Race suicide
Eugenics sought to eliminate these people, such that their "undesirable traits and behaviors" would be effectively weeded out of the human population over time.
[5] As a result of fear-mongering, race suicide theorists in the 20th century turned to socio-political institutions, pseudoscientific propaganda, and social policy.
[9] The 1924 Johnson-Reed Act, which was passed partly to "combat the specter race suicide",[10]: 352 brought this to an extreme by banning all Asian Americans.
[9] Institutional and cultural mechanisms in the U.S. worked in tandem to promote the image of women of color as hypersexualized and thus threatening to the survival of the white race.
[15] Joseph Johnson gathered similar observations, specifically on enslaved women, noting that there were "surprisingly few preternatural or instrumental cases [forceps deliveries] among them".
[17] Overall, George Beard best summarized these dynamics in 1881 when explicitly surmised, "nervous disease scarcely exists among savages or barbarians, or semi-barbarians or partially civilized people".
Fear-mongering tactics relied on the idea that the "fit" group would ultimately dwindle to the point of extinction if they did not adopt an urgency to reproduce.
This rhetoric was later extended to further entrench the eugenic claim that African Americans and other immigrants "races" with growing populations were "unfit," "hypersexual," and "dangerous.
"[20] In 1902, Theodore Roosevelt, the President of the United States, called race suicide "fundamentally infinitely more important than any other question in this country," arguing to the American public that "the man or woman who deliberately avoids marriage, and has a heart so cold as to know no passion and a brain so shallow and selfish as to dislike having children, is in effect a criminal against the race, and should be an object of contemptuous abhorrence by all healthy people."
"[21][22] This political agenda further targeted women and criticized them for choosing not to fulfill their "duty" of getting married and having children and thus maintaining the White population.
[23] Many newspaper articles claimed that this great increase was a threat that these non-White groups would have greater participation and more of an influence in politics in the future.
[24] In contrast, women who left a "legacy" after their death by having numerous children, and subsequently, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, were openly praised for helping to "fight against" the idea of race suicide.
[25] As the teddy bear, which was named after Theodore Roosevelt, increased in popularity, some individuals were worried that young girls who did not play with dolls as often would lose their "motherly instincts".
[27] It was no longer only political figures, but also ministers, educators, and other individuals in leadership positions who were pushing for legislation to encourage White Americans to marry and have children.
"The Canadian Immigration Policy" cited the native-born population's "struggle to keep up appearances in the face of the increasing competition" as a purported cause of its low birth rate.
