From Genocide to Sterilization: California’s Unbroken Legacy of Ethnic Cleansing

Migratory Mexican field worker’s home in Imperial Valley, California. Photographed by Dorothea Lange, 1938


California’s genocide against Native peoples was just the opening act. By the 20th century, the state had pioneered eugenics laws that forcibly sterilized over 20,000 people—mostly poor women of Mexican descent, Indigenous residents, and disabled inmates. These programs, which inspired Nazi Germany’s racial hygiene policies, were funded by the state and framed as “public health.” Victims were told they were undergoing appendectomies, only to wake up infertile and violated.

The throughline? A state-sanctioned belief that some bodies are disposable. From scalp bounties to sterilization tables, California perfected the art of erasure with a smile.

(Source: HISTORY - California’s Little-Known Genocide)

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