A performance-art show with half- naked black people thats touring Europe has drawn protests during its visit to Berlin.

White stage director Brett Baileys Exhibit B features museum-style installations of living models in static poses designed to highlight the troubled history of European colonialism in Africa.

Black activists demonstrated at the Kleiner Wasserspeicher, which is showing the work as part of the Foreign Affairs Festival, after acclaimed stagings in Brussels and Grahamstown, South Africa.

This is the wrong way to discuss a violent colonial history, said Sandrine Micosse-Aikins, a member of Buehnenwatch, the organization which instigated the protest.

In one piece, a black woman sits above a cooking pot, holding a skull and a shard of glass. A plaque describes how Namibian women in concentration camps had to boil and scrape clean the skulls of their menfolk so that they could be sent to Germany for scientific examination in the early 20th century.

In another display, photographs of severed black heads stuffed and skewered on metal prongs recall the work of Eugen Fischer (1874-1967), the German professor of anthropology and eugenics whose theories of racial hygiene guided the Nazis.

Below them, the heads of four living Namibian singers seem to float above plinths. They sing beautiful Herero songs about genocide, in counterpoint to the grisly displays.

Contemporary asylum seekers are on show alongside a supine representation of Angelo Soliman, an 18th-century Nigerian philosopher and confidant of Maria Theresa and Emperor Joseph I. Upon his death in 1796, Solimans body was stuffed and displayed in a glass case alongside wild animals.

An earlier version of the show, Exhibit A, opened at Viennas Festwochen in 2010 and went on to Braunschweig, Germany, and Helsinki.

On Oct. 2, a post-performance public debate took place in Berlin below the photographs of Fischers severed heads.

Continue reading here:

Black ‘Human Zoo’ Fury Greets Berlin Art Show

J.M. Giordano

Kevin slaughters literary interests include illustrated pornography, satanic texts, nietzsche. and eugenics.

A few years Ago, when the peep booths over at Sweden Books on the Block switched to DVD, Kevin I. Slaughter happened upon 3,000 Super 8 porn movies. It took him three trips to get them all home, where the boxes and boxes of antique smut and all of the projectors fill up the attic in the house he shares with his wife.

We had to have that awkward talk about masturbation, eroticism, objectification, Slaughter says. I tried to frame it in evolutionary biological termsthe different ways men and women work. And being the egotistical individualist that I tend to be, its like, this is who I am. The biggest tension now is that the attic is full of it. It is more an issue about hoarding than porn.

Slaughter is not just a porn freak. For him, its also about the cultural value of these objects. He wants to digitize the films and preserve them. He says that the blues have faded out of the film, meaning these blue movies are beginning to appear largely red. I might have the only image of some film, you know, that exists anywhere, he says. The Kinsey Institute does some preserving of old porn, but not too much, and so I cant just get rid of it.

This preservationist attitude is also behind Slaughters publishing venture, Underworld Amusements. Using print-on-demand technology, he can bring out public domain books that may only sell a dozen copies. As a result, he can afford to publish only those works which allow him to say what he wants to say. When people ask him why he doesnt write, Slaughter replies: When I stop finding other writers who have said what I want to say a hundred times better, then I will start writing.

Underworld Amusements catalog includes new editions of old, illustrated pornographic texts called dirty readers; H.L Menckens translation of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsches The Anti-Christ; and a Satanic anthology in Spanish, to be released around December. Slaughter tends toward what he calls the fringes and neglected and intentionally pushed away. Of course, ideas like this dont pay the rent and, in addition to publishing, Slaughter does freelance graphic design and works at a gun shop on weekends.

With an antiquated, copper-colored mustache, a tall brow made taller by the grease in his hair, and retro clothes, Slaughter looks like he could have stepped out of a Coen brothers film. The walls of his living room are lined with his vast collection of booksan entire shelf of adult paperbacks, old educational manuals, Spengler, Nietzsche, Mencken, and he can quote from almost any of them in regard to any number of his obsessions, which include, in addition to porn, radical individualism, free-thinking, and eugenics (which he insists is not racist and has more scientific validity than cultural anthropology).

