WEBVTT

00:00:05.125 --> 00:00:07.792
(air swooshing)

00:00:15.167 --> 00:00:19.334
(gentle music)
(fireworks crackling)

00:00:25.167 --> 00:00:28.375
- For the entire span of recorded history,

00:00:28.375 --> 00:00:32.959
the assumption has always
been that biology is destiny.

00:00:32.959 --> 00:00:34.918
It\'s all predetermined,

00:00:34.918 --> 00:00:37.876
and there\'s nothing you could do about it.

00:00:37.876 --> 00:00:42.501
We crystallized the new
idea of the 18th century,

00:00:42.501 --> 00:00:46.501
which was people could
make their own destinies.

00:00:48.375 --> 00:00:50.501
- \"We hold these truths to be self-evident

00:00:50.501 --> 00:00:52.792
\"that all are created equal.\"

00:00:52.792 --> 00:00:54.792
On the other hand, you\'ve
got a lot of people

00:00:54.792 --> 00:00:56.209
who are left out.

00:00:57.626 --> 00:00:58.751
At the start of the Republic,

00:00:58.751 --> 00:01:02.709
you had this very
unequal founding reality.

00:01:02.709 --> 00:01:05.417
People of color effectively
weren\'t even humans.

00:01:05.417 --> 00:01:06.292
If you don\'t own property,

00:01:06.292 --> 00:01:08.834
your rights are in the garbage can.

00:01:08.834 --> 00:01:11.292
Women didn\'t have the
right to vote in America.

00:01:11.292 --> 00:01:12.626
It was horrible.

00:01:13.918 --> 00:01:15.000
What it means to be an American

00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:16.417
is to be a part of this project

00:01:16.417 --> 00:01:19.709
of trying to get that ugly unequal reality

00:01:19.709 --> 00:01:22.125
closer and closer to
the beauty of the dream.

00:01:22.125 --> 00:01:25.667
(gentle music)
(applauding)

00:01:25.667 --> 00:01:29.375
Our internal quest to
live up to this promise

00:01:29.375 --> 00:01:30.375
changed the whole world.

00:01:30.375 --> 00:01:34.459
It changed the entire view
of humanity of itself,

00:01:35.292 --> 00:01:38.959
and yet you have these people
who didn\'t get the memo.

00:01:38.959 --> 00:01:40.042
They just seemed to have missed

00:01:40.042 --> 00:01:41.876
the whole point of the country,

00:01:41.876 --> 00:01:45.083
and they actually think
that the founding reality

00:01:45.083 --> 00:01:48.501
of profound inequality is fine with them,

00:01:49.375 --> 00:01:52.709
and that view even tries
to masquerade as science.

00:01:52.709 --> 00:01:55.209
(tense music)

00:01:56.375 --> 00:01:57.834
- [Interviewer] I\'m merely
drawing attention to the fact

00:01:57.834 --> 00:02:02.000
that you believe that poor
people are genetically different.

00:02:02.918 --> 00:02:03.751
- Yes.

00:02:07.125 --> 00:02:09.792
- For a century or more,
scholars have known

00:02:09.792 --> 00:02:12.751
that the differences among
people in intelligence

00:02:12.751 --> 00:02:14.459
is largely inherited.

00:02:16.501 --> 00:02:19.542
- When you extract the general
factor of intelligence,

00:02:19.542 --> 00:02:22.250
males, on average, score

00:02:22.250 --> 00:02:25.417
3.6, four IQ points higher than women.

00:02:26.542 --> 00:02:28.709
- [Reporter] Even Rushton
admits that\'s tiny

00:02:28.709 --> 00:02:32.876
but says it explains why you
see fewer women in top jobs.

00:02:34.375 --> 00:02:36.042
- You see where this takes us in some

00:02:36.042 --> 00:02:38.709
very, very dangerous directions.

00:02:39.918 --> 00:02:42.626
Biologically determined politics.

00:02:46.083 --> 00:02:50.167
- Dysgenic immigration,
Hispanics in particular,

00:02:50.167 --> 00:02:53.042
but also other peoples with low IQs

00:02:53.042 --> 00:02:57.167
will clearly have an effect
on reducing the intelligence

00:02:57.167 --> 00:03:01.334
of the host populations that
have to absorb these people.

00:03:03.083 --> 00:03:07.250
- We are back to blood as a
determination of character.

00:03:08.959 --> 00:03:11.167
We\'ve learned nothing from the Holocaust,

00:03:11.167 --> 00:03:15.959
nothing from Darfur, nothing
from emergent capacity of evil

00:03:15.959 --> 00:03:17.667
that people do to each
other on the grounds

00:03:17.667 --> 00:03:21.334
of someone being different
from them by birth,

00:03:21.334 --> 00:03:24.626
so that person is not only
talking biological nonsense,

00:03:24.626 --> 00:03:27.209
he\'s talking dangerous
biological nonsense.

00:03:27.209 --> 00:03:29.709
(tense music)

00:03:47.834 --> 00:03:50.501
(horns honking)

00:03:59.626 --> 00:04:04.042
- There\'s a strong belief that
the differences in society,

00:04:04.042 --> 00:04:05.542
those who are poor, those who are rich,

00:04:05.542 --> 00:04:09.375
those who are smart,
everything is in the genes.

00:04:09.375 --> 00:04:11.292
That it\'s the internal

00:04:11.292 --> 00:04:13.584
that determines everything,
not the external.

00:04:13.584 --> 00:04:16.542
The external is something you
do with politics or society,

00:04:16.542 --> 00:04:18.709
but biology is internal.

00:04:18.709 --> 00:04:21.667
And so, every view of the gene is,

00:04:21.667 --> 00:04:25.083
it is the determiner because it\'s inside.

00:04:27.876 --> 00:04:31.417
- I think it\'s important
to explode the gene myth,

00:04:31.417 --> 00:04:34.250
a false belief that makes us think

00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:39.542
that genes can do anything and everything

00:04:39.542 --> 00:04:43.334
and are responsible for
anything and everything

00:04:43.334 --> 00:04:46.375
that we do and that happens in our lives.

00:04:46.375 --> 00:04:48.125
(tense music)

00:04:48.125 --> 00:04:50.584
- [Reporter] A new study
claims that a genetic variant

00:04:50.584 --> 00:04:54.167
is responsible for cheating
and promiscuous behavior.

00:04:54.167 --> 00:04:56.584
- Are you a Liberal or a Conservative?

