Imagine being a young mother with a small child trying to survive in a home for the disabled. Your fate is in the hands of doctors who believe your very existence is wrong. What do white doctors do with a Black woman they view as flawed who's already had one child?
When we speak of eugenics today, 1930s Germany is what most imagine. Images of Nazis and the Aryan Brotherhood fill the mind. However, Germany learned all of their tricks from America. More specifically, they learned from how doctors in the Carolinas experimented on us.
From 1929 to 1974, North Carolina treated Black people, especially Black women, as lab rats, sterilizing them without their knowledge or consent. Why? Because white supremacists wanted to create a race of perfect people. Black men and women, especially those with disabilities, were far from perfect in their eyes.
Today, North Carolina is known as one of the haven spots for Black people and Black wealth in the country. In fact, many of the cities in the state rank highest in the nation for Black economic success. But was the price those before us paid worth our current riches?
From slavery to forced sterilizations and births, anti-Blackness has tried to find ways to eliminate us. It's so ingrained in mainstream society that doctors are blind to it. We must continue to fight for ourselves, our bodily autonomy, and the truth of our history.