Early twentieth-century America saw the snowballing popularity of eugenics, a racist pseudoscience that aspired to eliminate human beings deemed “unfit” in favor of the Nordic stereotypes. Twenty-seven state governments enshrined elements of the philosophy as official policy by enacting forced sterilization and segregation laws and marriage restrictions. In 1909, California became the third state to adopt laws requiring sterilization of intellectually challenged Americans. Ultimately, eugenics practitioners coercively sterilized some 60,000 Americans.”
