Eugenicists Claimed that Through Inheritance and Genetics (Essay Sample)

Eugenicists Claimed that Through Inheritance and Genetics

In the late 19th and early20th centuries, the erroneous and scientifically inaccurate science of eugenics rose to prominence in the European and U.S. scientific community. Universities and colleges were even teaching eugenics as a scientific fact. Eugenics is the unethical notion of racial improvement and controlled breeding. Eugenicists claimed that through inheritance and genetics, it is possible to create a perfect human being and eliminate any societal problems associated with people. They believed that tactics such as enforceable sterilization, segregation, and social exclusion would eliminate ‘defective’ persons in society. Prominent figures like Madison Grant and Francis Galton spearheaded this ideology that spread like wildfire among white intellectuals at the time, propagating racism and violence towards minorities. Madison Grant’s “The Passing of the Great Race” and Francis Galton’s “Eugenics” demonstrate that eugenics is a dangerous racist ideology that has terrible consequences on society, including racial inequality, violence, imperialism, and even genocide.
Grant’s perspective of existing history and anthropology focuses primarily on “race” and gene inheritance instead of the environment as factors determining intelligence and social well-being. According to Grant, the” continuity of inheritance has a most important bearing on the theory of democracy…for it naturally tends to reduce the relative importance of environment” (1). Grant believes the superior White or Nordic race is responsible for most significant human accomplishments and advances. In the introduction, Grant explains the human condition regarding race or hereditary and immutable physical and mental qualities. In addition, he attacks egalitarianism and democratic principles around equality in the United States, which he believes interfere with natural selection by enabling lesser races to spread at the cost of superior ones. According to Grant, democratic principles incorrectly presume that external influences, such as education, rather than inheritance, influence human growth and accomplishment. Therefore, Grant argues that democracies governed by regular citizens are less effective than aristocracies governed by those of noble rank. Grant presents his now-disproven assertions that race is biologically rooted in the chapter “The Physical Basis of Race.” Grant argues that individuals from Europe, Asia, and Africa comprise unique human species, while various races within Europe represent subspecies or cultures with differing traits.
Grant believes that a significant increase in the fertility rate of superior races is unlikely to be successful owing to the difficulties of confining the right to procreate to those with superior genetics in a democracy. Grant highlights that “the lowering of the birth rate among the most valuable classes, while the birth rate of the lower classes remains unaffected, is a frequent phenomenon of prosperity” (3). Consequently, he advocates for sterilization procedures for those with inferior genes that are much more suitable for protecting the White race in the United States. Also, he calls for preserving the Nordic race by restricting immigration and prohibiting interracial marriage. Grant claims that new immigrants to the United States are not the powerful Nordics who ruled in previous ages but rather social rejects and weak refugees escaping persecution.
Grant is also vehemently opposed to the possibility of African-Americans attaining a semblance of equality, arguing that blacks are only valued as long as they remain subordinate to Whites. He highlights that “wearing good clothes and going to school and church do not transform a Negro into a white man” (3). Grant asserts that when a person of a presumably superior racial makeup procreates with a member of a supposedly lower race, the offspring is indisputable of the inferior race. Grant’s work includes suggestions to build civic organizations via the public health system to construct quasi-dictatorships in their respective areas with the administrative authority to separate unattractive races. In addition, he explains that the growth of non-White racial types under the White system of liberty will enslave them to their passions, appetites, and essential habits. According to Grant, “in the city of New York and elsewhere in the United States, there is a native American aristocracy resting upon layer after layer of immigrants of lower races and these native Americans.” (2). In turn, this degradation of society would result in the subjugation of the Nordic community by ‘weak’ races, who would want to be ruled and schooled by ‘superior’ ones using dictatorial powers. The upshot would be the submersion of native White races beneath a corrupt and weakened system ruled by inferior races.