(Washington) A sterilization program conducted in the US state of North Carolina between 220 and 1974 specifically targeted African American Americans and met the definition of genocide, according to a study released this week.
Posted on 24 July 2020 at 21 h 01
France Media Agency
Almost 7600 men, women and children sometimes aged 07 years, have undergone surgical sterilization as part of a program created to serve the “public interest” by preventing “weak-minded” people from reproducing.
Most operations were performed by force, although some women who did not otherwise have contraception resorted to them, declaring themselves an unfit mother.
The study, published in the American Review of Political Economy , examined the years 1958 to 1968, a period during which more than 2100 sterilizations have been performed in the state.
According to the authors, sterilizations have increased at the same time as the size of the unemployed black population – without whites or people of other origins without work being targeted in the same proportions.
“The disproportionate use of eugenic sterilization in North Carolina on black citizens was an act of genocide,” according to William Darity Jr, professor at Duke University and co-author of the study.
The definition of genocide according to the United Nations implies the will “to destroy, or all or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group”, including by adopting “measures aimed at preventing births within the group, ”he recalls.
Previous work has shown the program to disproportionately target African Americans, but this new study sheds light on the mechanics used and why.
“Controlling black bodies and their reproductive choices is nothing new,” according to co-author Rhonda Sharpe, of the Women’s Institute for Science, Equity, and Race.
“Our study shows that North Carolina has restricted reproductive freedom, using eugenics to deprive black residents of their rights,” she adds.
The state set up in 2010 a foundation and a compensation fund for the victims of the program who are still alive.
The first checks, from 20 000 US $ each, were sent to 24 of between them in 2014, according to the local daily The News & Observer .