This may seem like a strange and somewhat unsavory combination of interests now, but porn and high-minded ideas have gone hand in handor something in somethingfor centuries. Works like James Joyces Ulysses and Henry Millers Tropic of Cancer were considered porn and were distributed by houses that dealt in smut. As Underworld Amusements web site puts it, it produces and disseminates objects celebrating [sic] both human accomplishment [and] human degeneracy.

Slaughters print-on-demand venture is the natural outgrowth of the zine culture he grew up around in Winston-Salem, N.C., in the 1980s. He started his first zine in middle school, and in his freshman year of high school, he published The Modern Anarchist, which printed the names and addresses of his teachers. Though he got into some trouble, Slaughter says that to some people it seemed the teachers behaved a little better for the rest of the year.

See the rest here:

Porn Again

From an editorial in the Winston-Salem Journal on Monday:

Gov. Bev Perdue enjoys nationwide media access, including spots on CNN and the Rev. Al Sharptons Politics Nation show on MSNBC. So were at a loss as to why, with her days in office quickly drawing to a close, the Democrat hasnt used that access for the sterilization victims she said shed help as she ran for office four years ago.

I think she should try to help us, said Charles Holt of Kernersville, a retired municipal worker who was sterilized when he was 18, in the late 1960s.

CNN has already followed up on the Journals coverage and that of other N.C. newspapers, as has NBCs Rock Center and The New York Times. Perdue would probably have no trouble getting Sharpton to help her put nationwide pressure on Phil Berger, the Republican leader of the state Senate, to compensate the victims before this year ends. Theres also been pressure from the right, including from the John Locke Foundation and Bergers Republican counterpart in the state House, Speaker Thom Tillis.

In June, Tillis led his chamber to a history-making vote. The vote was the first of its kind, overwhelmingly in favor of giving $50,000 to each of the states living sterilization victims. There may be as many as 1,500 of them. Berger, however, never brought the matter to a vote in the Senate.

But the fight is not over. Many N.C. newspapers, including The Charlotte Observer, The News & Observer of Raleigh, the News & Record of Greensboro and The High Point Enterprise, have joined us in the call for compensation. We have repeatedly urged Perdue to call on nonprofit foundations and hospitals to start a campaign to challenge the legislature with matching grants for compensation. Perdue could then call a special session of the legislature and demand it finally approve compensation. Perdue, Berger and Tillis could take credit for the best kind of win, one to finally help vulnerable and victimized citizens.

They have waited far too long. The Journals 2002 investigative series Against Their Will started a long road to justice. The victims were sterilized by a program with a warped aim of bettering society and reducing the welfare rolls based on the junk science of eugenics, one that focused on the poor and powerless, often bullying them into operations because they were deemed not smart enough or physically sound enough to reproduce. The victims have heard almost 10 years of false promises. They are hurting and dying. Help cant come soon enough.

Read this article:

Time short for Perdue

By: Journal Editorial Board | Winston-Salem Journal Published: October 01, 2012 Updated: October 01, 2012 - 12:00 AM

Gov. Bev Perdue enjoys nationwide media access, including spots on CNN and the Rev. Al Sharptons Politics Nation show on MSNBC. So were at a loss as to why, with her days in office quickly drawing to a close, the Democrat hasnt used that access for the sterilization victims she said shed help as she ran for office four years ago.

I think she should try to help us, Charles Holt of Kernersville, a retired municipal worker who was sterilized when he was 18, in the late 1960s, told our editorial board Thursday.

Holt and other victims often ask us if the governor will make one last push for them.

CNNs Anderson Cooper has already followed up on the Journals coverage and that of other North Carolina newspapers on this topic, as has NBCs Rock Center and The New York Times. Perdue would probably have no trouble getting Sharpton to help her put nationwide pressure on Phil Berger, the Republican leader of the state Senate, to compensate the victims before this year ends. Sharpton would bring pressure from the left, but theres also been pressure from the right for compensation, including from the John Locke Foundation and Bergers Republican counterpart in the state House, Speaker Thom Tillis.

