The Quiet Reality of Everyday Eugenics

In this episode of PsyberSpace, host Leslie Poston digs into the pervasive issue of everyday eugenics embedded in our society. Unlike historical instances marked by overt brutality, today's eugenics are subtle and ingrained in policies, healthcare, media, and cultural mindset. Leslie explores how the worth of individuals is unjustly tied to their productivity, leading to harmful social and systemic practices that marginalize people unable to meet those expectations. The episode highlights the dangerous ideologies underlying healthcare access, policy decisions, and media representation, urging listeners to name the issues, support disabled communities, challenge ableism, and push for systemic change to ensure the inherent value of every person is recognized and respected.

00:00 Introduction to Everyday Eugenics
01:42 The Productivity Trap
03:48 Healthcare as a Gatekeeping Tool
14:38 Media's Role in Shaping Perceptions
17:01 Internalized Ableism and Its Consequences
20:41 Challenging the System and Taking Action
23:29 Conclusion and Call to Action

Research

Annamma, S. A., Connor, D., & Ferri, B. (2013). Dis/ability critical race studies (DisCrit): Theorizing at the intersections of race and dis/ability. Race Ethnicity and Education, 16(1), 1-31.

Bagenstos, S. R. (2009). Law and the contradictions of the disability rights movement. Yale University Press.

Baynton, D. C. (2001). Disability and the justification of inequality in American history. In P. K. Longmore & L. Umansky (Eds.), The new disability history: American perspectives (pp. 33–57). NYU Press.

Benjamin, R. (2019). Race after technology: Abolitionist tools for the new Jim code. Polity Press.

Blanck, P., Sandler, L. A., Schmeling, J. L., & Schartz, H. A. (2000). The emerging workforce of entrepreneurs with disabilities: Preliminary study of entrepreneurship in Iowa. Iowa Law Review, 85(5), 1583-1668.

Butler, J. (2004). Precarious life: The powers of mourning and violence. Verso.

Calvillo, D. P., Ross, B. J., Garcia, R. J., Smelter, T. J., & Rutchick, A. M. (2020). Political ideology predicts perceptions of the threat of COVID-19 (and susceptibility to fake news about it). Social Psychological and Personality Science, 11(8), 1119-1128.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019). Racial and ethnic disparities continue in pregnancy-related deaths. https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2022/p0919-pregnancy-related-deaths.html

Connor, D. J., & Gabel, S. L. (2013). "Cripping" the curriculum through academic activism: Working toward increasing success for students with disabilities. Review of Disability Studies, 9(1), 12-27.

Garland-Thomson, R. (2002). The politics of staring: Visual rhetorics of disability in popular photography. Disability Studies Quarterly, 22(2), 56–75. https://doi.org/10.18061/dsq.v22i2.369

Gerbner, G., Gross, L., Morgan, M., & Signorielli, N. (2002). Growing up with television: Cultivation processes. In J. Bryant & D. Zillmann (Eds.), Media effects: Advances in theory and research (2nd ed., pp. 43–67). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Green, J., Edgerton, J., Naftel, D., Shoub, K., & Cranmer, S. J. (2020). Elusive consensus: Polarization in elite communication on the COVID-19 pandemic. Science Advances, 6(28), eabc2717. 

Hart, P. S., Chinn, S., & Soroka, S. (2020). Politicization and polarization in COVID-19 news coverage. Science Communication, 42(5), 679-697.

Jost, J. T., Banaji, M. R., & Nosek, B. A. (2004). A decade of system justification theory: Accumulated evidence of conscious and unconscious bolstering of the status quo. Political Psychology, 25(6), 881–919. 

Michener, J. (2018). Fragmented democracy: Medicaid, federalism, and unequal politics. Cambridge University Press.

Mingus, M. (2011). Access intimacy: The missing link. Leaving Evidence. https://leavingevidence.wordpress.com/2011/05/05/access-intimacy-the-missing-link/

Mingus, M. (2017). Pod Mapping Practice. Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective.

Obermeyer, Z., Powers, B., Vogeli, C., & Mullainathan, S. (2019). Dissecting racial bias in an algorithm used to manage the health of populations. Science, 366(6464), 447–453. 

Pendo, E. A. (2008). Disability, equipment barriers, and women’s health: Using the ADA to provide meaningful access. Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy, 2(1), 15–46.

Slovic, P. (2007). If I look at the mass I will never act: Psychic numbing and genocide. Judgment and Decision Making, 2(2), 79–95.

Slovic, P., Västfjäll, D., Erlandsson, A., & Gregory, R. (2017). Iconic photographs and the ebb and flow of empathic response to humanitarian disasters. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(4), 640-644.

Spade, D. (2020). Mutual aid: Building solidarity during this crisis (and the next). Verso Books.

Weber, M. (2002). The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism (Original work published 1905). Routledge.

Wendell, S. (1996). The rejected body: Feminist philosophical reflections on disability. Routledge.

Update July 3rd: I just came across this book by Lisa Diedrich that is relevant as well: https://manifold.umn.edu/projects/llness-politics-and-hashtag-activism