we can make educated decisions if we choose. Still, many people choose to listen to the wrong characters in history only to repeat history. The current political players sound and act like the same players from one hundred years ago. Eugenics is part of the American fabric. Listen to the president’s daughter talked about her father. Ivanka Trump answered reporters “We were sort of bred to be competitive,” says Ivanka. “Dad encourages it. I remember skiing with him, and we were racing. I was ahead, and he reached his ski pole out and pulled me back.”
It’s astonishing to me that an intelligent woman uses the word “bred” to define her father's parenting. It’s like she is a racehorse and she must be tamed and beaten into shape if needed. It’s all about winners and losers with the political establishment. According to Alfie Kohn in his book “No Contest: The Case Against Competition,” it is clear we live in a world where collaboration is key in order to live in harmony. Nature its self-dictates such order. This idea of winners and losers and superior or inferior is a retardation of the mind propagated by people suffering from the very condition they accused others of. In short, they hide behind their own diagnosis and stupidity.
It all circles back to our innate fears of survival and of scarcity. Yet Alfie Kohn manages to prove in his research that it is in fact collaboration that sets us apart from the animal kingdom and Darwin’s radical theories. I admire Darwin for setting into motion a radical movement at the time. It was not easy for him to go against the political and religious powers, yet he did and because of this, I honor him. Nevertheless, his premise was wrong. He himself said that there was a possibility of his inaccurate conclusions, as any good scientist would. He was a great scientist and he knew this. Yet we still teach his unintentional lies in schools. Why? Well, because it fits the eugenics narrative of America.
Wolfgang Smith, Mathematician and Physicist Prof. of Mathematics MIT states it eloquently and it’s worth pondering upon. “We are told dogmatically that Evolution is an established fact, but we are never told who has established it, and by what means. We are told, often enough, that the doctrine is founded upon evidence, and that indeed this evidence ‘is henceforward above all verification, as well as being immune from any subsequent contradiction by experience’; but we are left entirely in the dark on the crucial question wherein, precisely, this evidence consists.”
It was Charles Darwin that influenced Francis Galton and then Charles Davenport and the list goes on. Yet the history of our human stupidly starts back with the Spartans C.7th BC when they inspected and tested newborn against the elements and the C.5th BC Romans who slated deformed children in C.4th BC with the infamous Plato who was the father of thinking some people were just better than others so he gave instructions on mating rituals for those “better” races to procreate. Even President Woodrow Wilson supported sterilization, Vice President Coolidge who firmly believed in inferior races and President Nixon who made sure marginalized communities could not procreate as easily as whites. This is not new. The reason for our repeated mistakes is easy. We have not understood our “origin story”. Who are we? Where did we come from? Once we get closer to this answer, we will be closer to understanding ourselves and our value.
For now, we understand little of our human story. We continue to cycle through the same stories about superior and inferior races and it all gets lost in translation. Our inability to speak kindly to one another is a key indicator we don’t’ understand ourselves. Yet, in the last ten years, we have found truth and theory in science once again. It appears the answers may all lie in our telomeres and our DNA sequencing at the end of our chromosomes. The challenge will be having society create another “Darwin” like figure in this generation to help propagate a new human story. This story would involve one of collaboration versus competition and humanity as seen through the eyes of the spirit.
I don’t believe Darwin’s intentions where to create and help develop the Third Reich or to help infuse a future generation of neo-Nazi republicans. I don’t’ exaggerate this statement by any means. A key player within the republican party Stuart Stevens has come clean in his book “It was all a lie, How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump” solidified Americans' darkest truths. Steven’s played a key role in getting the most prominent republicans elected into office in the last 20 years and he says the goal was to only address “the whites”. This was in essence the central message for every candidate in order to get elected, to play the eugenics game, and use its rhetoric. He is not proud of this and by no means says it was the right thing to do but he admits it was done and it will be continued to be done because it’s part of the American fabric.
I do believe Darwin wanted to help us understand ourselves better without the filter of religion. This was an enormous feat at the time. I congratulate Darwin for his efforts, yet we enter a new era. The era of Ai and of bioengineering. Without a new story and new language that infuses or innate abilities for collaboration we will be stuck in this Darwinian cycle and we all know where that leads, pandemics, wars, and more twitter feed of the feebleminded. We are entering the age of anthropometry, literally measuring every physical angle and even every thought pattern we have. We must understand who we are, who we really are in order to create the new human story. A story that sees our divine nature and we collaborate innate abilities. I believe that in this new technological revolution there will be another Darwin that rises up and guides us through a new possible version of our history. Perhaps this time it will include our spirit.
As all the ancient wise men have told us we exist in many realms and we are interdimensional. We are not flesh and bone but the spirit too. Perhaps if we could prove this scientifically, we would have avoided euthanasians, the holocaust, and so many more atrocities. This is best said by Jim Rohn one of the great thinkers of my time. “If you want to amend your errors, you must begin by amending your philosophy”. I couldn’t agree more. Eugenics has played a key role in our America. It is time for Americans to stand for more than our past and our repeated history. It lies in a new philosophy that entails a true fourteen amendment. One that we execute and implement and is guided by our innate knowing we are created equal and everyone deserves to live. We must create a world where science and spirituality meet. We must create a philosophy along with a new origin story we can all embrace.
#GeorgeFloyd #Justice #PeacefulProtest #ProtestThroughWords #MLK #UnifiedAmerica