In June, Tillis, following up on groundwork laid by Democratic Rep. Larry Womble of Winston-Salem, led his chamber to a history-making vote. The vote was the first of its kind in the nation, one overwhelmingly in favor of giving $50,000 to each of the states living sterilization victims. There may be as many as 1,500 of them. Berger, however, never brought the matter to a vote in the Senate.

But the fight is not over. Many North Carolina newspapers, including The Charlotte Observer, The News & Observer of Raleigh, the News & Record of Greensboro and The High Point Enterprise, have joined us in the call for compensation. On this page, we have repeatedly urged Perdue to call on nonprofit foundations and hospitals to start a campaign to challenge the legislature with matching grants for compensation. Perdue could then call a special session of the legislature and demand it finally approve compensation. Perdue, Berger and Tillis could take credit for the best kind of win, one to finally help some of our most vulnerable and victimized citizens.

They have have waited far too long. The Journals 2002 investigative series Against Their Will, initiated by Kevin Begos, started a long road to justice. The victims were sterilized by a program with a warped aim of bettering society and reducing the welfare rolls based on the junk science of eugenics, one that focused on the poor and powerless, often bullying them into operations because they were deemed not smart enough or physically sound enough to reproduce. The victims have heard almost 10 years of false promises. They are hurting and dying. Help cant come soon enough.

Gov. Perdue, come through.

Follow this link:

Editorial: Perdue should use her nationwide media access to push for sterilization compensation

Genetic counsellors guide people and families through the complicated nature of a genetic conditions such as cystic fibrosis, cancer and mental illness. The Star spoke with Riyana Babul-Hirji, a genetic counsellor at Sick Kids Hospital, about the job.

Q: Whatdoes a genetic counsellor do?

A: Once a diagnosis is made, genetic counsellors help the family understand the genetic basis of that condition. Often one of the underlying feelings with parents is guilt, feeling like its something that they did that caused this in their child. So some of what we do is explain that its not something theyve done, its something that was inherited and we cant control it.

Another part of what we do is to keep families updated in terms of research. And if they are thinking about another pregnancy, what their options are and risks are. We also address any psychosocial effects as well as being advocates for them for resources and other things they may need. And we look at the implications for family members and how they go about communicating this with those family members.

Q: What kind of training do you need?

A: All genetic counsellors have a masters of science in medical genetics and genetic counselling. We work collaboratively with clinical geneticists as well as a multidisciplinary team.

Q: Whats the most common myth about genetic counselling?

A: I teach a first year course in genetic counselling (at U of T) and I ask the students on the first day of class, when they told people they were thinking of becoming a genetic counsellor, what was the reaction?

The response is often that they dont quite understand what a genetic counsellor does, and the first thing they think of is eugenics. That were here helping parents to have that designer baby. Its not that all. Its helping families adjust to the genetic condition that they may be at risk for and help them make choices that are right for them.

Q: How do you break bad news to people?

Read more:

A genetic counsellor share’s the job’s highs and lows

John Railey, the editorial page editor for the Winston-Salem Journal, won second place in the Carmage Walls Commentary Prize competition of the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association for his columns on North Carolina's eugenics program.

"John Railey is nothing if not persistent," the judges wrote. "He has been writing about forced sterilization in North Carolina for a decade. His investigations brought to light the terrible wrongs committed in the past, and his ongoing writing keeps the matter in the public eye while lawmakers talk big but do little to compensate victims of the state's abuse."

Railey was among a team of journalists whose 2002 series "Against Their Will" led to an official state apology to victims and a legislative effort to compensate them. He began writing editorials in 2004 and became the Journal's editorial page editor in 2010.

Top honor among newspapers above 50,000 circulation went to Linda Campbell, editorial writer and columnist of the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram, for writing about collusion between elected officials and winners of contracts for delinquent tax collection. For under 50,000 circulation, top honor went Executive Editor Scott Morris and staff writer Robert Palmer of the TimesDaily in Florence, Ala., for editorials and columns on a new immigration law in Alabama.