00:04:56.584 --> 00:04:58.918
Either way you may have
been born predisposed

00:04:58.918 --> 00:05:01.417
to leaning one way or the other.

00:05:01.417 --> 00:05:03.000
- According to your genes,

00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:05.709
you guys are actually
extremely sexually compatible.

00:05:05.709 --> 00:05:08.667
(cheering)

00:05:08.667 --> 00:05:10.250
- [Reporter] Is there
something in their DNA--

00:05:10.250 --> 00:05:12.918
- We tested each of you
for the Warrior gene.

00:05:12.918 --> 00:05:14.542
- [Reporter] that causes them to rage?

00:05:14.542 --> 00:05:16.125
- And the results are in.

00:05:16.125 --> 00:05:17.417
- Do we believe in the gene thing?

00:05:17.417 --> 00:05:18.584
I mean, I do.

00:05:18.584 --> 00:05:21.000
Winning is somewhat, maybe innate,

00:05:21.000 --> 00:05:22.417
you know you have the winning gene.

00:05:22.417 --> 00:05:24.792
- [Reporter] The horror movie gene.

00:05:24.792 --> 00:05:26.334
- [Reporter] The God gene.

00:05:26.334 --> 00:05:29.167
- Could there be a terrorist gene?

00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:34.501
- There is no evidence for
any genes for these things,

00:05:34.501 --> 00:05:37.501
but it is a kind of unfounded belief

00:05:39.375 --> 00:05:43.000
and molecular biology has
become a religion in a sense

00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:46.918
that people accept it
without questioning it,

00:05:46.918 --> 00:05:51.626
and the people who are doing
it at the highest level

00:05:51.626 --> 00:05:55.375
are its prophets, and when
they tell you something,

00:05:55.375 --> 00:05:57.417
you should believe what the prophets

00:05:57.417 --> 00:05:58.834
or the disciples tell you.

00:05:58.834 --> 00:06:01.584
(ethereal music)

00:06:13.542 --> 00:06:14.667
- [Narrator] Ever since
he helped to discover

00:06:14.667 --> 00:06:17.459
the structure of DNA in 1953,

00:06:17.459 --> 00:06:20.417
biologist James Watson has
been the leading evangelist

00:06:20.417 --> 00:06:23.501
for the belief in the power of genes.

00:06:25.918 --> 00:06:30.042
- Genes, because they are the
script for life, have power.

00:06:31.542 --> 00:06:33.167
We\'d like to think

00:06:33.167 --> 00:06:35.751
we could be anything we wanted,

00:06:37.584 --> 00:06:39.334
but I think we can\'t.

00:06:44.334 --> 00:06:47.417
- [Narrator] In Watson\'s view,
inequality is unavoidable

00:06:47.417 --> 00:06:50.959
and written into our DNA,
so it\'s naive to imagine

00:06:50.959 --> 00:06:54.834
that we can achieve a truly equal society.

00:06:54.834 --> 00:06:57.042
- It\'s just evolution happening.

00:06:57.042 --> 00:07:00.000
This evolution, it
depends on random changes

00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:04.250
in genetic messages
which makes some organism

00:07:04.250 --> 00:07:09.000
better able to survive
and others not that able.

00:07:09.000 --> 00:07:11.792
Once you start thinking
in terms of evolution,

00:07:11.792 --> 00:07:16.709
you\'re not surprised by
seeing a lot of inequality.

00:07:16.709 --> 00:07:19.542
You know, that all men are created equal,

00:07:19.542 --> 00:07:23.709
we know is a political statement
not a scientific statement.

00:07:28.042 --> 00:07:29.626
- [Narrator] Biologist Edward O. Wilson

00:07:29.626 --> 00:07:31.709
shares Watson\'s view.

00:07:31.709 --> 00:07:35.334
He\'s well known for his vigorous
defense of biodiversity,

00:07:35.334 --> 00:07:37.751
but he\'s also a leading
advocate of the theory

00:07:37.751 --> 00:07:39.417
that we are essentially imprisoned

00:07:39.417 --> 00:07:44.292
by paleolithic genes encoded
in our DNA 100,000 years ago

00:07:44.292 --> 00:07:48.375
when modern humans evolved
from more primitive species.

00:07:48.375 --> 00:07:50.167
- If I can simplify and
tell me if I\'m wrong,

00:07:50.167 --> 00:07:52.667
behavior comes from genes.

00:07:52.667 --> 00:07:55.167
- Ultimately from genes, yeah.

00:07:56.584 --> 00:07:59.375
- [Narrator] Wilson believes
there are biological barriers

00:07:59.375 --> 00:08:01.667
that prevent us from having free will

00:08:01.667 --> 00:08:04.292
because we\'re unconsciously
directed by genes

00:08:04.292 --> 00:08:06.459
that predispose us to aggression,

00:08:06.459 --> 00:08:10.375
tribalism, male dominance,
and other behaviors.

00:08:11.417 --> 00:08:13.125
- We have, what I like to call,

00:08:13.125 --> 00:08:15.959
the genetic leash on culture

00:08:15.959 --> 00:08:19.125
that is absolutely unique
to the human species.

00:08:19.125 --> 00:08:23.125
There\'s a different link
and kind of genetic leash

00:08:23.125 --> 00:08:27.042
for every category or
subcategory of behavior.

00:08:27.042 --> 00:08:29.083
(cheerful music)

00:08:29.083 --> 00:08:31.334
- [Narrator] Looking
through the lens of biology,

00:08:31.334 --> 00:08:35.834
Wilson described how humans
got their human nature.

00:08:35.834 --> 00:08:38.375
Male humans were originally hunters,

00:08:38.375 --> 00:08:40.000
they evolved to be aggressive

00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:42.542
and are still innately violent.

00:08:42.542 --> 00:08:44.792
Males are driven to multiply their genes

00:08:44.792 --> 00:08:48.000
and are not, by nature, monogamous.

00:08:48.000 --> 00:08:50.250
They have evolved to think analytically

00:08:50.250 --> 00:08:51.751
and are more likely than females

00:08:51.751 --> 00:08:55.918
to end up with jobs in
business, politics, or science.

00:08:57.375 --> 00:08:59.292
Female humans are genetically programmed

00:08:59.292 --> 00:09:01.459
to have maternal feelings.

00:09:01.459 --> 00:09:05.292
They have evolved strategies
to catch and to keep males.

