The movement that inspired the Holocaust - Alexandra Minna Stern and Natalie Lira
As a new widow, Sarah Rosas Garcia
was already struggling to support
her nine children
when her oldest daughter
was picked up by local authorities.
Andrea Garcia had been accused
of skipping school
and being sexually promiscuous,
so the authorities responsible
for juvenile delinquents
committed her to a state hospital.
After being administered an IQ test
and assigned a low score,
the doctors made their verdict.
They told Sara her 19-year-old daughter
would be sterilized
to prevent passing on what the state saw
as a mental deficiency.
This horrific tale may sound like a story
from an authoritarian regime.
But in fact, it took place
in Southern California in 1938.
And Andrea Garcia was one of thousands
of poor women of color
targeted by the state’s relentless
campaign of eugenics.
Since ancient Greece, there have been
efforts to control human populations
via reproduction, retaining some
traits and removing others.
But in the 19th century, the discovery
of evolution and genetics
inspired a new scientific movement
dedicated to this endeavor.
In 1883, British scientist
Sir Francis Galton
named this idea eugenics,
drawn from the Greek word
for “to be well born.”
This wave of modern eugenicists
included prominent scientists
and progressive reformers who believed
they could improve society
by ensuring that only desirable traits
were passed down.
However, their definition of what traits
were and were not desirable
was largely determined
by the prejudices of their era.
Entire categories of people
were considered “unfit” for reproduction,
including immigrants, people of color
and people with disabilities.
Meanwhile, their ideal genetic standard
reflected the movement’s members:
white Europeans
of Nordic or Anglo-Saxon descent.
As the influence of eugenics spread
in the early 20th century,
many countries restricted immigration
and outlawed interracial unions.
These measures to improve so-called
“racial hygiene”
were taken to their horrific conclusion
in Nazi Germany.
The Nazi eugenics campaign
systematically killed millions of Jews,
as well as individuals from other groups,
including Roma, gay men,
and people with disabilities.
Outside their extreme brutality, however,
Nazi eugenic policies reflected
similar standards across the globe.
Throughout the mid-20th century,
many countries enacted eugenics policies,
and governments in Sweden,
Canada, and Japan
forcibly sterilized
thousands of individuals.
Sterilization was exceptionally common
in the US.
From 1907 to 1979,
US policies enforced the sterilization
of over 60,000 people,
with 32 states passing laws
that mandated sterilization
for men and women
deemed “mentally defective.”
This label was typically applied based
on superficial mental health diagnoses
and the results of IQ tests,
which were linguistically and culturally
biased against most immigrant populations.
These racist standards were particularly
problematic in California.
From 1920 to 1945, Latina women were
59% more likely to be sterilized
than other women.
And the rate of sterilizations
in California was incredibly high—
this single state performed over one third
of the country’s sterilization operations.
Such was the case of Andrea Garcia,
whose story reflects thousands
of individuals with similar fates.
With the help of famed civil rights lawyer
David Marcus,
Andrea’s mother argued
that California’s sterilization law
violated the US Constitution,
depriving Andrea of her rights
to equal protection under the law.
However, while one of the three judges
overseeing the case voted to spare Andrea,
the other two did not.
Records suggests it’s possible
Andrea escaped the impending surgery,
but many more victims
of these policies did not.
Although eugenics acquired negative
connotations
after the horrors of World War II,
many of its practices, including
sterilization, continued for decades.
By the late 1960s, research
into human genetics was more nuanced,
and bioethics had begun
to blunt eugenics’ influence.
Yet Sweden and the US continued
to pursue involuntary sterilization
well into the 70s.
Finally, class action lawsuits and protest
marches in the US galvanized lawmakers,
and California’s sterilization laws
were finally repealed in 1979.
Unfortunately today,
the legal and illegal sterilization
of many oppressed communities
still continues around the globe.