The other second-place winner was Steve Stewart, publisher of The Tidewater News of Franklin, Va. The winners were announced at an awards ceremony Monday in Naples, Fla. The prize is named for the late Benjamin Carmage Walls, whose newspaper career spanned 70 years.

Read more from the original source:

Journal's John Railey wins award for editorial writing

Eighty-five years after U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Virginia eugenics law allowing the state to forcibly sterilize anyone it considered genetically deficient, a state lawmaker is calling on Gov. Bob McDonnell and the General Assembly to make a symbolic payment to any living victims of the law.

Read this article:

Virginia considers 'payment' to eugenics victims

Eighty-five years after U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Virginia eugenics law allowing the state to forcibly sterilize anyone it considered genetically deficient, a state lawmaker is calling on Gov. Bob McDonnell and the General Assembly to make a symbolic payment to any living victims of the law.

Originally posted here:

Va. considers 'payment' to eugenics victims

Several hundred aging survivors of North Carolinas eugenics program were double crossed by callous state senators who failed to pass overdue compensation for their forced sterilizations. Gov. Beverly Perdue and the House of Representatives signed off on a commissions recommendation that each living victim receive $50,000. This culminated more than a decade of hard work by advocates.

Senate leader Phil Berger, R.- Rockingham, pledged his support at the beginning of the recent legislative session. However, when the dust settled, the Senate never even voted on the compensation measure. Republican Sen. Don East said the states past actions were regrettable but money would not fix the problem.

Some 7,600 predominately low-income and disproportionately black citizens were sterilized by the state against their will in order to prevent defectives from having multiple pregnancies and increasing welfare rolls. Eugenics activity was official state policy from 1929 to 1977. Breeding for quality was a worldwide passion, especially in Nazi Germany.

I was involved in preparing sterilization paperwork as a fledgling county social worker in the early 1970s. Progressive national and state foundations supported the practice, as did many universities and hospitals. Most other states ended state-sponsored sterilizations after World War II, but North Carolina increased the operations in the 1960s. Gov. Mike Easley officially apologized for the states heinous actions in 2002.

This July, the Senate resorted to cowardly protests that paying compensation might open North Carolina up to future financial liability.

Victims have until now never sued the state for compensation. However, state responsibility is voluminously documented by the general statutes of the time, thousands of case records, academic studies of eugenics and the heart-wrenching stories of the few hundred living victims who would benefit from compensation.

Liability has been proved beyond a shadow of a doubt, and the senators excuses represent only gutless political babble.

Gov. Perdue should use her remaining tenure to provide a measure of justice for victims. She and other Democratic leaders are far from blameless. For over 10 years the Democratic-controlled legislature, with Perdue serving as a top Senate budget writer, turned a deaf ear to the crusade by Rep. Larry Womble, D.-Forsyth, and others who pleaded in vain for compensation. Blame falls on many state leaders from both parties.

Perdue should immediately take action to:

Reach out to our hospitals, philanthropic foundations and corporations for donations to partially offset the cost of compensation. Many of those organizations openly supported forced sterilization or practiced wicked silence.

Read more:

Eugenics: The state can still act

By Bob Lewis The Associated Press August 6, 2012

RICHMOND

Exactly 85 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that state governments could force involuntary surgical sterilizations of people society deemed genetically inferior or deficient under laws based on a discredited pseudoscience called eugenics.

Delegate Patrick A. Hope, D-Arlington, plans to mark Monday's anniversary by calling for "a symbolic payment" from the General Assembly and Gov. Bob McDonnell for victims of eugenics who are still alive.

Eugenics is among the darkest stains on Virginia's 405-year history.

It was born in 1924 as Virginia's aristocracy sought to purify the white race. It mandated involuntary surgical sterilization for virtually any human malady believed to be hereditary, including mental illness, mental retardation, epilepsy, criminal behavior, alcoholism and immorality. Even people deemed to be "ne'er-do-wells" were sometimes targeted.

The same law banned interracial marriage.

"A symbolic payment? What's a symbolic payment? How would you do that? How would you find the victims?" asked Deborah Skiscim of suburban Midlothian. She said she had a cousin who was institutionalized under the eugenics law, and because of that she never met her cousin.

