There has been an idea floating around for a memorial to the victims of eugenics.  The Jukes, the Kallikaks, the Bucks and the famous Ben Ishmael clan.  These people were victims of a pogrom instigated by America's elites and their attempt to rationalize brutality in the name of [insert your favorite justification: Christian decency, evolutionary fitness, moral fiber, white race, progress, American democracy, or scientific enlightenment.  You may choose others if you wish.  Multiple choices OK, even if contradictory or hypocritical]  The point is that they were victims are arbitrary power, one legitimated by the Supreme Court in Buck v Bell.  Eugenics was taught as doctrine in Universities.

Indeed, Eugenics was the law of the land in many States, with compulsory sterilization and institutionalization.  A memorial to great human beings who were "cleansed" from the gene pool is in order.  This memorial was put forth by anarchists, but those who do not necessarily call themselves "anarchists" can be for it.

I call for this memorial, and hope that you will add your voice to this thread calling for it also.  It is also time for the Occupy Movement to "occupy" the JRC and other places that still hold to either eugenics or some philosophy closely allied to it.  Again, one need not be "leftwing" or any label to agree on this point.  I call upon people across the political spectrum to at least agree on this one, and on a memorial to victims of eugenics.  Please respond.

"The point is that they were victims are arbitrary power, one legitimated by the Supreme Court in Buck v Bell." should have read "victims of arbitrary power."  

Also, please note that the Eugenics Society is allegedly now called "Society for the Study of Social Biology."  If true, and I do not know for sure, then an Occupy protest would certainly be in order!

My hope is that people endorse the idea of a memorial to the victims of eugenics by posting on this thread.  A memorial does not seem like much, but it sets a cultural tone.

Um..... who, what, when, where, how, and why are you doing this? What victims of Eugenics?

So, you are suggesting that anyone who is victimized by eugenics needs a memorial? Any specific victims?

I am referring to the victims of the eugenics laws that were once the law of the land in most states in the American Union.  European countries had similar laws.  They were sterilized without their consent.  In many cases, their family lines died out.  This was an act of genocide against Autistics and others.  Some of these laws were not repealed until the 1980's.

I believe that a memorial to them would recognize a national willingness to move on from that kind of thinking.  It seems like little, but it sets a cultural tone of what we will accept and what we will not accept.

Specific victims would be many thousands of people.  The Bucks, the Jukes, the Kallikaks, and the Ben Ishmael clan come to mind.  There were others.

American Deaf culture was also driven underground by eugenics.  Alexander Graham Bell played a huge part in destroying the respectability of deafness (little d).  He is remembered by some as an evil man.  Mental retardation, insanity, and even acquired disability suffered attacks with even less memorial.  There are people still alive today who have been harmed by eugenics.  Race-mixing was outlawed in some states even into the eighties.  People were forcibly sterilized because of those laws too.  

One of the problems with the human cloning ban is that many of these people want or wanted children.  Their reproductive systems are irreparable.  Cloning could have helped.  

You would need a multi-partite memorial or else people would lose the full picture of the memorial.  Eugenics is not just scientific racism, social darwinism, or anti-disability, it's all three.

"Eugenics is not just scientific racism, social darwinism, or anti-disability, it's all three."

No disagreements.  Those who are calling for the memorial recognize this fact.  Oddly, those who were often sterilized did not fit neat racial categories.  The Ben Ishmael might have been White, Black and Native American all at once.  This threatened the eugenicists more than anything.  But, even other victims were White period.  The issue is one of class and power as much as anything.

What do you think it was about before race played part?
For the longest, people have been divided and discriminated against on the basis of social class, and distribution of power. This, like all things, is an issue of the social construction of the 'weakest' vs. 'strongest'.

It's always been about social class. Race just happens to be a convenient justification, because there's a visible difference. It keeps scared, gullible people from realizing what it's really about and rising up against their oppressors.

Racism and ableism tend to drive people into lower classes, but they are separate hierarchies with noticeable effects in every economic class.

Pyramid anyone?

Pretty much.

I agree with you, Nasa Shill... I'd be the first one to occupy, and I'm thinking of protesting in front of the "readaptation center" and perhaps occupying it, with people I will hopefully meet there who will hopefully have the same opinions about eugenics as I do. Anyone else is welcome to come support the cause too tho! The readaptation center (which is for autistics and the learning disabled) explained that sometimes Autism Speaks had some good ideas and that's why they liked them on Facebook, but what about all the bad ideas?