Alysha Live! http://www.blogtalkradio.com/alyshalive/2013/12/08/alysha-live-radio-show-against-their-will-part-1-with-guest-elaine-riddick Radio Show " Against Their Will" Part-2 with Guest Elaine Riddick 12/15 by Alysha Live | Entertainment Podcasts
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| Alysha Jefferson Riley |
Every once in a while a story will come along that will strike you in the core of your very existence and will hit you emotionally in places you would never imagine. That was the case with me after meeting and talking with my guest for this week’s show Elaine Riddick and learning more about the ordeal she endured as a victim of the North Carolina Eugenics Board Forced Sterilization Program.
I must admit that before talking with Elaine, I knew of the ordeal but not the full extent of what occurred to her and many of the individuals that were victims of the program's heinous acts. To learn of yet another one of America’s dark eras and secret crimes against humanity reopened the wounds that many woman and African Americans are still trying to heal, while at the same time nursing present day scars.
As the African Americans community continues to deal with the affects and fall-out of slavery, Jim Crow, racism, poverty and one of the cruelest and infamous experiments done, The Tuskegee experiment we are given another band-aid. Who can forget the 600 black sharecroppers that were tricked by the U.S Public Health Service thinking they were getting free health services when in fact they were used as Ginny Pigs as part of a study of untreated syphilis in rural African American men.
It was inconceivable
to think the U.S would sanction a policy that would lead to over 60,000
American individuals sterilized by a program that was active in 30 states. Even more horrifying is the thought that the
American Eugenics laws and practices would become the evil twin that Hitler
used between 1934 and 1945 which led to the sterilization of 350,000 Jews, and
the prelude to the Holocaust. One can’t
deny that our county’s history has blood on its hands, however unlike
Germany, that acknowledged wrong and have taken steps to rid the horrors of its
past, the U.S has done very little to right the wrongs of its Eugenics programs.
In North Carolina over 7600 individuals were sterilized by the North Carolina Eugenics Board. Of those that were sterilized up until 1960 women made up 85% and men 15% of the victims. After 1960, sterilizations on men were stopped and women made up 99% of the victims, of which African American woman made up 60% and considered as a targeted group along with the disable. Sadly, to say this program had only one goal rooted in genocide and hatred for individuals who did not fit their mold of Americanism. Until recent North Carolina was forced to own up to its crimes against its citizenry and awarded, the victims a $10 million dollar settlement, but unfortunately other states that participated in the eugenics program have remain silent.
As I talked to Elaine, I felt her pain and heard the pain in her voice. I heard the pain of a woman that was robbed of the hope and right to give birth to another child. I also heard her cry for help to bring awareness and justice for her and other victims. I also heard my spirit say Take A Stand for this! I hope that you would take a minute to listen to the broadcast of “Against Their Will” part 1 which aired Dec 8 and part 2 on Dec 15 to hear Elaine share her riveting story so you too will take that stand.
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