SOAN 292 - ”Racial Integrity,” Eugenics, Immigration

Crosslisted With HIST 292
FDR: Social Sciences (SS4)
Credits: 3

The first decades of the twentieth century in the United States saw a series of social movements and legislation that profoundly impacted countless people’s lives. The U.S. Congress passed an act that favored immigrants from northwestern Europe, restricted those from southeastern Europe, and completely excluded Asians. The Virginia General Assembly created the Racial Integrity Act, eliminating the legal existence of Native Americans by recognizing only two categories of humans, “white” and “colored.” Virginia also passed Eugenical Sterilization Act, requiring compulsory sterilization of people deemed “unfit” to reproduce. The Supreme Court took up the Virginia case as Buck v. Bell (1927), ruling that preventing the birth of “imbeciles” was in the national interest. The act served as a model for the Third Reich and has not been overturned. Students will take anthropological perspectives on these developments, seeking to understand people’s thinking, their behavior, and the cultural, social, economic, and political landscapes from which these legal acts grew. Historical perspectives support our consideration of current events, including how race now figures in debates about immigration, the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision about abortion, and ways that science and politics engage with reproduction through gene-editing technology and natalism.