00:09:05.292 --> 00:09:09.626
They are, by nature, coy
and faithful homemakers.

00:09:09.626 --> 00:09:12.751
Although females have
superior verbal abilities,

00:09:12.751 --> 00:09:15.626
their brains are less equipped
to think analytically,

00:09:15.626 --> 00:09:19.459
allowing them to perform
repetitive domestic tasks.

00:09:19.459 --> 00:09:23.209
For Wilson, our evolutionary
past was still with us,

00:09:23.209 --> 00:09:25.626
living on in specific patterns of behavior

00:09:25.626 --> 00:09:27.626
controlled by our genes.

00:09:31.792 --> 00:09:33.375
- [Narrator] E.O. Wilson writes that

00:09:33.375 --> 00:09:35.250
\"even with identical education

00:09:35.250 --> 00:09:37.584
\"and equal access to all professions,

00:09:37.584 --> 00:09:41.042
\"men are likely to continue to
play a disproportionate role

00:09:41.042 --> 00:09:44.626
\"in political life,
business, and science.\"

00:09:46.626 --> 00:09:50.501
- That\'s a very important
justifying ideology.

00:09:50.501 --> 00:09:53.709
If you believe that all
these characteristics,

00:09:53.709 --> 00:09:55.584
first of all are universal,

00:09:55.584 --> 00:09:57.709
and secondly that they\'re in the genes,

00:09:57.709 --> 00:09:59.959
then you would be forced to say

00:09:59.959 --> 00:10:02.584
we must have society as it is now.

00:10:02.584 --> 00:10:04.334
So, it destroys any question

00:10:04.334 --> 00:10:07.334
of political morality to change things

00:10:07.334 --> 00:10:11.125
and it also destroys any claim
that we could change things.

00:10:11.125 --> 00:10:12.959
So it has tremendous importance.

00:10:12.959 --> 00:10:15.876
(gentle music)

00:10:15.876 --> 00:10:17.042
- [Narrator] Biological determinism

00:10:17.042 --> 00:10:19.542
didn\'t begin with genetics.

00:10:19.542 --> 00:10:22.334
Rulers throughout history
claimed their divine right

00:10:22.334 --> 00:10:25.667
to wield power over others was hereditary,

00:10:25.667 --> 00:10:28.542
based in their noble blood.

00:10:28.542 --> 00:10:30.834
Even though the United States
was the first modern republic

00:10:30.834 --> 00:10:34.125
to reject aristocracy based on biology,

00:10:34.125 --> 00:10:36.125
soon after, the nation\'s founding,

00:10:36.125 --> 00:10:38.042
craniometry was being used

00:10:38.042 --> 00:10:40.667
to defend the enslavement of Africans

00:10:40.667 --> 00:10:44.167
and the genocide of Native Americans.

00:10:44.167 --> 00:10:46.125
Prominent scientists dug up skulls

00:10:46.125 --> 00:10:48.959
from native burial grounds
and slave cemeteries,

00:10:48.959 --> 00:10:51.751
measured them, and falsely
claimed that these groups

00:10:51.751 --> 00:10:55.125
had smaller skulls on
average than Caucasians,

00:10:55.125 --> 00:10:59.292
were inferior in intelligence,
and even a lower species.

00:11:01.292 --> 00:11:04.042
The same pseudoscience was
used to oppose women\'s demands

00:11:04.042 --> 00:11:07.375
for equal education and
their right to vote.

00:11:07.375 --> 00:11:09.959
Doctors and anatomists told
women that their brains

00:11:09.959 --> 00:11:13.334
were smaller than men\'s,
making them less intelligent

00:11:13.334 --> 00:11:15.542
and warned them that the
strain of higher learning

00:11:15.542 --> 00:11:18.209
would lead to infertility.

00:11:18.209 --> 00:11:22.209
It took decades to discredit
these false claims.

00:11:23.709 --> 00:11:25.834
- Every century, every decade,

00:11:25.834 --> 00:11:29.626
every year you\'ve gotta
contest this thing.

00:11:29.626 --> 00:11:32.125
It just turns out that, you think,

00:11:32.125 --> 00:11:34.501
oh well after the
Emancipation Proclamation

00:11:34.501 --> 00:11:36.167
we resolved this question, oh well no,

00:11:36.167 --> 00:11:38.000
after Women\'s Suffrage
we resolved the question,

00:11:38.000 --> 00:11:40.709
well after the Civil Rights
Movement, after the, no,

00:11:40.709 --> 00:11:43.501
you\'re gonna have this tug of war,

00:11:43.501 --> 00:11:45.918
but it\'s a fight that has to be had.

00:11:45.918 --> 00:11:50.083
(indistinct chanting)
(gentle music)

00:12:03.501 --> 00:12:05.167
- American exceptionalism I think,

00:12:05.167 --> 00:12:07.584
conceals to women the fact,

00:12:07.584 --> 00:12:09.876
\'cause we\'re always being
told how lucky we are,

00:12:09.876 --> 00:12:11.792
that we are way, way down the list

00:12:11.792 --> 00:12:15.959
in political representation,
in childcare, healthcare,

00:12:17.292 --> 00:12:21.459
equal pay, by almost any
measure we\'re way down the list.

00:12:22.959 --> 00:12:23.792
- [Narrator] When it comes to

00:12:23.792 --> 00:12:26.250
the most powerful positions in society,

00:12:26.250 --> 00:12:29.417
women continue to be a small minority,

00:12:29.417 --> 00:12:31.375
far behind many countries that the U.S.

00:12:31.375 --> 00:12:35.209
often criticizes for
their treatment of women.

00:12:39.501 --> 00:12:42.792
Women remain unequal in
value at the workplace,

00:12:42.792 --> 00:12:44.959
facing discrimination, lower wages,

00:12:44.959 --> 00:12:48.042
and less opportunity for advancement.

00:12:50.542 --> 00:12:51.959
- [Reporter] Harvard
president Larry Summers

00:12:51.959 --> 00:12:54.751
floated the idea that when
it comes to math and science,

00:12:54.751 --> 00:12:58.918
there may be an innate
difference between men and women.

00:12:59.751 --> 00:13:03.334
- [Narrator] Larry Summers
ignited a controversy in 2005,

00:13:03.334 --> 00:13:05.876
when he gave talk as university president

00:13:05.876 --> 00:13:08.918
and suggested that biology
was the primary reason

00:13:08.918 --> 00:13:13.667
for a lack of women in
powerful positions in society.

