My Personal Reflections on Policy in America

By Marie Cox-McMahon

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What struck my interest almost immediately while reading the article was their discussion of the comparison to eugenic sterilization in Nazi Germany. If my memory serves me I am pretty sure the United States made the blueprint that Nazi Germany adapted from. The statement that forced sterilization of women of color is as American as apple pie is often a hard truth for Americans to accept. In another Women’s and Gender studies course, we learned about the history of forced sterilization originating in America with Proctor and Gamble sterilizing black women in America and testing birth control on women in developing nations. 

It is so important that we do not divorce the idea of eugenics from the idea of America, the people in power, and our political system because it is all deeply rooted. I think it’s so important to recognize that this is not just an issue with the Trump administration, but likely one still taking place within the Biden administration and one that could take place under any President because committing heinous crimes on men and women’s bodies they deem “undesirable” is not new or a thing of the past. And sure enough by the end of the article, Hitler’s quote is mentioned, where he praised the United States models of oppression and noted that this was a good model. I wish I could say that I am shocked, and I’m sure I would have been a few years ago. But learning about the real history of the American power structure has disillusioned me entirely. 

Why is this allowed to happen today, if we pride ourselves on being a country that values freedom? 

And why is this never an issue that sticks in the American consciousness? I have seen maybe one headline many months ago about this and then nothing else.