Race Suicide
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Race suicide was an alarmist
eugenicist Eugenics is a set of largely discredited beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetics, genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter the frequency of various human Phenotype, phenotypes by ...
theory, coined by American sociologist Edward A. Ross around 1900 and promoted by, among others, Harry J. Haiselden. According to the American Eugenics Archive, "race suicide" conceptualizes a hypothetical situation in which the death rate of a particular " race" supersedes its birth rate. As a propagandistic theory akin to
white genocide The white genocide, white extinction, or white replacement conspiracy theory is a White nationalism, white nationalist conspiracy theory that claims there is a deliberate plot (often Antisemitic trope, blamed on Jews) to cause the extinction of ...
, race suicide was mechanized to induce fear in dominant and/or majority "races" (i.e. the "
white race White is a racial classification of people generally used for those of predominantly European ancestry. It is also a skin color specifier, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, ethnicity and point of view. De ...
") that their community was dying off and being replaced by more fertile immigrant "races". This term was likewise deployed to proliferate the ideology of
eugenics Eugenics is a set of largely discredited beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter the frequency of various human phenotypes by inhibiting the fer ...
among the international public throughout the 20th century. Moreover, the concept of "race suicide" predominantly placed blame on women, as supposed agents of reproduction. With its roots in
Nordicism Nordicism is a racialist ideology which views the "Nordic race" (a historical race concept) as an endangered and superior racial group. Some notable and influential Nordicist works include Madison Grant's book '' The Passing of the Great Rac ...
, the application of this alarmist theory varied based on the targeted community and/or country.


Eugenics

The theory of race suicide is fundamentally rooted in and influenced by the internationally popularized and
pseudoscientific Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable cl ...
theory of
eugenics Eugenics is a set of largely discredited beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter the frequency of various human phenotypes by inhibiting the fer ...
, which advocates for the universal improvement of the human gene pool through the elimination of certain "races" deemed "unfit" for reproduction. In the United States, "unfit" races have historically included minorities such as immigrants and African Americans, people with mental and physical disabilities, people in poverty, institutionalized people, and/or people convicted of crimes. Eugenics sought to eliminate these people, such that their "undesirable traits and behaviors" would be effectively weeded out of the human population over time. Race suicide rhetoric induced fear in dominant groups and institutions by eliciting eugenics and suggesting that these "undesirable" and "unfit" racial groups were proliferating, while the "desirable" and "fit" racial groups were essentially "killing themselves" by failing to sufficiently reproduce. As a result of fear-mongering, race suicide theorists in the 20th century turned to socio-political institutions, pseudoscientific
propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...
, and social policy. They believed that such policies would supposedly prevent race suicide before the "unfit" racial groups replaced the "fit" ones. In doing so, they gave rise the theory of eugenics. In this age of international eugenic propaganda, "Race suicide theorists believed that natural evolutionary dynamics were disrupted in the age of industry, and that
social policy Some professionals and universities consider social policy a subset of public policy, while other practitioners characterize social policy and public policy to be two separate, competing approaches for the same public interest (similar to MD a ...
was needed to ensure that the supposedly superior 'races' did not disappear." This propaganda ran throughout newspapers and educational spaces. This eugenic propaganda also contributed to conversations pertaining to
forced sterilization Compulsory sterilization, also known as forced or coerced sterilization, refers to any government-mandated program to involuntarily sterilize a specific group of people. Sterilization removes a person's capacity to reproduce, and is usually do ...
of the "unfit", "hypersexual", and those with "hereditary defectiveness". For example, S. Fred Hogue first released his weekly pro-eugenics column in the ''Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine'' in 1935. In one column entitled "Shall We Halt Race Suicide", he wrote: "It is self-evident that if the unfit are to be permitted to reproduce at the present alarming rate, they will wreck civilization ... To prevent this form of race suicide, it is absolutely essential that the unfit shall not be permitted to continue to reproduce their kind."


Racialized women


Hypersexualization of women of color

The first element to disentangling "race suicide" and the racialization of women of color is hypersexualization. Hypersexualization is an objectifying portrayal of people, most often women, usually of color, as excessively sexual. The objectification was instrumental in perpetuating concerns of race suicide because many people assumed women of color were reproducing at higher rates and seducing white men, therefore reducing the white race's size – a pseudoscientific "fact" with no basis in truth.


