Summary Of The American Eugenics Movement

Episode I

The American Eugenics Movement was led by Charles Davenport and was a social agenda to breed out undesirable traits with an aim of racial purification. Eugenics was a used to breed out the worst and weakest to improve the genetic composition of the human race, and advocated for selective breeding to achieve this. The science of eugenics rested on simple mendelian genetics, which was a mistake because they were assuming complex behaviors could be reduced to simple mendelian genes. After Nazi Germany adopted the ideas behind the American eugenics movement to promote the Aryan race, the eugenics movement was completely discredited.

Hoffman’s extinction thesis was the idea that “black’s” were inherently weak and doomed to extinction.

Hoffman’s racial theory was challenged and had to be modified when Jesse Owens won four gold medals in the 1936 Olympics. Scientists reconciled Jesse Owens winning four gold medals by conceding innate athletic superiority to African Americans while denying them so called civilized capacities. Scientists basically had to modify Hoffman’s racist theory of how blacks were doomed to extinction, because “blacks” were excelling in sports. To justify the success of “blacks” in sports scientists at the time presented another racist theory that “a negro athletic excelled because he was closer to the primitive” (Pounder, 2003).
Biological scientists now feel that our current racial categories and classifications are inherently flawed. Scientists for quite some time have been saying that race, as biology, doesn’t exist. Scientists believe race is fluid and there is no way to universally measure race. For example, the episode explains how there is no universal way to measure race, some may do it by skin color or hair texture but it is inconsistent, what is considered black in brazil is not what is black in the U.S., etc. What is considered white now in present day is different than what was considered white in the past. As you can see scientists believe there is no way to truly measure race because it is inconsistent and varies depending on geographical location. There is no stability or consistency when measuring race which are crucial for science, making it inherently flawed.
Episode II
Thomas Jefferson and Louis Agassiz played an important role in the creating of scientific race.

Thomas Jefferson is the first person to truly articulate a theory on race in the united states. Jefferson believed in democracy and freedom but had to justify slavery of non-white individuals. He did this by posing the notion that there is something inherently different about whites and non-whites that make blacks inferior to whites. Thomas Jefferson played an important role in the creating of scientific race by trying to figure out what it is scientifically that makes “blacks inferior to whites”. This sets scientists up on the path of creating scientific race because if that’s the question posed by scientists, then that is what will be answered. Louis Agassiz played an important role in the creation of scientific race by being influenced by American racism and transforming his long held belief in the unity of mankind. He co-authored a book called Types of Mankind, which is a compilation of research that justified the argument that African-American, Native-Americans, Asians, etc. were different species. Both Thomas Jefferson and Louis Agassiz laid the foundation and promoted the idea that race is biological, and there are inherent differences which played an important role in creating scientific

race.
Episode two was very interesting and shed light on the history and beginning of racism in the United States.

I think the most interesting detail within this episode was that during the United States expansion period, politicians and popular belief used “science” to justify their heinous actions towards other non-Caucasian people. They justified enslaving “blacks”, destroying Indians, as not selfish acts but used the inevitability of science and how Caucasians are superior to justify their actions. I just find this surprising that people were so manipulated by science to believe that their actions were justified, even though they were promoting enslavement and killing of other individuals. I think racial science of the past wasn’t used as a tool for discovery but to justify racial disparity and the actions of Caucasians. Racial science in the past was used to fit the narrative of Caucasians and their so called “superiority” over other races.

One concept from chapter eight I find to be very relevant to this episode are the theories of race and ethnicity, specifically the conflict theory. The conflict theory is the belief that majority groups use racism and ethnocentrism to protect their interests (Ferris, 2016). This episode touched a lot upon the history of racism and racial construction within the united states. Caucasians justified their actions and protected their interests by constructing racial superiority and scientific beliefs that were racist, which is an example of

the conflict theory in action.
Episode III
Ozawa was Japanese but wanted to become an American citizen, thus brought the Ozawa case. Ozawa argued that his skin was as white or even whiter than any Caucasians and that race shouldn’t matter for citizenship what should matter is a person’s beliefs. The supreme court ruled that Ozawa could not be a citizen because he was not Caucasian which made him not white but of the Mongolian race which made him illegible for citizenship. Three months after Ozawa was the Thind case. Thind was a south American immigrant and U.S. army veteran who petitioned for citizenship. Thind made the scientific argument that Indians were of the Aryan or Caucasian race and thus were white. He even gets scientific authority to speak on his behalf that south Asians are included in the Caucasian race. The court was presented with scientific evidence but stated that white cannot be scientifically determined but subjective and concluded he was not white and therefor illegible for citizenship.
The federal government nationalized and introduced redlining in the suburbs. Redlining is the refusal to loan or insure someone because they live in an area deemed to be a poor financial risk. At the time FHA in the new suburbs warned that the presence of any non-white families would undermine real-estate values. Race played an important role in real estate practices and determining real estate value. In the 1930’s government officials institutionalized a national appraisal system. This national appraisal system determined that race played a crucial factor in real estate assessment as much as the condition of the house.