"There is no amount that could ever really give back to those people what was taken from them," Skiscim said in a Friday interview.

Hope plans to begin Virginia's eugenics reparations at a Monday news conference on Capitol Square.

Here is the original post:

Va. lawmaker proposes payments for eugenics victims

International Criminal Court Examining Eugenics in New Zealand

Life itself is a basic human right that is deserving of all humanity. But sadly in our country eugenics is denying that right to a group of individuals based on their genetic difference. Mr Mike Sullivan, spokesperson for Saving Downs says The situation is so serious here that the International Criminal Court is now carrying out a preliminary examination into our genetic screening practices. These practices are discriminatory and eugenic in nature, as they prevent the births of children because of their biological differences.

The term eugenics was coined by Sir Francis Galton in 1883. Under Galtons vision of eugenics, negative eugenics includes decreasing the occurrence of so-called undesirable genes. Eugenics is one dynamic that influences the judgment of peoples abilities and the disabling consequences. In New Zealand genetic screening is decreasing the natural occurrence of people with conditions such as Down syndrome and reinforcing discrimination against our community.

To raise awareness around this issue, and as part of an ongoing social justice campaign, Saving Downs and Family Life International , are joining together to hold a one day seminar on Saturday 4 August in Ponsonby, Auckland. Loving Every Child: Defying Eugenics is being held to educate the public and discuss the ramifications of eugenics and what the International Criminal Court case means for the disabled. Topics include: a personal testimony of a young man with Down syndrome; by what right are they not human beings?; a history of eugenics; current practice and how it links with eugenics; advocating for Down syndrome in the room and in the womb; and a Spina Bifida perspective.

Mike Sullivan who laid the complaint with the International Criminal Court says, This seminar is vital for informing the public of a eugenic program which is being thrust upon the vulnerable in our community and our response to secure social justice for them.

Mrs Colleen Bayer, director of Family Life International says Genetic screening practices devalue the lives of people with disabilities and endangers them, as the history of the use of genetic selection shows . We encourage media participation in facilitating public debate around this issue. Our seminar presents an excellent opportunity to learn more about the case under examination by the International Criminal Court, and the eugenic nature of genetic screening programmes. Mr Sullivan says.

END

Scoop Media

Originally posted here:

International Criminal Court Examining Eugenics in NZ

The exhibit opening today at the National World War II Museum includes a picture from the 1930s showing Dr. Ernst Wentzler, a Berlin pediatrician, examining a child with rickets. Wentzler, who was renowned for his treatment of this bone disease, invented an incubator for newborns that became known as the Wentzler warmer, said Susan Bachrach, the exhibits curator. He also developed ways to treat premature infants and children with birth defects.

But Wentzler had another, darker side, Bachrach said. He was one of three pediatricians who ordered the deaths of thousands of children who didnt meet the Nazi ideal of health because they might have been afflicted with Down syndrome or profound physical or psychiatric problems.

Wentzlers dual nature goes to the heart of Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race, a look at the development of the German scientific and medical communities involvement with Nazisms racist policies. There was, Bachrach said, much more to this misuse of science than Dr. Josef Mengeles ghastly experiments with concentration camp inmates.

That was way down the line, Bachrach said. Were trying to show that this came out of mainstream medicine and science. These were not fringe quacks. A fair number of them were not even ardent Nazis.

What they were doing was based on eugenics, a field of study that supports practices aimed at improving the genetic composition of a population.

The creepy thing about this is that these people thought they had the moral high ground, said Kenneth Hoffman, the World War II Museums education director. They were doing it for the betterment of Germany. They talked about having a healthy society, but they did it at the expense of anyone who didnt meet their standard of perfection.

Deadly Medicine, which was assembled by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, will be on view through Oct. 15. Tulane University School of Medicine is its local sponsor.

It shows the chain of events that got us from this idea of improving the human race to darker and darker steps, said Bachrach, the Holocaust Museums curator of special exhibitions.

The exhibit traces the origins of eugenics to Charles Darwins research into evolution, which showed how species adapt to survive. It also demonstrates how social Darwinists went beyond Darwins research to contend that people they deemed defective shouldnt be allowed to have children.