Immigration

The hypersexualization of women of color was not only socially perpetuated but was systemically ingrained into U.S. institutions. For instance, the first immigration legislation that set the parameters for who could enter the country was the
Page Act of 1875 The Page Act of 1875 (Sect. 141, 18 Stat. 477, 3 March 1875) was the first restrictive federal immigration law in the United States, which effectively prohibited the entry of Chinese women, marking the end of open borders. Seven years later, th ...
. This law barred Chinese women from migrating to the U.S. out of fear that they were immoral and diseased prostitutes. The 1924 Johnson-Reed Act, which was passed partly to "combat the specter race suicide", brought this to an extreme by banning all Asian Americans. More broadly, the Act engaged in a racialized operation of tightening the borders by setting national quotas for immigrants. This "hardened anti-Black racism and turned Asians and Latino/as into immutable others". To help pass such laws, influential scientific figures like Harry H. Laughlin testified before Congress, warning of a race suicide if such dynamics, partly based on an assumption of hypersexuality, prevailed and immigration law failed to be strong enough.


Incarceration

Incarceration institutions perpetuated ideas of hypersexuality. Jails imprisoned women for deviating from norms of sexuality. Black people, especially during the
Jim Crow era The Jim Crow laws were U.S. state, state and local laws introduced in the Southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that enforced Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, "Jim Crow (character), Ji ...
, were sent to prisons at disproportionate rates. When these women of color were incarcerated, they were not sent to reformatories like white women, but rather, they resided in custodial prisons like men.


= Legal and cultural influence

= Case law provides additional evidence for hypersexual racialization and race suicide anxieties. '' Rhinelander v. Rhinelander'' (1925), for instance, painted a Black woman as a hypersexual " vamp" who took advantage of her white husband. The white man, Leo Rhinelander, claimed that his wife lied about her ancestry. The trial lawyers portrayed Alice Jones as a "sexually aggressive woman who seduced the younger Leo Rhinelander". This is the image of a "vamp", which is a woman who seduces men, most often applied specifically to women of color. The case echoed societal fears of race corruption, specifically that white men's relations with hypersexual black women could inevitably contribute to race suicide' or the demise of the white race". On the cultural side, films like ''
The Black Stork ''The Black Stork'', also known as ''Are You Fit To Marry?'', is a 1916 American feature film and dramatization of the Bollinger incident, a national scandal where a hospital chief of staff, Harry J. Haiselden, advised Anna Bollinger and ...
'' crafted images of seductive enslaved women, while the
Dragon Lady Dragon Lady is usually a stereotype of certain East Asian and occasionally South Asian and/or Southeast Asian women as strong, deceitful, domineering, mysterious, and often sexually alluring. Inspired by the characters played by actress Anna Ma ...
and Lotus Blossom cinematic stereotypes villainized Asian American women as temptresses. Institutional and cultural mechanisms in the U.S. worked in tandem to promote the image of women of color as hypersexualized and thus threatening to the survival of the white race.


Hysteria

A common diagnosis in the earlier twentieth century dubbed "
hysteria Hysteria is a term used to mean ungovernable emotional excess and can refer to a temporary state of mind or emotion. In the nineteenth century, female hysteria was considered a diagnosable physical illness in women. It is assumed that the bas ...
" also played a role in the
racialization Racialization or ethnicization is a sociological concept used to describe the intent and processes by which Ethnic group, ethnic or Race (human classification), racial identities are systematically constructed within a society. Constructs for ra ...
of women and, in turn, racial suicide fears. Hysteria was an illness apparently plaguing white, upper-class women. The sickness purportedly caused (white) women to be frail, weak, and not reproduce, which endangered the longevity of the white race. Hysteria played into racializing dynamics largely because the chief cause was the "overcivilization" of white women, which was put in a binary opposition to hardy "savages" – a category for women of color. Examples of this dynamic are evident in the ''American Journal of Obstetrics'' during the 1880s. For instance, George J. Engelmann published several articles that concluded these "primitive" (Black, Mexican, Native American, Asian American, poor Appalachian white) and "savage" women experienced labor as "short and easy", compared to overcivilized white women. Joseph Johnson gathered similar observations, specifically on enslaved women, noting that there were "surprisingly few preternatural or instrumental cases orceps deliveriesamong them". Doctor Lucien Warner explicitly tied race and gender when he explicated that Black women and other immigrants were robust workers who had "comparative immunity from uterine disease" relative to white women. Overall, George Beard best summarized these dynamics in 1881 when explicitly surmised, "nervous disease scarcely exists among savages or barbarians, or semi-barbarians or partially civilized people". The categorization and diagnosis of hysteria were founded in societal and "scientific" ideas that women of color, savage women, were robust, strong, fertile, and threatening – partly related to their hypersexuality, as many evolutionary theories pointed to hypersexuality as a sign of being uncivilized, and partly related to their innate " savagery". Upper-class white women were weak, fragile, nervous, and infertile. These dynamics, where women of color were fertile and birthing while hysterical white women were not, inevitably exacerbated race suicide concerns.


Language and political implications


Race suicide rhetoric in the U.S.

