It is easy to classify the racists of yesteryear as bigoted. Although society has become more integrated since the early 20th century, racism and social inequality are still manifest. It is therefore important to consider the social ideologies that have fueled bigotry in the past century. In light of this consideration, the following argues that social inequalities of yesteryear were by fueled Social Darwinism and environmental injustice in inner cities.
During the mid-nineteenth century, Charles Darwin published his most famous work On the Origin of Species, which argued humanity had descended from primitive life forms through a process of natural selection where only the “fittest” survived. Social scientists, such as Herbert Spencer, applied the concepts of Darwinian evolution to their own field of expertise (Weinstein 2012).
Use your promo and get a custom paper on
"Ecoracism and Eugenics".
Angie Kennedy highlights in her essay “Eugenics, “Degenerate Girls” and Social Workers During the Progressive Era” why eugenics floruished in the United States. The early 20th century was a rather turbulent period for the United States. Rates of violence were increasing in immigrant populated slums. Many Americans feared that the original social traits which allowed the United States to prosper were being tainted by immigrants (Ergs 386-90). Eugenics seemed to be a promising method to minimize these concerns.
Eugenics consisted of sterilizing segments of society that were considered unfit to breed. Alcoholism, violence and anger were seen as traits that were inherited rather than conditioned. In an effort to identify which sects of society were unfit to breed, sociologists would attach traits to people living in a particular environment. Kennedy notes that many sociologists considered young women living in inner cities as unfit to reproduce. Sociologists characterized these women as degenerate and “reproducers of pauperism” based upon the kind of environment they occupied (Kennedy 27).
Determining whether a person is fit to breed based upon their surrounding environment is best described by Dolores Greenberg as “ecoracism” in the essay “Reconstructing Race and Protest: Environmental Justice in New York City.” Greenberg notes that African Americans occupied the inner cities of New York, not because they wanted to, but because racism and social stereotypes “denied their place in the life of the city” (Greenberg 7).
As has been illustrated, racism of yesteryear were fueled stereotypes attached to people who lived in a particular environmental niche. People viewed young women and African Americans living in inner cities as degenerates. Rather paradoxically, the reason that many people occupied these terrains is that racial stereotypes denied them the right to occupy other places in the city. Thus, although it is easy to mark the people of yesteryear as bigoted, it is important to recognize the reasons that fueled such bigotry are still manifest in the population.
- Engs, Ruth. “Selected Chronology.” Engs, Ruth. The Progressive Era’s Health Reform Movement . Westport, CT: Praeger , 2003. 371-407.
- Greenberg, Dolores. “Reconstructing Race and Protest: Environmental Justice in New York City.” Proquest (2014): 1-24.
- Kennedy, Angie. “Eugenics, “Degenerate Girls” and Social Workers During the Progressive Era”.” Sage Publications (2008): 22-34.
- Weinstein, David. Herbert Spencer. 17 September 2012. 28 May 2014.
