Anyone who understands how animals are selected for mating/breeding, will understand the thinking behind eugenics. In breeding animals or even crops, as Gregor Mendel showed in his genetics research (Mendelian genetics), the best male is selected to mate with the best female to get the best offspring (young ones). Mendel showed that when males and females meet, their genes (bloodlines) are mixed and transferred to their offspring/young ones.
During this mixing, the offspring inherits the genetic traits (character) of either parent. Some characteristics are inherited while others are not. He called these “recessive” and “dominant” traits. Therefore, by selecting the parents carefully, the best breeds/offspring can be obtained & certain “bad” characters can be removed from the animals or crops. Mendel’s findings were published between 1856 & 1866 (take note of the year).
Darwin’s book, titled “on the origin of the species,” was published in 1859. His cousin, Sir Francis Galton, used Darwin’s ideas to coin and popularize eugenics in 1883. Thus, between the 1850s-1940s, supporters of eugenics combined Darwin’s idea with Mendel’s genetics and eugenics spread like wildfire across Europe and America. It became an established policy and law in many countries, until after World War II.
You see, eugenics makes a lot of sense when applied to plants and animals. Indeed, selecting the best animals and crops for mating has been practiced for centuries. It makes practical sense when choosing a life partner because people do not want to have sickle-celled kids. Traditionally, physical characteristics have been used to select partners. Yes, it makes sense until it threatens your very existence and freedom to procreate.
When it marks you for death and forced sterilization (destroying your ability to give birth) because you have certain undesirable traits (or genes), then you will know the evils of eugenics.
I will now delve into the specifics and detailed history of eugenics until its decline in the 1970s. The history of mass killings of Native Indians in North and South America, which began well before eugenics was introduced, will be dealt with separately in another article within this series.
A century of racial oppression: the Jim Crow Laws & era (1877-1960s
After the American civil war (1861-65), African American slaves were freed and given the same status as all humans in the US constitution. However, this did not sit well with many white men. During the antebellum period (before the civil war), many churches and theologians taught that blacks were cursed to be servants while whites were chosen by God (this also happened in Australia and South Africa).
Based on this teaching, slavery and separation of whites and blacks were enforced. It was taught, that God supported slavery. Remember, the Jews also saw themselves as the chosen of God and looked down on all “gentiles” (non-Jews and Samaritans), until they were also looked down on as sub-human by German Nazis: karma in verity!
Shortly after the civil war, Abraham Lincoln was shot dead, and the vice president, Andrew Johnson, became the next president. He called himself, president of white people and not black people. He reversed what Abraham Lincoln fought and died for. Then began almost a century of oppression and suppression: the Jim Crow and Ku Klux Klan (KKK) era. An era that sought to denigrate, reduce, and oppress the black population of the United States.
The human heart is wicked beyond all imagination. Welcome to the den of evil; using the “Bible” as a support. The details of the Jim Crow and KKK era, are described in the next article.