00:13:13.667 --> 00:13:15.542
- So what he said was, I\'m gonna tell you

00:13:15.542 --> 00:13:17.667
why there aren\'t any women
at the top of anything.

00:13:17.667 --> 00:13:21.125
It\'s not just the academic
world, it\'s law, it\'s medicine,

00:13:21.125 --> 00:13:24.292
it\'s business, they\'re not
at the top of anything.

00:13:24.292 --> 00:13:25.792
- [Narrator] As a faculty
member at Harvard,

00:13:25.792 --> 00:13:29.375
Nancy Hopkins walked out of Summer\'s talk.

00:13:29.375 --> 00:13:32.834
Years before, she\'d helped to
expose how bias against women

00:13:32.834 --> 00:13:35.584
stalled their advancement at MIT,

00:13:35.584 --> 00:13:38.542
which prompted MIT to
make things more equal,

00:13:38.542 --> 00:13:41.042
so she was angry to hear
the president of Harvard

00:13:41.042 --> 00:13:44.876
giving credence to a
biological explanation.

00:13:44.876 --> 00:13:47.083
- These attitudes really have consequences

00:13:47.083 --> 00:13:49.626
in the workplace and
they hold people back.

00:13:49.626 --> 00:13:51.709
And as a leader of students,

00:13:51.709 --> 00:13:53.292
you want to encourage people to achieve

00:13:53.292 --> 00:13:55.083
at the highest level,
not make them believe

00:13:55.083 --> 00:13:56.792
that they could never
reach the highest level

00:13:56.792 --> 00:14:00.334
because their aptitude is not sufficient.

00:14:00.334 --> 00:14:02.959
- I think, you know, the
Larry Summers statement

00:14:02.959 --> 00:14:06.501
was probably correct and his
big mistake was apologizing.

00:14:06.501 --> 00:14:08.375
- Oh no, not at all.

00:14:08.375 --> 00:14:10.334
- Oh no, I, okay.

00:14:10.334 --> 00:14:12.584
(tense)

00:14:12.584 --> 00:14:14.459
- [Narrator] Claims that
biological differences

00:14:14.459 --> 00:14:16.042
are at the root of inequality

00:14:16.042 --> 00:14:20.125
between men and women
continue to make headlines.

00:14:21.834 --> 00:14:25.000
But anthropologist Agustin
Fuentes and others have shown

00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:28.834
that such claims are
based on unsound science.

00:14:31.459 --> 00:14:33.792
- The problem is people
often confuse gender

00:14:33.792 --> 00:14:35.834
with what we call sex, right?

00:14:35.834 --> 00:14:37.209
So, sex is a biological term,

00:14:37.209 --> 00:14:40.125
gender is this very complex historical,

00:14:40.125 --> 00:14:42.751
political, social reality.

00:14:42.751 --> 00:14:47.250
The question is, how do we
understand unequal gender access?

00:14:47.250 --> 00:14:50.209
How do we understand the
histories of voting rights,

00:14:50.209 --> 00:14:52.667
of abilities to appear in public or not,

00:14:52.667 --> 00:14:54.334
of abilities to own land,

00:14:54.334 --> 00:14:57.334
of whether or not you\'re
called property or not?

00:14:57.334 --> 00:15:00.250
That\'s not biology,
that\'s not in your DNA,

00:15:00.250 --> 00:15:03.626
that\'s in our social, political
and economic histories.

00:15:03.626 --> 00:15:04.959
But, it\'s taking advantage of biology,

00:15:04.959 --> 00:15:06.876
that is, I can identify you as a female

00:15:06.876 --> 00:15:09.292
and you as a male and
we\'re gonna work with that.

00:15:09.292 --> 00:15:11.417
So biology can be co-opted,

00:15:11.417 --> 00:15:14.209
but it does not explain gender difference,

00:15:14.209 --> 00:15:17.167
gender inequality, and it
doesn\'t help us understand

00:15:17.167 --> 00:15:19.751
the future of gender relations.

00:15:22.667 --> 00:15:24.792
- [Narrator] The belief
that genes and evolution

00:15:24.792 --> 00:15:28.959
determine where we end up in
society reaches beyond gender.

00:15:31.375 --> 00:15:34.709
In today\'s economic system,
most people in the United States

00:15:34.709 --> 00:15:36.667
will fall below the poverty line

00:15:36.667 --> 00:15:38.417
at some point in their life,

00:15:38.417 --> 00:15:40.334
often because they become unemployed,

00:15:40.334 --> 00:15:44.000
lose a spouse, or develop
a serious illness.

00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:46.959
Congress continues to cut the safety net,

00:15:46.959 --> 00:15:49.751
while the three richest
Americans own more wealth

00:15:49.751 --> 00:15:53.918
than the poorest half of the
country, 150 million people.

00:15:57.250 --> 00:16:00.959
As economic inequality
reaches record proportions,

00:16:00.959 --> 00:16:03.959
the ostentatious lifestyles
of the economic elite

00:16:03.959 --> 00:16:08.125
has led historians to call
this the Second Gilded Age.

00:16:13.167 --> 00:16:15.792
- There are two completely
different competing ways

00:16:15.792 --> 00:16:18.042
of looking at the world in America today.

00:16:18.042 --> 00:16:19.626
One is the American Dream,

00:16:19.626 --> 00:16:22.417
the idea that it\'s within your
power to be anyone you want,

00:16:22.417 --> 00:16:23.834
is the American Dream,

00:16:23.834 --> 00:16:26.792
is completely contradicted
by Social Darwinist idea

00:16:26.792 --> 00:16:28.751
that you\'re either born
one way or you\'re not

00:16:28.751 --> 00:16:31.000
and that basically if you\'re
born into the upper classes,

00:16:31.000 --> 00:16:31.918
you\'ve got the right genes

00:16:31.918 --> 00:16:33.417
and if you\'re born into the lower classes,

00:16:33.417 --> 00:16:34.876
you\'re part of the genetic sludge

00:16:34.876 --> 00:16:37.000
that has gone to the
bottom of the gene pool.

00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:40.042
And you\'ve got the media cranking out

00:16:40.042 --> 00:16:44.417
these completely bogus
stories that actually

00:16:44.417 --> 00:16:48.792
significant slices of the
population have the poverty gene.

