Page 13 - My FlipBook

country, and some time, not, perhaps, far distant, that power will be
applied to control the composition of a nation.”
Bateson spoke out against an academic movement led by Charles
Darwin’s cousin, Francis Galton (1822–1911), who had studied science,
medicine, and math, and had an interest in human heredity. Galton focused
on eugenics (meaning “well-born”), an idea that society can be improved
through controlled breeding. People with desirable traits would be
encouraged to reproduce and pass on characteristics such as intelligence.
People like Galton who endorsed eugenics had the mistaken idea that
mental illness or intelligence traits, for example, are predictably defined
by genes—as in Mendel’s pea experiments. What they did not understand
was that most human traits are a result of an unpredictable combination
of genetics, lifestyle, and environment, and they cannot be bred out of
the population.
Despite Galton’s ideas being ill informed and discredited by much
of the contemporary scientific community, they have had an enormous
impact on millions of people. Throughout the twentieth century,
eugenicists used his ideas to justify discrimination against people
with disabilities, racial minorities, and anyone else who didn’t fit into
their “ideal” society. Their work in the United States was supported by
prominent and powerful figures, such as the Rockefeller family and leaders
at the Carnegie Institution. One of the founders of the Eugenics Record
Office, educator Harry H. Laughlin, testified before Congress advocating
forced sterilization and anti-immigration laws to control the racial
profile of America. Following eugenicist principles, Congress passed the
Immigration Act of 1924, which limited the number of eastern Europeans,
Jews, and Arabs, and barred Asians from entering the country. Thirty-three
US states, including California, Virginia, North Carolina, and Mississippi,
have used forced sterilization to control minority populations. Native
Americans, Asian Americans, African Americans, and Mexican Americans

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