Eugenics, an offshoot of this way of thinking, became popular in the early 20th century, Bachrach said, and its acceptance wasnt limited to Germany. In 1927, eugenics received the endorsement of the U.S. Supreme Court when it ruled that states could order sterilization for the protection and health of the state. That decision still stands, although states have been loath to resort to sterilization.

View post:

National World War II Museum exhibit shows dark side of Nazi medicine

July 20, 2012 in City

Judge Warren W. Foster, of New York, passed through Spokane on a pleasure trip and spoke to reporters about the subject that had made him controversial:eugenics.

Judge Foster believed that criminals should be sterilized to prevent propagation among criminals. He also believed that the marriage of persons physically unfit is acrime.

He said that his beliefs were based on a branch of the science of eugenics, which every sane person admits is worthy of earnestconsideration.

From the golf beat: The Spokesman-Review wrote an editorial extolling the virtues of golf in Spokane andvicinity.

There are courses here and at Hayden Lake where the golfer can find opportunities and bunkers equal to any on the eastern links, said theeditorial.

It also made the following highly questionable assertion: The climate allows (a golfer) to play outdoors more days in the year in the Spokane country than he can do at any place east of theRockies.

(From the AssociatedPress)

1969: Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon after reaching the surface in their Apollo 11 lunarmodule.

See original here:

Jim Kershner's this day in history - Fri, 20 Jul 2012 PST

Margaret Sanger, you will learn today, was an admitted racist and eugenicist. Yes, I actually just wrote that. The spewing of volatility may shortly ensue. Eugenics may have its place amongst our modern-day engineers of society through a number of rationalizations or outright justifications, but most in the progressive category would prefer to shy away from the fact that the founder of Planned Parenthood encouraged the extermination of the negro population. Her words, not mine. When you take a ride to your local clinic to get a handful of condoms, remember these words: "We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population," she said, "if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members." Woman's Body, Woman's Right: A Social History of Birth Control in America, by Linda Gordon. Am I quoting out of context? Decide for yourselves.

Planned Parenthood, I assure you, will not be suing this reporter for libel. Sanger, if nothing else, was admirably honest in her opinions. Irresponsible of me it would be, though, to suggest that the organization still holds to those ideals. Their founder, in her own words, did. Through the power of google, you can learn more. Margaret's words and writings are burned into the electronic engine that governs life. Find her others on your own. Educate yourselves.

"The most merciful thing that the large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it," Sanger said in her book, Woman and the new race. Of note with this quote is the use of "kill," rather than our more sanitized modern reference of "termination of pregnancy." If those reading are supporters of eugenics, so be it. Live your convictions. Beyond doubtful it is, however, that many proponents of abortion-rights are even aware of Planned Parenthood's background. Google eugenics. Google population control. Gather some facts before opting to hug the concept of a woman's right to choose. Conveniently, the term negates to mention eugenics or racism.

One thing I don't want. Christian readers don't facebook-respond, don't email me and don't call up the paper saying that I'm doing God's work. I didn't write the above from a Christian perspective. I've read the Bible and have found it to be full of factual, logistical, mathematical and theological inconsistencies. If you wish to believe based on faith and the manifestation of God in your lives, so be it. Do not claim ever that your book is more accurate than that of another faith based on this and that. The Bible, our modern version of it, has undergone change after change. When human hands touch something, flawlessness is not the result you'll find. If I choose to have faith in the Christ story, it will not be because of Biblical accuracy. The rock of ages it may be, but something to set your watches to it is not. Google Biblical inaccuracies.

Read more from the original source:

Ramblings from Ben: Things that people don't like to think

People who believe theyor someone they knowwere involuntarily sterilized as part of the state's eugenics board can again request that their cases be reviewed.

The N.C. Justice For Sterilization Victims Foundation, which verifies the cases, temporarily suspended accepting requests on June 20, after the N.C. Senate eliminated its operational fundingand compensation for the victimsin the state budget. At that time, the foundation was processing 140 requests; it has received a additional inquiries since.