Early race suicide rhetoric in the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
suggested a differential birth rate between native-born
Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
and immigrant
Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
women, or more generally between the "fit" (white, wealthy, educated Protestants) and the "unfit" (poor, uneducated, criminals, diseased, disabled, minorities). Fear-mongering tactics relied on the idea that the "fit" group would ultimately dwindle to the point of extinction if they did not adopt an urgency to reproduce. This rhetoric was later extended to further entrench the eugenic claim that
African Americans African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa ...
and other immigrants "races" with growing populations were "unfit," "
hypersexual Hypersexuality is a proposed medical condition said to cause unwanted or excessive sexual arousal, causing people to engage in or think about sexual activity to a point of distress or impairment., according to the website of ''Psychology Toda ...
," and "dangerous." In 1902,
Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...
, the President of the United States, called race suicide "fundamentally infinitely more important than any other question in this country," arguing to the American public that "the man or woman who deliberately avoids marriage, and has a heart so cold as to know no passion and a brain so shallow and selfish as to dislike having children, is in effect a criminal against the race, and should be an object of contemptuous abhorrence by all healthy people." Likewise, in 1905, he argued that a man or woman who is childless by choice "merits contempt." This political agenda further targeted women and criticized them for choosing not to fulfill their "duty" of getting married and having children and thus maintaining the White population. In contrast, the growing non-White population was overly exaggerated in order to frame the situation as an alarming matter. Many newspaper articles claimed that this great increase was a threat that these non-White groups would have greater participation and more of an influence in politics in the future. In contrast, women who left a "legacy" after their death by having numerous children, and subsequently, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, were openly praised for helping to "fight against" the idea of race suicide.


Media and culture

As the
teddy bear A teddy bear, or simply a teddy, is a stuffed toy in the form of a bear. The teddy bear was named by Morris Michtom after the 26th president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt; it was developed apparently simultaneously in the first deca ...
, which was named after
Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...
, increased in popularity, some individuals were worried that young girls who did not play with dolls as often would lose their "motherly instincts". Criticism of the teddy bear was another form of fear mongering, as these people claimed it contributed to the concept of race suicide. In response to Theodore Roosevelt's public warning against the idea of race suicide, some individuals also extended this concept, suggesting restrictions not only on non-White races, but also to individuals in lower economic classes due to "economic and educational reasons". It was no longer only political figures, but also ministers,
educators A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...
, and other individuals in leadership positions who were pushing for legislation to encourage White Americans to marry and have children. For example,
Alexander Graham Bell Alexander Graham Bell (; born Alexander Bell; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born Canadian Americans, Canadian-American inventor, scientist, and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He als ...
publicly expressed his support for this agenda. The 1938 movie "Race Suicide" criticized women who chose not to get married or have children, with the line "Are Modern Women Cheaters?" standing out in its movie poster. Many propaganda images were also created and distributed through avenues, such as newspapers. A popular symbol that was used was the
stork Storks are large, long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long, stout bills. They belong to the family Ciconiidae, and make up the order Ciconiiformes . Ciconiiformes previously included a number of other families, such as herons and ibise ...
, a bird often associated with the idea of "bringing babies". One example is an illustration from 1903 created by Samuel D. Ehrhart, which is displayed to the right. It depicted an "idle" stork of the upper class not fulfilling its duty, while the "strenuous" stork of the lower class was constantly working and increasing that population.


Race suicide rhetoric in Canada

Similarly in
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
, W. Stewart Wallace, the author of "The Canadian Immigration Policy," endorsed the idea of race suicide. "The Canadian Immigration Policy" cited the native-born population's "struggle to keep up appearances in the face of the increasing competition" as a purported cause of its low birth rate. Wallace claimed that immigrants did not increase a nation's population but merely replaced it.


See also

*
Great Replacement conspiracy theory The Great Replacement (), also known as replacement theory or great replacement theory, is a debunked white nationalist far-right conspiracy theoryPT71. espoused by French author Renaud Camus. The original theory states that, with the complicit ...
, a later theory with similar themes *
Natalism Natalism (also called pronatalism or the pro-birth position) is a policy paradigm or personal value that promotes the reproduction of human life as an important objective of humanity and therefore advocates a high birthrate. Cf.: According to t ...
, promoting higher fertility rates


References


Further reading

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External links

* * *{{cite journal , last1=Ross , first1=Edward A. , author-link=Edward A. Ross, title=The Causes of Race Superiority , journal=The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science , date=1901 , volume=18 , pages=67–89 , doi=10.1177/000271620101800104 , jstor=1009883 , issn=0002-7162, jstor-access=free Eugenics Anti-black racism in the United States Anti–East Asian sentiment in the United States Anti-immigration politics in the United States Natalism Nordicism White genocide conspiracy theory