Naomi Michel
English Composition
11/14/21
Cover Letter Phase 3
This is my 3rd phase and although I have yet to complete my 2nd phase essay, I strongly believe that I have learned many new things. Old strategies have been reinforced into my knowledge of essays and also better well explained. This essay was another assignment that helped do this. My audience is really to any and everyone but to be more intentional, it is to the ignorant of this topic. The people who need to know about it as well as people who can bring it into spaces catered to this serious issue. To be even more specific: black and brown mothers to their daughters, teachers to their students, and more. I engaged ethos as a rhetorical strategy in this phase while evoking a bit of pathos at the end as a means to get readers to feel for this large group of people. This class’s focus is clearly big on composition so every phase has brung a challenge. It wasn’t too easy for me to pack as much information in as well as I wanted to. I believe that I broke down aspects of this topic well connecting it to the purpose (thesis) of the essay but transitioning was a little harder regardless if I did pretty okay with it. The part where I had to speak about indigenous people and black women was not written the way I wanted to write it. I squeezed both in but even. I wanted to connect modern times and history to both groups of people in their own section. I think if I had not done this essay in one sitting, it would have been better for me because it was meant to be done bit by bit. I have learned more in depth on how to make sources integrate better but if i am being honest, this part confused me in a sense. I am very used to just naturally including the source/evidence in my essays and the templates given to us didn’t fit the way I have written this essay. I hope that makes sense. Again, I did not even complete the worksheet given to us so I think it is because I did not get to practice with it. In this essay I did it “my own way” which wasn’t the way it was told to do. Closing this question of, learning outcome #8 “compose texts that integrate with your stance with appropriate sources using strategies such as summary, critical analysis, interpretation, synthesis, and argumentation”. Synthesis was a big one in this phase. I have been given the opportunity to witness strategies in class and it has given me better insight on the way essays can be broken down in better ways to build it up. Lastly, I enjoyed this phase because it had more to do with topics we have no bother speaking about. Furthering my knowledge on concerns of the world around us is always something beneficial for society and I.
Naomi Michel
Composition English
11/9/21
Research Essay Paper (Phase 3 Assignment)
The Wide Practice of Coerced Sterilizations in America
If your lineage in America dates as far back to the mid 1900’s, chances are they have been sterilized by the U.S. government without their consent or by coercion. As we know it, America has a pretty hefty history when it comes to the mistreatment of people. Intriguingly enough, folks are still shocked to hear about degrading practices that (till this day) happen right under their noses. It remains present in the books of law, communities that are deemed low class, and well trusted state institutions. In this case we are speaking of the practice of Eugenics. It means “doctrine of progress in evolution of the human race, race-culture”. It is the process of aiming to improve genetic qualities by selective breeding. Selective breeding wasn’t and isn’t the only way this idea is pushed though. Sterilization procedures play a huge part and have led to family shame and sadness. These laws were compulsorily issued to all groups of people deemed undesirable, such as mentally disabled/ill people, criminals, and people of color, but today we will speak about how this act is majorly active towards women of color in America.
About the Laws
Most people who think about forced sterilization laws dont first think of the United States of America. Places like Germany and China are almost always first brought up but the United States was actually the first place where a concrete government gave permission to officials to have it be done to people. There are laws issued to specific groups of people splattered all throughout the early 1900’s. These took place in over 30 states but I will be using two as an example, Pennsylvania and California, connecting one of the States to modern times. Pennsylvania’s first sterilization bill was passed in 1905 and it was entitled “An Act for the Prevention of Idiocy”. It was vetoed a couple months after that but then came another passed by the Senate in the year 1921. Although both these times held on for just a few months, it led to about 270 sterilizations occurring in public institutions. Both of them had similar reasoning which was expressed in this statement by the senate. A professor of the University of Vermont, Lutz Kealber, found out in his studies that the Senate had said “of institutions having the care and custody of idiodic, imbecile, epileptic, feeble-minded and insane persons in cases where such sterilization would materially improve the mental or physical condition of such persons and in cases where owing the idiocy, imbecility, or feeblemindedness of such persons not being in permanent custody procreation by such persons would produce offspring similarly affected ”(https://www.uvm.edu/~lkaelber/eugenics/PA/PA.html). California runs bigger in the numbers of victims as it has more than 20,000 victims. This is only prior to the 1960’s! Their first (out of three) sterilization law were passed in 1909. Professor Lutz also found that the targets were “patients in state hospitals and institutions of the feeble-minded. In terms of the prisoners, the law targeted those who were inmates for life, showing “sex or moral perversions”, or were certain repeat offenders”(https://www.uvm.edu/~lkaelber/eugenics/CA/CA.html ). Different states had some of the same reasons but one difference we can see is that California had a huge focus on inmates.
