Eugenics without Racism?

Is it possible to have a TL where the eugenics movement is based on objective science instead of the alleged superiority of certain races? I put this in the pre-1900 category because even though the eugenics movement didn't start until about 1920, it seems a POD about 50 years earlier would be required....
 
Well, you could have intelligence-based eugenics, strength-based eugenics, physical/metal-handicap-based eugenics (a Nazi thing), or (if you disregard the science aspect) even class-based eugenics.

Come to think of it, most types of eugenics aren't really concerned with race at all.
 
If you get an earlier modern evolutionary synthesis, say, if Mendel's work is rediscovered/created by a sufficiently respected/clever contemporary of Darwin, then you could have all the tools required to do eugenics in a period when it would be unacceptable. One of my eternally unfinished TLs had this as one of its downsides - with Leagues for the Promotion of Hereditary Hygiene established in the 19th century across Europe and North America, paying the indigent poor not to have children (and later be sterilized) and campaigning for grants to be given to mothers who could pass exams. (It also had the British more influenced by the culture of the Chinese Civil Service, which they commanded, so merit based exams became popular earlier).

In this scenario, eugenics might become sufficiently embedded in culture and the growing state apparatuses that by the time scientific racism is discredited eugenics is reformed rather than totally discredited - too many people have careers and bureaucracies have developed with budgets to defend.
 

Jomazi

Banned
No, racism is not needed. The most usedexample is that negroid Africans score lower on IQ-tests, which could or could not be genetic. The only thing that has been proven is that at least part of the "gap" between whites and blacks has to do with enviroment and cultural attitudes*. How much no one knows, though theories exist to estimate this.

If you wanted to create a eugenic policy without racism, all you'd need to do would be to base it on some kind of tests (IQ/g) or perhaps grades or somesuch.

Some groups would be disadvantaged, but it would not be due to bias but due to their performance. As an example, if intelligence was tested, Jews as a group would outperform most others, followed by asians and so on, leading to an advantage. If instead/also negative eugenics were employed, negroids, gypsies and latin americans as groups would be the ones at a disadvantage.

Without a racial dimension to it, the difference would be that an intelligent black person / gypsy / latino would be considered "A group" while a stupid white / jew / asian would end up in "C" group, if we consider an eugenic policy based on intelligence where A group are thrown money to have more children while C- group are sterilized/taxed or whatever while the B group in between is neutral.

This is why textbook "aryan patriot white pride" people refuse to consider anything but old fashion skull measuring. They'd all end up in C-class along with gangbangers and the rest of the rabble.



*Main indication is said to be that their curve is "flattened" compared to the bell curve of the whites/asians. It seems like it is simply quite hard to reach a certain level of stupidity. This means that if rougly 1/7 of the white pop. has an IQ of under 85, (15 points or one standard-deviation lower than usual), one would expect that out of a black population with an average IQ of 87, rougly the same proportion would have an IQ of under 72. (87-15). This is not the case, the proportion is lower which is said to indicate that the difference is not purely genetic but more based on other factors. Math and particulary statistics are not my strongest sides however, so I cannot verify this.
 
Thank you all for your replies. I guess I already understood the mechanics of how eugenics without racism would work. What I was really looking for was a POD that would lead to a legitimate science-based eugenics movement in the 1920s, rather than one based on social class or some silly theory that blonde hair and blue eyes are per se superior traits. For example, dark skin is an advantage at tropical latitudes, as the skin cancer rates among white Australians shows....
 
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