On a Monday in November 1905, a “little deaf and dumb … 10-year old Eurasian girl” called Mooktie Wood arrived […]
![Illustration shows Uncle Sam as the "Pied Piper" playing a pipe labeled "Lax Immigration Laws" and leading a horde of rats labeled "Jail Bird, Murderer, Thief, Criminal, Crook, Kidnapper, Incendiary, Assassin, Convict, Bandit, Fire Brand, White Slaver, [and] Degenerate", and some carry signs that read "Black Hand" showing a black handprint. In the background, rulers from "France, Russia, Germany, Italy, Hungary/Austria, Turkey, [and] Greece", along with citizens of these countries, are cheering the fleeing rats.](https://i0.wp.com/nursingclio.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/anti-immigration-1909-political-cartoon_loc.jpg?fit=640%2C378&ssl=1)
Mothers’ Natures: Sex, Love, and Degeneration in the Nineteenth-Century United States
Every so often, some viral article or other will declare that science “proves” or “confirms” that intelligence is inherited from […]
The Black Politics of Eugenics
Eugenics is still a dirty word. It makes us think about science gone horribly wrong. It reminds us of the […]
Whose Sperm Counts?
by Lara Freidenfelds
Recently, a Canadian fertility clinic made the news because it refused to allow a white client to be impregnated with sperm from a donor of color. The clinic director told the media, “I’m not sure that we should be creating rainbow families just because some single woman decides that that’s what she wants.”
When I first read this, I felt offended. Personally. My husband and I are different races, and our kids are bi-racial. I guess I had never proclaimed us a “rainbow family,” but ok. The clinic’s decision to avoid creating bi-racial children seemed like a judgment on my family. Like, my family’s not terrible or anything, but as a society we wouldn’t want to go making extra families like mine if we can stick to normal, uni-racial families. Am I a bad mother because I ignored race when I chose my spouse? Would it have been more responsible of me to have my kids with a white father?
