“The Kallikak Family — a study in the heredity of feeblemindedness” (Goddard, 1912)

How Racist Was the American Eugenics Movement?

The semantics of ‘race’ may be more complicated than we think.

Consider this phrase: To improve the race.

Which race? The human race? The white race? The white, American-born, northern European race? If I learned one thing during my career as a linguist, I learned about ambiguity. The term ‘race’ — certainly no…