00:16:48.792 --> 00:16:50.542
- [Reporter] Many hope to erase the divide

00:16:50.542 --> 00:16:53.876
between the haves and the have nots,

00:16:53.876 --> 00:16:58.417
but what if nature demands
winners and losers in life?

00:16:58.417 --> 00:17:00.459
Could poverty be genetic?

00:17:04.501 --> 00:17:07.042
- If you believe that inequality,

00:17:07.042 --> 00:17:09.250
that someone\'s ability to do well

00:17:09.250 --> 00:17:11.667
as a captain of industry
and someone doing poorly

00:17:11.667 --> 00:17:14.751
and living a life on a
substandard factory line,

00:17:14.751 --> 00:17:16.626
if you believe that
that\'s written in the DNA

00:17:16.626 --> 00:17:19.709
in some way or another, then
you have no responsibility

00:17:19.709 --> 00:17:21.792
and things can stay the way they are,

00:17:21.792 --> 00:17:24.125
and that\'s really dangerous.

00:17:25.417 --> 00:17:27.209
- Are you saying that the underclass

00:17:27.209 --> 00:17:29.876
could be genetically determined?

00:17:31.125 --> 00:17:33.501
- Genetically determined
is way too strong a term.

00:17:33.501 --> 00:17:34.626
- [Interviewer] Well you see, you say

00:17:34.626 --> 00:17:36.250
that poverty is genetically determined,

00:17:36.250 --> 00:17:37.959
it will become evident that the population

00:17:37.959 --> 00:17:39.584
below the poverty line in the U.S.

00:17:39.584 --> 00:17:42.584
has a configuration of the
relevant genetic makeup

00:17:42.584 --> 00:17:45.250
significantly different
from the configuration

00:17:45.250 --> 00:17:47.709
of the population above the poverty line,

00:17:47.709 --> 00:17:51.876
this is not unimaginable,
it is almost certainly true.

00:17:54.417 --> 00:17:58.334
- Charles Murray came up with
data that purported to show

00:17:58.334 --> 00:18:01.459
a relationship between IQ and poverty.

00:18:04.042 --> 00:18:06.876
The IQ itself became a kind of symbol

00:18:06.876 --> 00:18:10.626
for native, intrinsic,
inherent intelligence.

00:18:11.792 --> 00:18:14.918
You\'re, you\'re genetic predisposition,

00:18:14.918 --> 00:18:18.125
your genetic endowment, and
there was something fatalistic

00:18:18.125 --> 00:18:20.042
and deterministic about it.

00:18:20.042 --> 00:18:22.250
- Unless you have the kinds of skills

00:18:22.250 --> 00:18:25.250
that enable you to score
pretty well on an IQ test,

00:18:25.250 --> 00:18:27.709
you are not going to
be a first-rate lawyer,

00:18:27.709 --> 00:18:30.292
you are not going to be
a first-rate physician,

00:18:30.292 --> 00:18:33.334
you aren\'t going to be
first-rate professor,

00:18:33.334 --> 00:18:34.501
you aren\'t going to be a first-rate

00:18:34.501 --> 00:18:37.000
lot of things in this society.

00:18:38.209 --> 00:18:40.542
- [Narrator] Critics like
psychologist Jay Joseph

00:18:40.542 --> 00:18:43.918
have studied claims
about IQ for many years.

00:18:43.918 --> 00:18:46.667
He\'s convinced that there
are fundamental problems

00:18:46.667 --> 00:18:48.167
with IQ tests

00:18:48.167 --> 00:18:52.417
that completely undermine
Murray\'s conclusions.

00:18:52.417 --> 00:18:53.751
- Test creators can create

00:18:53.751 --> 00:18:56.918
any kind of test distribution they desire.

00:18:56.918 --> 00:18:59.375
They can create a test that
show the races are equal.

00:18:59.375 --> 00:19:00.375
They could create a test

00:19:00.375 --> 00:19:02.792
that show that women are
more intelligent than men.

00:19:02.792 --> 00:19:05.542
They could create test that
show that the working class

00:19:05.542 --> 00:19:08.417
is more intelligent
than professional class.

00:19:08.417 --> 00:19:11.667
But they choose questions
that get the results.

00:19:11.667 --> 00:19:14.626
It doesn\'t matter necessarily
how obviously biased

00:19:14.626 --> 00:19:17.751
the question is, which many
of them are very biased.

00:19:17.751 --> 00:19:19.626
They\'re designed to reflect

00:19:19.626 --> 00:19:21.918
the existing inequalities in society

00:19:21.918 --> 00:19:25.918
and in many cases to
justify those inequalities.

00:19:27.334 --> 00:19:29.334
- [Narrator] Most controversial
was Murray\'s claim

00:19:29.334 --> 00:19:31.042
that black people and Latinos

00:19:31.042 --> 00:19:34.209
are less intelligent
on average than whites

00:19:34.209 --> 00:19:38.209
and that this explained
unequal social outcomes.

00:19:39.292 --> 00:19:42.042
- I thought we had killed
this kinda stuff off,

00:19:42.042 --> 00:19:44.626
and yet here it comes
back outta the grave,

00:19:44.626 --> 00:19:46.918
dressed up in scientific garb,

00:19:46.918 --> 00:19:49.709
but the last time we saw it,
it was wearing a Klans robe,

00:19:49.709 --> 00:19:51.459
and it\'s the same set of ideas.

00:19:51.459 --> 00:19:55.125
(indistinct singing)

00:19:55.125 --> 00:19:57.542
(applauding)

00:20:01.042 --> 00:20:02.626
- So, I don\'t accept any of this data

00:20:02.626 --> 00:20:05.209
that they\'re presenting because--

00:20:05.209 --> 00:20:08.626
- Alvin Pouissaint, a professor
of psychology at Harvard

00:20:08.626 --> 00:20:11.083
challenged Murray in
debates at universities

00:20:11.083 --> 00:20:13.334
around the country.

00:20:13.334 --> 00:20:16.667
- Scientifically, they wanted to compare

00:20:16.667 --> 00:20:21.125
so-called genetic differences
between blacks and whites.

00:20:21.125 --> 00:20:24.334
Then they would have to
take a group of white people

00:20:24.334 --> 00:20:26.042
that had similar experiences

00:20:26.042 --> 00:20:28.209
to black Americans here in America.

