It is a well known fact that the United States has a long, sordid history of supporting treachery against people considered "minorities." As the Information Age gives us greater access to those things that were previously relegated to dark corners and hidden archives, it is enough to rival the bloodiest horror flick or the most frightening dystopian novel. For example, did you know that the US government sanctioned the forced sterilization of Native American women in this country? It came to light in the 1970s. There are documented cases of more than 3,000 women across various tribes who had their insides ripped out by physicians who decided that they were too subhuman to make choices about their own reproductive health. But, according to Trinity International University's Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity, statistics showed a sharp decline in Native American birth rates that went back as far as the 1960s. It is likely that the cases that are known are just the tip of the iceberg. The irony is that both the Europeans who came to this land, and their subsequent ancestors, called the Native Americans "savages." The roots of savagery lie in the belief that skin color and birthplace equal genetic superiority. Their willingness to rape, maim, purposely spread deadly disease, murder women and children, etc., so they could steal what didn't belong to them clearly demonstrate that THEY were the monsters.
It would be both immoral and INHUMAN to forget what they were forced to endure. How many native peoples were hunted to near extinction and then cordoned off into reservations, which for all intents and purposes, is a fancy word for "human zoo." How many lives and generations were stolen? Many of the women who had their uteri ripped out without their knowledge were teenage girls or young women of childbearing age. Many of them are STILL alive, and they have no children or grandchildren who share their blood. They have had to wake up every day knowing that the God-given ability that most women take for granted was stolen from them by doctors whom they were told had come to HELP them. They were doubly violated because this practice was green-lighted by a government that had already taken everything else their people physically owned. It wasn't enough to take their homes, their lands, and their way of life? The BABIES had to be taken, too???
Black and Latino women were also victimized in the 20th Century by the practice of government-sanctioned sterilization. According to Psychology Today, North Carolina sterilized nearly 8,000 people between 1929 and 1974 for multiple reasons, including findings by authorities that they were lazy, promiscuous, or poor. State records show that North Carolina's sterilization program targeted welfare recipients. During the last 15 years of its existence, 99 percent of the victims were women, and more than 60 percent were Black. A 2013 Huffington Post article stated that between 1909 and 1979, California sterilized at least 20,000 people. Latinos were disproportionately targeted. California's cases alone account for roughly 30% of all known eugenic sterilizations in the US during the 20th Century.
We have to remember how people have suffered in and FOR this country. We have to remember what it looks like when we lose sight of our humanity so we can clearly identify injustice as soon as it rears its ugly head. In the words of George Santayana, those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
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