Acumen

EIS Conference 2025

The F Word: "Feebleminded" Black Bodies under the

Eugenic Gaze
 

Despite the fallacy of race traits, Black bodies continue to be viewed through eugenic-based conjecture that define them as medically unfit, socially inept, morally bankrupt, and inherently violent.  Historically classified under the catchall term, feebleminded, Black people and their cultures continue to exist, wedged between an imagined inferiority and a forceful reality.  The F-Word: "Feebleminded" Black Bodies under the Eugenic Gaze, examines the modern proliferation of anti-black sentiments associated with eugenic beliefs in black inferiority.  This talk also analyzes the substitution of the term feebleminded, for words like "urban," and "ghetto" to denote Otherness, particularly using the media and pop culture.