When it comes to discussing eugenics, most have heard of the horrific T4 euthanasia program implemented in Nazi Germany which resulted in nearly 200,000 deaths. Certainly, such a sobering event must be remembered. Yet to focus solely on this instance of eugenics is perhaps to forget that the movement arose in other nations and at other times throughout history.
The eugenics movement met with popularity in North America at the turn of the 20th century. The movement had elements of both positive and negative eugenics - both an emphasis on procreation by what were considered to be superior human specimens contrasted with enforced sterilization and even euthanasia of those seen as inferior. Yet one of the complex issues surrounding the North American eugenics movement was the concept of race suicide.
Race suicide is defined by Dictionary.com as "The extinction of a race or people that tends to result when, through the unwillingness or forbearance of its members to have children, the birthrate falls below the death rate." The origin of the term is listed as "1900-05, Americanism."
One of the original proponents of this concept was Theodore Roosevelt. He discussed the fear of white American infertility and stated that to use birth control or fail to keep up with the birth rate of ethnic minorities was to risk suicide. The pressure was thus placed on Anglo-Saxon women to continue to procreate, and the use of birth control was constructed as contrary to nationalism. (Image found here.)
The ideology of race suicide spread, likely in part due to its ability to support various political and religious agendas. In Quebec, French-Canadian nationalists echoed the rhetoric of Anglo-Saxons, proclaiming that the use of birth control was race suicide. Interestingly, however, socialist groups supported birth control, feeling that the capitalist system encouraged large families in order to create a large, cheap labour force. These views continued into the era of the Great Depression, despite the fact that having many children was frequently not economically viable.
Comfortable as it may be to believe that ideas of eugenics are gone from our present society, Google provides an interesting timeline of search results relating to race suicide. While these results are not all perfectly relevant, the graph provides an interesting depiction of the fact that race suicide has never disappeared from newspapers and journals within the past century. Though most prevalent in the early 1900s, mention of the concept persists. It is impossible to say how relevant these concepts are within the popular societal mindset, yet it is important to be aware of the past's influence upon our present.
Sincerely, Abigail Quinnley
Sincerely, Abigail Quinnley