Since the TL is talking about Eugenics & the poverty shaming that stems from that..

I believe this is a great time to discuss the Eugenics Movement in Britain & America (which also inspired Hitler to commit a genocide against marginalized people)

The Eugenics Movement was a social order/theory that was aimed at supposedly "improving" the genetic composition of the human race. Eugenicists advocated selective breeding to achieve these goals.

The Eugenics Movement was founded by Francis Galton. He was the cousin of Charles Darwin. He modeled eugenics after the British upper class. He believed that the elite's upper position throughout society was based on genetics (he was wrong).

Francis Galton never got to practice his theory. However, America discovered his theory & adopted it. US leaders, private citizens, & corporations all had the power to put his theory into motion. Followed with the establishment of The Eugenics Records Office in New York (1911).

The ERO dedicated time doing research on different families history. They came to the conclusion that the unfit people came from families that were poor, immigrants, minorities, people with disabilities, etc.

They all gathered together to come up with a "solution".

They found that MULTIPLE solutions were needed to create their perfect world rid of "unfit" & "inferior" people.

Stricter immigration laws had been put in place to target immigrants.

But that wasn't enough. Then it was forced/coerced sterilization.

Not long after the Eugenics Movement surfaced in America about 33 states had sterilization programs. The earlier sterilization programs targeted people with disabilities. Then people with addictions, women deemed as promiscuous, Black women, criminals, poor people, etc

It is believed that around 65,000 Americans had been sterilized during that time. Some had been forced. Some had been coerced into believing sterilization was the only way. There was no escape for the victims either.

EX: Buck v. Bell: Carrie Buck was the first person to be sterilized under Virginia's new law. Her mother had been INVOLUNTARILY institutionalized for being "feeble minded" & "promiscuous". They believed she inherited those "traits" so Carrie was sterilized after giving birth.

Mary Alice & Minnie Ref, two Black sisters who lived in poverty in AL. Had been sterilized at of 14 & 12. Their mother was uneducated & was taken advantage of. She signed an "X" on a piece of paper she believed gave permission for her disabled daughters to receive birth control.

In 1974, the South Poverty Law Center filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Relf sisters. It had been revealed that 100,000 to 150,000 poor people had been sterilized against their will or were coerced into doing so. All under federally funded programs.

The senate voted to help survivors of the forced sterilization programs. North Carolina paid $35,000 each to 250 victims. Virginia agreed to pay $25,000 each per victim. http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/09/03/north-carolina-eugenics-victims-compensation-column/31423907/

It’s estimated that as many as 25-50 percent of Native American women were sterilized between 1970 & 1976. https://cbhd.org/content/forced-sterilization-native-americans-late-twentieth-century-physician-cooperation-national-

Madrigal v. Quilligan was a federal class action lawsuit from Los Angeles County, California involving sterilization of Latina women that occurred either without informed consent, or through coercion.

California led the country in the number of sterilization procedures performed on men & women, without their full knowledge & consent. Between the early 1920s & the 1950s, 20,000 other people were sterilized in California state institutions for the mentally ill & disabled.

In the early days of the Eugenics Movement, families across America held contests that dealt with competing against other families to see who had the better families. This was determined by hair color, weight, eye color, height, income, etc.

The first contest was called the "Better Babies" contest. Babies to children judged based on their hairstyle, hair color, weight, outfits, etc. It was overall creepy & disgusting af....

The second contest that came after the "Better Babies" contest was the "Fitter Families" contest. This judged families the same way the contest for babies & children were judged. Plus income.

All of these contests in general were held mainly throughout southern states.

The winners won a medal........... Yup, a medal..

(I'm not making this up)