The foundation is again accepting inquiries, and to keep it open, the N.C. Department of Administration has trimmed funding from other agency services.

Executive Director Charmaine Fuller Cooper is now the only staff member.

Original legislation, which was supported by Gov. Bev Perdue, provided a lump sum of $50,000 to each verified living victim of the eugenics program. Her budget for compensation and operational costs totaled $10 million.

Nearly 7,600 people were sterilized between 1929 and 1974; an estimated 1,350 to 1,800 victims are still alive. So far, the foundation has verified 161 eugenics victims in 57 counties; 146 are still living.

For information about filing a victim verification request, contact the foundation toll-free at 877-550-6013 or 919-807-4270. Or go to http://www.sterilizationvictims.nc.gov.

See public documents related to the eugenics program at the N.C. Digital Collections or the Foundation website.

Read the original here:

Sterilization Victims Foundation restarts victim verification requests

The foundation that verified whether people were involuntarily sterilized by the former N.C. Eugenics Board has resumed operations, the state announced Thursday.

"There are still many people in North Carolina who were impacted by the Eugenics Board program," said Jill Lucas, a spokeswoman for the N.C. Department of Administration. "And these individuals still have the right to access their records."

The foundation stopped taking new requests last month when it appeared operating funds would end, but the legislature passed a bill directing the foundation to keep going with $128,000 from the Department of Administration.

"The status of the agency will be evaluated in the fall and we'll determine the ongoing resources they will need at that point," Lucas said.

The foundation will be pared down, with two support staff positions being eliminated, leaving only Executive Director Charmaine Fuller Cooper. Its sole mission will be victim verification requests.

The Eugenics Board operated a program between 1929 and 1974 that was responsible for the forced sterilization of nearly 7,600 people in 100 counties.

The foundation has verified 161 eugenics victims in 57 counties, including 146 living victims. There were 140 requests being processed when the foundation suspended operations.

A bill that would have given each victim $50,000 in compensation passed the N.C. House but failed to pass the state Senate.

See more here:

N.C. eugenics foundation to continue identifying victims

The N.C. Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation, which helps determine whether residents were sterilized under the state eugenics program, had stopped taking new requests for verification on June 20 when it ran out of money.

Before the temporary freeze, the foundation had verified 161 eugenics victims, 146 of them living.

The office is back working again, but no one knows for how long.

The state ran a eugenics program for about 40 years that lasted until 1974. A state board ordered sterilized residents who were mentally diseased, feeble-minded or epileptic. The board also ordered sterilized people who were poor or who were thought likely to have disabled children. About 7,600 people were sterilized under the auspices of the state board. The N.C. State Center for Health Statistics last month revised its projection of likely living victims from about 1,500 to 2,000 to about 1,350 to 1,800.

Legislators had talked for years about compensating victims, and the idea gained traction this year.

Gov. Bev Perdue and the state House had proposed giving victims $50,000 each in compensation, but Senate Republicans refused to go along. The verification work would have ended, but in the final days of the legislative session, the legislature directed the Department of Administration to find money to keep it going. The three-person staff is down to one executive director Charmaine Fuller Cooper.

The foundation had more than 140 requests for verification on June 20, and is again accepting new requests.

Were going to continue as usual as long as we can, Cooper said.

Burr wins on Haqqani network

Congress has passed a bill forcing the State Department to declare the Pakistani Haqqani network a terrorist organization or to provide a detailed explanation of why the label is not fitting.

Go here to see the original:

Dome: Eugenics office operating on shoestring

By Fiona Macrae

PUBLISHED: 18:30 EST, 12 July 2012 | UPDATED: 18:30 EST, 12 July 2012

A scientist has said the falling cost of DNA testing means Britain is on the verge of a new era of eugenics. Picture posed by model

It sounds like something from a dystopian nightmare. Instead of couples settling down after falling in love with each other, they will choose their partners based on the compatibility of their genes.

According to a leading scientist, the falling cost of DNA testing means Britain is on the verge of a new era of eugenics.

Professor Armand Leroi, of Imperial College London, said that within five to ten years it will be common for young people to pay for a read-out of their entire genetic code.

