THE QUIET REBIRTH OF EUGENICS IN AMERICA ... YEAH, IT'S ACTUALLY HAPPENING (AGAIN)

Are we seeing the quiet rebirth of eugenics in America? Is what was once attempted through sterilization programs, miscegenation laws, Jim Crow and even conquest now quietly being done in America under the guise of national security and immigration control? 

Think about it. The broader argument for keeping certain groups of people out of the United States has always had a racial but highly politicized "law and order" fig leaf about it. Today's fear mongering and ignorance-drenched policies are now given political cover by cries of terrorism, references to murdering and raping brown hordes, and the goal of preventing people from degenerate "shithole" countries from coming to - or staying in - America. 

The bigotry is palpable, but the law and order fig leaf remains. 

Still, nothing says natural selection and miscegenation like imposing policies that make it clear certain ethnic groups need to "stay out" because we don't want them contaminating our national gene pool.

Lending a degree of truth to this growing reality is how the Trump administration has created a racially charged environment that's set the tone for Jeff Sessions to go on the offensive as his office pursues "immigration control."

Specifically, Attorney General Jeff Sessions is in California today to announce the Trump administration will sue California over its "sanctuary" laws, claiming that California's policies are obstructing federal immigration enforcement. Ignoring the fact that Congress failed to pass bipartisan and comprehensive immigration reform when they had a chance - with then Senator Jeff Sessions and current Trump adviser, Stephen Miller, leading the charge against the bill - the stated goals of the Trump administration's suit reeks of eugenics and the racially driven population control measures of the past.

But, again, what we're seeing today with the Trump administration is not really new.

Over 100 years ago the United States continued its long history of imposing racially driven immigration restrictions when Congress introduced the Immigration Act of 1917 (signed 1924). Instead of simply regulating immigration, the act restricted certain groups by assigning a "national origins" quota (2% of each nationality, per the 1890 census). While immigrants from the "Asiatic Barred Zone" were not allowed to come to the United States - the Chinese were already prohibited by the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act - Japan and the Philippines were generously exempted from the legislation, primarily because the Japanese were already limiting emigration, while the Philippines was a U.S. colony.

While the Immigration Act marked yet another embrace of nativism and ethno-nationalism in America, it was also driven by domestic policies and national sentiments built around a large segment of the United States' embrace of eugenics. As a reminder, eugenics is a school of thought that suggests selective breeding is part of a broader path necessary for building a strong vibrant nation-state. Those who embraced eugenics in the past believed America could achieve biological and ethnic superiority if we didn't have so many undesirables around to begin with; hence the immigration quotas.

As you can imagine, supporters of eugenics and similar minded groups emerged throughout the United States, and were especially popular in the American south, where scientific racism already had a head start.

The eugenics school of thought would lead to some pretty ugly outcomes. Unfortunate groups who were considered unfit - like the criminally insane, "natural idiots" and women who were deemed crazy (e.g. those who wanted to vote, but especially those who questioned their husbands) - were quarantined or placed in sanitariums, and often forced into sterilization protocols.

While the eugenics mentality thrived in many parts of the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries, things took an ugly turn when the Nazis adopted the idea, and made it part of Aryan national policy in the 20th century.

Fortunately, eugenics would fade as a "respected" scientific school of thought after the Nazis took eugenics to its logical and ugly extreme. But what really turned the tide against eugenics was research showing how parenting and social environment (public health, public education, pre-K, increased wages, vacations, public parks, etc.) were dominant factors in shaping life opportunities, and outcomes.

Public policy and public administration changed to reflect this understanding.

In any case, America's immigration policy during the first quarter of the 20th century reflected early fears of biological contamination by eugenics supporters. This helps explain why national origin quotas and the exclusion of Asians became part of America's immigration law. But scapegoating and fear mongering was not limited to foreigners, as America's miscegenation laws and Jim Crow demonstrated at the time.

While many of these policies occurred over 75 years ago, in many ways our eugenics-inspired past is making a comeback.

Since Donald Trump became president, murders by white supremacists in America more than doubled in 2017. Anti-Semitic incidents surged nearly 60% in 2017 (the largest single-year increase on record). Overall, according to the FBI, hate crimes in America increased in 2017. And just like 100 years ago, when Americans were torn over how to deal with Germans and Italians during WWI (which helped delay the signing of the Immigration Act), America has become entirely Janus-faced when it comes to immigration, and what to do with the brown hoards Donald Trump has targeted as usurpers of the American tradition.

For example, the Trump administration seems to have no issue with transplants and "anchor" families from Caucasian dominated countries like Norway, Eastern Europe (Melania's family) and Russia (birth tourism). But they clearly have a good deal of issues with Mexicans, Muslims, and the dark and brown hordes from the shithole countries in Africa and Latin America. Why is that?

This is not just a rhetorical question.

We're told that we live in a dangerous time, when scary terrorists and even scarier Mexicans are coming for your Bible and our women. This is why we're told we need to close our borders, while pushing out those who are caught in the legal purgatory we call our national immigration system. We're told to be afraid. Very afraid.

To this, all I have to say is grow up. Terrorist activities around the globe are not remotely close to the number of terrorist activities that we saw 40 years ago. Violence in America is down compared to the 1970s and 1980s. The fear mongers today are simply looking for an excuse to push people out and to create a climate of fear that feeds our nation's anti-immigrant sentiments. So, yeah, the security threat is not real, but the fear is.

The worst part is that all of this is being ginned up both by politicians, who should know better, and a media industry looking for ratings. And it's creating the ugly environment for the quiet rebirth of eugenics in America.

- Mark