According to the disturbing history of forced sterilization of black women, one would think such practices went with slavery. However, just as many other race-related issues, the issue was not abolished. The conversation about reproduction, especially of black people, has almost always had a racial undertone. Back during slavery days, different policies and practices are put in place to control the African slaves’ population. Eugenics, a movement aims at improving the human race’s genetic composition, and quickly adopts in America. The movement aimed to create a society with positive traits. Galton believed that the British would be superior because of their genetic makeup.
THE DISTURBING HISTORY OF FORCED STERILIZATION IN THE UNITED STATES
The disturbing history of forced sterilization of black women came back to the spotlight in 2013. Thanks to the center for investigative reporting, dozens of female inmates’ illegal sterilization in California came light. The story was a salient reminder that forced sterilization, an issue viewed as a tragic-but-past occurrence, continues today. Sterilization abuse includes situations in which a woman does not know she is being sterilized. Many women therefore get fed with claims of the process being temporary or reversible. Many women are told that the procedure is temporary or reversible.
the disturbing history of forced sterilization in the United States
THE STERILIZATION OF BLACK WOMEN AND THE MOVEMENT AGAINST EUGENICS
Forced sterilization is a topic Thread craft outlines in her book. Thread craft argues that Black women have since time memorial been subject to racial domination through violence and inequality. For the embodied black female subject, the struggles include widespread sexual violence as a weapon of racial terror. Other struggles include covered sterilizations and other racially targeted techniques of population control, which include sterilization. According to Thread craft, Also, black women pushed back against sterilization at a time White women advocated for abortion. The history of NCEB through the sterilization of Elaine Riddick brought a disturbing history of forced sterilization of black women.