00:20:28.209 --> 00:20:30.709
That is, they would have to
find a group of white people

00:20:30.709 --> 00:20:33.417
that experienced 250 years of slavery,

00:20:33.417 --> 00:20:35.959
100 years of Jim Crow segregation,

00:20:35.959 --> 00:20:38.417
constant on-going discrimination,

00:20:38.417 --> 00:20:40.542
and let\'s compare their IQs

00:20:40.542 --> 00:20:44.542
and see how they come out on these tests.

00:20:44.542 --> 00:20:46.667
- If you tell people over
and over and over again

00:20:46.667 --> 00:20:48.250
that they are inferior,

00:20:48.250 --> 00:20:50.626
then some of them will
come to believe that

00:20:50.626 --> 00:20:53.000
and then behave accordingly.

00:20:53.000 --> 00:20:56.167
A lotta time that I
spend in things that I do

00:20:56.167 --> 00:21:00.334
is trying to get black
students, parents, children

00:21:01.167 --> 00:21:05.209
to overcome these feelings of inferiority

00:21:05.209 --> 00:21:07.125
that have to stem from this society.

00:21:07.125 --> 00:21:09.000
It\'s not innate, right?

00:21:09.000 --> 00:21:12.334
It\'s not innate or genetic
that you feel inside

00:21:12.334 --> 00:21:13.250
that you are inferior.

00:21:13.250 --> 00:21:15.918
It\'s because messages
that are being sent to you

00:21:15.918 --> 00:21:19.542
from society in all kinds
of overt and subtle ways.

00:21:19.542 --> 00:21:22.542
(tense music)

00:21:22.542 --> 00:21:25.167
- [Narrator] More than 20
years after the Bell Curve,

00:21:25.167 --> 00:21:28.792
pseudo-scientific claims about IQ and race

00:21:28.792 --> 00:21:31.542
continue to generate controversy.

00:21:32.626 --> 00:21:35.709
- The London Science Museum
has canceled a lecture

00:21:35.709 --> 00:21:38.042
by a Nobel Prize winning geneticist

00:21:38.042 --> 00:21:42.584
because of remarks he made
about race and intellect.

00:21:42.584 --> 00:21:45.125
- [Reporter] Dr. James Watson
is quoted as saying he is

00:21:45.125 --> 00:21:48.250
\"inherently gloomy about
the prospect of Africa

00:21:48.250 --> 00:21:50.792
\"because all of our
social policies are based

00:21:50.792 --> 00:21:53.584
\"on the fact that their
intelligence is the same as ours,

00:21:53.584 --> 00:21:56.667
\"whereas all the testing says not really.\"

00:21:56.667 --> 00:21:58.918
Although, his hope is
that everyone is equal,

00:21:58.918 --> 00:22:01.834
quote, \"people who have to
deal with black employees

00:22:01.834 --> 00:22:03.834
\"find this is not true.\"

00:22:09.876 --> 00:22:12.584
(sullen music)

00:22:12.584 --> 00:22:13.959
- [Narrator] Opinions like Watson\'s

00:22:13.959 --> 00:22:16.167
have never been based in science,

00:22:16.167 --> 00:22:18.501
but they\'re even more
discredited in light of evidence

00:22:18.501 --> 00:22:22.250
confirming that there are no
biologically distinct groups

00:22:22.250 --> 00:22:27.083
that we call races to
compare in the first place.

00:22:27.083 --> 00:22:28.626
- There is no genetic definition

00:22:28.626 --> 00:22:31.709
of white or black or Asian or Latino.

00:22:32.542 --> 00:22:35.334
You can\'t actually identify a gene,

00:22:35.334 --> 00:22:37.918
a sequence of DNA, or any component

00:22:37.918 --> 00:22:41.000
that is ubiquitous in
any of those populations.

00:22:41.000 --> 00:22:43.667
There\'s very, very deep
ingrained tradition

00:22:43.667 --> 00:22:46.292
of thinking that there are
distinct categories of humans

00:22:46.292 --> 00:22:50.000
and those categories
have a biological basis,

00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:51.834
but it\'s actually wrong.

00:22:51.834 --> 00:22:54.334
There are tens of
thousands of populations.

00:22:54.334 --> 00:22:58.083
Biological variation
is enormous in humans,

00:22:58.083 --> 00:23:01.501
but it does not group into races.

00:23:01.501 --> 00:23:03.334
So, if you recognize that

00:23:03.334 --> 00:23:05.000
there is no biological basis for race,

00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:06.209
that race is a real social,

00:23:06.209 --> 00:23:08.000
political, and historical reality,

00:23:08.000 --> 00:23:10.375
but it\'s not underpinned by biology,

00:23:10.375 --> 00:23:13.167
then you\'re stuck with a moral dilemma.

00:23:13.167 --> 00:23:15.042
Inequality based on something

00:23:15.042 --> 00:23:17.000
that is not biology is out there,

00:23:17.000 --> 00:23:18.751
so either you do something about it

00:23:18.751 --> 00:23:20.501
or feign ignorance and don\'t.

00:23:20.501 --> 00:23:23.000
(tense music)

00:23:25.167 --> 00:23:28.167
- [Narrator] Race,
poverty, IQ, and genetics

00:23:28.167 --> 00:23:30.751
are coming together in a surprising arena,

00:23:30.751 --> 00:23:34.167
the national crisis of lead poisoning.

00:23:34.167 --> 00:23:35.751
Parents are suing the lead industry

00:23:35.751 --> 00:23:38.000
for the devastating impacts the neurotoxin

00:23:38.000 --> 00:23:39.876
has had on their children.

00:23:39.876 --> 00:23:41.876
The stakes are high.

00:23:41.876 --> 00:23:44.083
To avoid a precedent that
would make them liable

00:23:44.083 --> 00:23:47.083
for billions in damages and cleanup costs,

00:23:47.083 --> 00:23:49.709
the industry is blaming young victims,

00:23:49.709 --> 00:23:52.125
claiming they have bad genes.

00:23:55.626 --> 00:23:58.167
- My law firm has been involved
in representing children

00:23:58.167 --> 00:24:00.792
with lead poisoning for a few decades now

00:24:00.792 --> 00:24:05.000
and never once through this
day has this industry ever

00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:08.751
taken any steps at all to get lead paint

00:24:08.751 --> 00:24:11.918
out of the dwellings where
our children are living today,

00:24:11.918 --> 00:24:14.000
where our children
continue to get poisoned,

00:24:14.000 --> 00:24:17.584
and where they recognized
back in 1957 that children

00:24:17.584 --> 00:24:20.626
were dying and becoming
permanently brain damaged.