The desire to have a healthy baby will then lead them to requesting to see the genetic blueprint of any prospective long-term partner.

Armed with the information, the couple could then use IVF to weed out babies with incurable diseases, a major science conference in Dublin heard.

He added that it is unlikely that people will have the luxury of using the technology to design babies by intellect or eye colour and instead the focus will be on stopping genetic diseases.

Professor Leroi told the Euroscience Open Forum 2012 that in some ways eugenics are already here, with tens of thousands of unborn babies with Downs syndrome and other illnesses being aborted every year.

Read the original here:

Gene test could soon see if future lovers are compatible

London, July 13 (ANI): The falling cost of DNA testing means that Britain is on the verge of a new era of eugenics, a leading scientist has claimed.

Read this article:

Soon, gene test that can see future lovers' compatibility

In 1973, Elaine Riddick had been married for a year when she and her husband decided to start a family. She was surprised when her Brooklyn doctor told her it wasnt possibleand even more surprised to discover why: Shed been medically sterilized during a hospital stay in rural Edenton, N.C., where she grew up.

Five years earlier, Riddick had become pregnant at 14. While performing the Caesarean delivery, doctors made sure that her son, Tony, would be her only child. Social workers with the Eugenics Board of North Carolina labeled her feeble-minded and promiscuous. They told her illiterate grandmother that Riddick had to be sterilized. She consented by marking an X on the form.

Riddick is one of an estimated 7,600 North Carolinians sterilized under the states eugenics program. On the books from 1929-74, its goal was to keep those deemed to have undesirable traits from having kids. The vast majority marked for sterilization were minorities, poor, undereducated, institutionalized, sick, or disabled. Eighty-five percent were female, some as young as 10 years old. To find out that my government has done something so hideous only brought shame upon me, Riddick says.

Now an administrative assistant living in Atlanta, shes spent four decades telling her story and pressing state politicians for redress. In May it looked like that would finally happen. A bipartisan bill in the North Carolina House that would pay each living victim $50,000 attracted more than 50co-sponsors, including the Republican speaker, Thom Tillis, and easily passed. The House established an $11 million fund. North Carolina was on its way to becoming the first state in the country to compensate those harmed by eugenics programs.

Thats when things fell apart. Opponents of reparations in the state senate have blocked the bill, claiming theres no money to spare in North Carolinas $20.2 billion budget. While our hearts go out to the victims, the budgetary and economic realities we inherited prevent us from pursuing a financial solution, Republican Senator Phil Berger said in an e-mail. Others dont couch their objections in fiscal jargon. You just cant rewrite history, GOP Senator Don East told the Associated Press. Im so sorry it happened, but throwing money dont change it, dont make it go away. It still happened. If theyre sterile, theyre still sterile.

Indiana enacted the countrys first eugenics legislation in 1907. Eventually 32 states followed, and more than 60,000 people underwent forced sterilization. The practice was largely abandoned after World War II, but North Carolina didnt officially end its program until 1974. In 2003, a five-part series in the Winston-Salem Journal put the states shameful past back in the news. Then-Governor Mike Easley, a Democrat, apologized to the victims and their families, calling it a sad and regrettable chapter in the states history.

His successor, Democrat Bev Perdue, has made reparations a priority. In 2010 she established the N.C. Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation to determine the number of people harmed by the program and how many are still alive. So far, 146 of the estimated 1,500 to 2,000 living victims have been identified through government records.

Following the senates decision to strip compensation money from the budget, Governor Perdue tried to compromise by offering to cut the fund in half. Republican lawmakers refused and, with the help of several Democrats, overrode her veto of the budget. The issue is now dead until at least next year.

Riddick is no longer counting on politicians to do the right thing. She and hundreds of others who were sterilized are now considering bringing a class action against the state. Its not because were greedy, says Riddick, who points out that $50,000 isnt enough to make anyone rich. Its the principle.

The bottom line: From 1929-74, North Carolina sterilized 7,600 people as part of a eugenics program that mostly targeted minorities and the poor.

Excerpt from:

A Bitter Fight Over Forced Sterilization