The Young Conservatives Trying to Make Eugenics Respectable Again
www.theatlantic.com
The pseudoscience of race provides both a justification of hierarchies and an enemy to rail against.

Unpaywalled Version: https://archive.ph/n9NWZ

With increasing dogmatism on the far right, ideology that should have become extinct rears its ugly head. If we don’t stop this, a lot of innocent people will get hurt in the end.

  • a_queer_one@lemmy.world
    11·
    1 year ago

    I don’t think many people aware of the history of Planned Parenthood would argue Margaret Sanger didn’t advocate eugenics, including Planned Parenthood

    https://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/who-we-are/our-history

    “Margaret Sanger’s racism and belief in eugenics are in direct opposition to Planned Parenthood’s mission. Planned Parenthood denounces Margaret Sanger’s belief in eugenics. Further, Planned Parenthood denounces the history and legacy of anti-Blackness in gynecology and the reproductive rights movement, and the mistreatment that continues against Black, Indigenous, and other people of color in this country.”

    Turns out that an organization can engage in self reflection and change beliefs over a century

    • FabioTheNewOrder@lemmy.world
      5·
      1 year ago

      Don’t you dare say something like that, don’t you know that once you espouse a certain way of life it’s impossible to change yourself or your world view?

      That’s how republicans work, so everything in the world must work this way as well!!

      /s

    • jimbolauski@lemmy.world
      1·
      1 year ago

      PP denied and justified Sanger’s ideas up until 3 years ago before that she was just allaying with the eugenics movement to further her goals.

      Convincing undesirables that they shouldn’t have children sure seems to align with PP’s values. It seems PP just broadened their views to the “poors” and not just raced based.

        • jimbolauski@lemmy.world
          1·
          1 year ago

          PP finally removed Sanger’s name from Manhattan Health Center in 2020.

          https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/22/us/margaret-sanger-planned-parenthood-trnd/index.html

          “The removal of Margaret Sanger’s name from our building is both a necessary and overdue step to reckon with our legacy and acknowledge Planned Parenthood’s contributions to historical reproductive harm within communities of color,” said Karen Seltzer, the chair of PPGNY’s board. “Margaret Sanger’s concerns and advocacy for reproductive health have been clearly documented, but so too has her racist legacy.”

          • PizzaMan@lemmy.world
            4·
            1 year ago

            That’s doesn’t exactly support your claim, or at least not very well. That article is light on the details, but from the sound of it, Sanger’s name was on a plaque of some sort, and her name isn’t exactly super well known, nor is her racist history, so it’s sounds like it was more or less forgotten. Second, a plaque within a single building doesn’t automatically reflect the values of an entire organization.

            There are still confederate statues around, does that reflect the values of all american cities? No, of course not.

            There are Carnegie libraries all over my city. Do those libraries hold the values that Carnegie did? Not really.

            It just doesn’t make sense to label an entire organization as racist, let alone jump to the claim that “eugenics is still very popular” based off of one plaque on one building of one organization.

                  • PizzaMan@lemmy.world
                    2·
                    1 year ago

                    Ok, that still doesn’t address the root of my argument, so I will ask it in a different way.

                    Can you prove that planned parenthood was explicitly embracing Sanger for her eugenics beliefs, instead of her beliefs about the importance of reproductive rights?

                    For example, people in this country openly embrace George Washington. Yet he was a slaver. He had slaves. But the people who see George Washington as a source of good for our country typically don’t include the slavery part as the good part.

                    Would you consider organizations that honor George Washington to be racist?