00:24:20.626 --> 00:24:23.626
(sullen music)

00:24:23.626 --> 00:24:27.209
- Steven was born here in
Milwaukee in June of 1990.

00:24:27.209 --> 00:24:30.250
Between age one and age three,

00:24:30.250 --> 00:24:33.417
he ingested lead paint in his home,

00:24:33.417 --> 00:24:34.667
which caused him to be poisoned.

00:24:34.667 --> 00:24:38.834
He was poisoned so severely
that he had to be hospitalized.

00:24:38.834 --> 00:24:40.834
- [Narrator] Even after medical treatment,

00:24:40.834 --> 00:24:43.709
Steven suffered permanent brain damage.

00:24:43.709 --> 00:24:46.334
His mother Carol decided
to take legal action

00:24:46.334 --> 00:24:48.584
against those responsible.

00:24:48.584 --> 00:24:50.000
- She fought for this case.

00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:52.000
She wanted the lead pigment industry

00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:53.792
to account for what they did to her child,

00:24:53.792 --> 00:24:56.209
not only because of her
love for her own child,

00:24:56.209 --> 00:25:00.751
but she really was concerned
about all the other children

00:25:00.751 --> 00:25:03.375
who\'d been poisoned by
these manufacturers.

00:25:03.375 --> 00:25:05.959
(sullen music)

00:25:08.292 --> 00:25:10.626
- The industry staked out a defense

00:25:10.626 --> 00:25:13.042
where they blamed the victim.

00:25:14.501 --> 00:25:17.167
They blamed Steven,
they blamed his mother,

00:25:17.167 --> 00:25:18.542
they blamed his family,

00:25:18.542 --> 00:25:21.250
and one of their favorite
defenses in this suit

00:25:21.250 --> 00:25:24.417
was to say, this is genetics.

00:25:24.417 --> 00:25:26.918
(tense music)

00:25:28.375 --> 00:25:29.334
- [Lawyer] Doctor Hebben, would you agree

00:25:29.334 --> 00:25:31.626
you\'re not a neurologist?

00:25:31.626 --> 00:25:33.000
- No, I\'m not a neurologist.

00:25:33.000 --> 00:25:34.083
- [Lawyer] You\'re not a physician?

00:25:34.083 --> 00:25:35.918
- I\'m not a physician.

00:25:35.918 --> 00:25:37.000
- [Lawyer] You\'re not a geneticist?

00:25:37.000 --> 00:25:39.709
- I\'m not a geneticist.

00:25:39.709 --> 00:25:42.042
- There is a neuropsychologist
out of Boston

00:25:42.042 --> 00:25:43.792
whose name is Nancy Hebben,

00:25:43.792 --> 00:25:45.959
and she\'s made her living testifying

00:25:45.959 --> 00:25:50.709
on behalf of the lead industry
and on behalf of landlords

00:25:50.709 --> 00:25:53.709
who are defending lead poisoning cases.

00:25:53.709 --> 00:25:57.375
She would take full
siblings, half siblings,

00:25:59.375 --> 00:26:01.000
cousins, cousins three times removed,

00:26:01.000 --> 00:26:03.542
anybody that they could
find that came within

00:26:03.542 --> 00:26:07.417
any kind of genetic
relationship to Steven at all

00:26:07.417 --> 00:26:09.334
and would scour their report cards.

00:26:09.334 --> 00:26:10.167
- [Lawyer] Medical records.

00:26:10.167 --> 00:26:13.834
- [Fidelma] She would ignore
every A and every B and every C

00:26:13.834 --> 00:26:14.751
on that report card.

00:26:14.751 --> 00:26:16.000
- [Lawyer] Have you seen any evidence--

00:26:16.000 --> 00:26:17.918
- This is Pauline, and we see

00:26:17.918 --> 00:26:19.209
that when she was in ninth grade

00:26:19.209 --> 00:26:20.417
and she had a grade point average

00:26:20.417 --> 00:26:23.083
of 0.0, which is a pretty low F.

00:26:26.375 --> 00:26:29.792
- Hebben failed to mention
that Steven\'s sister Pauline

00:26:29.792 --> 00:26:33.292
wasn\'t able to attend
school regularly that year.

00:26:33.292 --> 00:26:35.417
Hebben simply used any low grades

00:26:35.417 --> 00:26:37.959
and IQ test scores she could find

00:26:37.959 --> 00:26:39.501
to lead the jury to believe

00:26:39.501 --> 00:26:43.834
that the Thomas family was
genetically unintelligent.

00:26:43.834 --> 00:26:46.584
- Jennifer, this is Steven\'s--

00:26:46.584 --> 00:26:47.876
- That was horrible.

00:26:47.876 --> 00:26:48.834
I already had a good idea

00:26:48.834 --> 00:26:50.542
that these people were not my friend,

00:26:50.542 --> 00:26:54.250
but when I got in there, some
of the things they were saying

00:26:54.250 --> 00:26:55.709
was just like so untrue.

00:26:55.709 --> 00:26:59.334
They pulled report cards I
didn\'t even remember I had,

00:26:59.334 --> 00:27:02.167
report cards I forgot all about

00:27:02.167 --> 00:27:04.751
because I have got, I
picked myself back up

00:27:04.751 --> 00:27:06.626
and overcame all of that.

00:27:06.626 --> 00:27:08.792
What did my report card have to do with

00:27:08.792 --> 00:27:12.167
the things you did to my little brother?

00:27:12.167 --> 00:27:14.709
- And she eventually concluded
that it didn\'t really matter

00:27:14.709 --> 00:27:17.959
even if lead had affected Steven

00:27:17.959 --> 00:27:21.918
because he wasn\'t gonna
be anything anyhow.

00:27:21.918 --> 00:27:23.167
- [Narrator] The lead pigment industry

00:27:23.167 --> 00:27:27.292
dragged out the Thomas trial
for more than eight years.

00:27:27.292 --> 00:27:29.876
Carol Thomas was deposed six times.

00:27:29.876 --> 00:27:31.751
- [Interviewer] He\'s never been
exposed to a single product

00:27:31.751 --> 00:27:34.083
made by my people at
Sherwin-Williams, isn\'t that right?

00:27:34.083 --> 00:27:35.209
- I can\'t say.