The suspicious act on women’s reproductive system
With todays whistle blowers (in California), they would recall that those sterilized recently aren’t of those “showing sex or moral preversions” but women who did not voluntarily agree to do this with knowledge about the pratice. Interestly enough, the surplus of these acts on women isn’t only recent. In the program, between 1919 and 1952, women and girls were 14 percent more likely to be sterilized than men and boys which took place in California of course. The link to this as previously stated before is that whistle blowers share some scary information about recent sterilizations going on in California female prisons. Natatsha Lennard wrote an article which states “As recently as 2013, an investigation found that at least 148 female inmates in two California prisons were sterilized between 2006 to 2010; many of the women said they were coerced into the procedure” (https://theintercept.com/2020/09/17/forced-sterilization-ice-us-history/) . Bringing even more suspicion into this, these performances were able to be done with the action of the state paying doctors $147,000.
Connection to black and brown Women
Eugenics were fueled by racist agendas from the very beginning and it’s funny because medical surgeries were able to be a thing with the “help” of enslaved black women. White doctors did non consensual procedures such as C sections and removal of ovaries. Since the belief that black women cannot feel pain was widely believed around that time, anaesia wasn’t given to these women. Bridging this to the conversation about eugenics, Angelina Chapin, a senior writer shared that “North Carolina’s board was one of the most aggressive: the state performed surgeries on more than 7,600 people between the 1930s and the 1970s, 65% of whom were black women.” (https://www.thecut.com/article/ices-forced-sterilizations-are-nothing-new-in-america.html ). One of the men behind eugenics was named Charles Davenport. One of his quotes that I believe we need to pay attention to is when he shared “Can we build a wall high enough around this country, to keep out these cheaper races”. In the early 1900’s, sterilizations were taking place in mental institutions and hospitals, as well as prisons but it has expanded to immigration camps for quite some time now. Prisons and immigration camps are known to have a higher number of black and brown demographics vs white people. Places like California have had large populations of immigrants coming in around the height of these programs so is it a coincidence? Does it really have nothing to do with women of color? What about indigenous women? From this video (https://youtu.be/UGqWRyBCHhw) , we are told that America has had an agenda with wiping out high numbers of indigenous people. Agelina Chapin also shared information that lets us know “During the same time that Roe v. Wade granted mostly white women more bodily autonomy in the 1970s, up to 50% of Native American women were forcibly sterilized by the U.S. government. Doctors from the Indian Health Service (IHS) didn’t believe these women were intelligent enough to use birth control, and doctors coerced them into signing consent forms or gave them misleading information. Many drank themselves to death when they found out they had been sterilized” (https://www.thecut.com/article/ices-forced-sterilizations-are-nothing-new-in-america.html) . It’s a shame what has been done to these women. Some driven to the point of suicide after finding out about these dark events. It is safe to say that America has done its part when it comes to terrorizing and taking away from Women. Many people have made their theories on why this might be but you can’t deny that they have been a target because of racial reasons. These practices are told in a way where they are over with but it’s still alive and privately common today. Our country is well aware that health is an important thing for us human beings, yet female wombs aren’t taken into account. The conversation goes on and on from planned parenthood, hysterectomies , which is more spoken about. Eugenics need to start coming back into the conversation in a huge way.
Works cited Page
Kaelber, Lutz. “Pennsylvania.” Pennsylvania Eugenics, https://www.uvm.edu/~lkaelber/eugenics/PA/PA.html
Lutz, Kealber. “California .” California Eugenics, https://www.uvm.edu/~lkaelber/eugenics/CA/CA.html
Lennard, Natasha. “The Long, Disgraceful History of American Attacks on Brown and Black Women’s Reproductive Systems.” The Intercept, 17 Sept. 2020, https://theintercept.com/2020/09/17/forced-sterilization-ice-us-history/
Chapin, Angelina. “Reports of Ice’s Forced Hysterectomies Are Nothing New in America.” The Cut, The Cut, 15 Sept. 2020, https://www.thecut.com/article/ices-forced-sterilizations-are-nothing-new-in-america.html
Youtube Video: https://youtu.be/UGqWRyBCHhw