00:27:35.209 --> 00:27:38.042
- Hour after hour after hour of questions

00:27:38.042 --> 00:27:39.709
designed to humiliate the family,

00:27:39.709 --> 00:27:41.626
designed to intimidate the family

00:27:41.626 --> 00:27:44.375
only because these lawyers
wanna lay the predicates

00:27:44.375 --> 00:27:46.542
for their genetic defense.

00:27:48.334 --> 00:27:49.667
- [Narrator] Carol Thomas never knew

00:27:49.667 --> 00:27:51.876
the outcome of her son\'s case.

00:27:51.876 --> 00:27:55.792
She died of lung cancer
before the trial ended.

00:27:59.834 --> 00:28:01.792
- Unfortunately at the end of the day,

00:28:01.792 --> 00:28:03.876
this phony genetic excuse

00:28:05.751 --> 00:28:08.167
that was invented by the defendants

00:28:08.167 --> 00:28:09.459
resonated with the jury

00:28:09.459 --> 00:28:12.959
and the jury really seemed to be persuaded

00:28:14.042 --> 00:28:16.501
by a lot of the argument that we think

00:28:16.501 --> 00:28:20.292
was completely inappropriate
and completely impermissible.

00:28:20.292 --> 00:28:23.792
- We need to expose the fact
that this is junk science.

00:28:23.792 --> 00:28:26.292
There is no foundation for
this kind of an argument,

00:28:26.292 --> 00:28:29.709
and some day, hopefully,
science will make that clear.

00:28:29.709 --> 00:28:33.834
These are shameful acts of
defense to avoid responsibility.

00:28:35.042 --> 00:28:37.000
- [Narrator] The water
crisis in Flint Michigan

00:28:37.000 --> 00:28:40.042
and other cities reveals
how widespread a problem

00:28:40.042 --> 00:28:42.292
lead remains throughout the country,

00:28:42.292 --> 00:28:44.918
especially in low income neighborhoods.

00:28:44.918 --> 00:28:48.292
Every day, millions of
children are being exposed,

00:28:48.292 --> 00:28:50.626
even though the Centers
for Disease Control

00:28:50.626 --> 00:28:53.417
say there is no safe level of exposure

00:28:53.417 --> 00:28:56.459
to this dangerous neurotoxin.

00:28:56.459 --> 00:28:58.042
Meanwhile, the lead pigment industry

00:28:58.042 --> 00:29:02.250
continues to use the gene defense
as hundreds of these cases

00:29:02.250 --> 00:29:05.667
make their way through the courts.

00:29:05.667 --> 00:29:06.667
- And this is America.

00:29:06.667 --> 00:29:10.125
That is not way that
our society should work.

00:29:10.125 --> 00:29:12.000
This is not the way science should work.

00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:14.876
It allows people to just write off

00:29:14.876 --> 00:29:18.083
and say, these kids don\'t count,

00:29:18.083 --> 00:29:19.375
they shouldn\'t get education,

00:29:19.375 --> 00:29:20.876
they shouldn\'t get opportunities,

00:29:20.876 --> 00:29:23.292
they shouldn\'t be allowed to move ahead

00:29:23.292 --> 00:29:27.459
simply because of who they
are and where they come from.

00:29:28.792 --> 00:29:32.334
- Can you imagine having
an ideology or a worldview

00:29:32.334 --> 00:29:34.959
where you knew as soon
as somebody was born

00:29:34.959 --> 00:29:37.834
what they were gonna be and
what they were gonna be good for

00:29:37.834 --> 00:29:39.542
and whether they should be invested in

00:29:39.542 --> 00:29:41.918
and whether they should
be given an opportunity?

00:29:41.918 --> 00:29:43.417
Nobody in the last century

00:29:43.417 --> 00:29:46.667
who thought that way is lifted up.

00:29:46.667 --> 00:29:48.876
Dr. King was not a Social Darwinist.

00:29:48.876 --> 00:29:51.375
Dr. King believed in a beloved community

00:29:51.375 --> 00:29:54.584
in which people helped each other.

00:29:54.584 --> 00:29:57.125
- [Narrator] Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. called on America

00:29:57.125 --> 00:29:59.584
to live up to its promise of equality

00:29:59.584 --> 00:30:03.375
and many social advocates are
still fighting those battles.

00:30:03.375 --> 00:30:06.334
Equality of condition and
fair and safe housing,

00:30:06.334 --> 00:30:10.042
equality of justice under
the law and equal education,

00:30:10.042 --> 00:30:11.250
and most importantly,

00:30:11.250 --> 00:30:14.584
that every individual is equally valued.

00:30:15.626 --> 00:30:17.417
(tense music)

00:30:17.417 --> 00:30:19.626
But many genetic determinists say

00:30:19.626 --> 00:30:23.542
the solution to inequality
doesn\'t lie in public policy.

00:30:23.542 --> 00:30:26.417
In their view, whole
segments of our population

00:30:26.417 --> 00:30:28.918
are simply genetically inferior,

00:30:28.918 --> 00:30:31.584
so the key to creating
a more equal society

00:30:31.584 --> 00:30:35.584
must lie in eugenics, the
attempt to improve the population

00:30:35.584 --> 00:30:39.751
through genetic engineering
and controlled reproduction.

00:30:42.083 --> 00:30:44.209
- [Reporter] This is the
biomolecular revolution.

00:30:44.209 --> 00:30:47.209
It promises the almost god-like ability

00:30:47.209 --> 00:30:51.042
to manipulate life at the
most fundamental level.

00:30:51.042 --> 00:30:55.083
It will enable us to change
our genetic heritage,

00:30:55.083 --> 00:30:59.209
enhance our abilities, even
shape the evolution of mankind.

00:31:00.792 --> 00:31:04.667
(anticipatory music)

00:31:04.667 --> 00:31:06.959
- A lot of scientists carry with them

00:31:06.959 --> 00:31:10.667
this myth of the gene almost
to its furthest extent,

00:31:10.667 --> 00:31:12.083
that there is a thing called the gene

00:31:12.083 --> 00:31:13.667
and once we understand that,

00:31:13.667 --> 00:31:15.209
we\'re gonna be able to
manipulate it and modify it

00:31:15.209 --> 00:31:17.626
to explain why people are unequal

00:31:17.626 --> 00:31:20.209
and to make some people better.

00:31:21.209 --> 00:31:22.292
- So according to this worldview,

00:31:22.292 --> 00:31:24.000
that\'s where you have to go

00:31:24.000 --> 00:31:26.292
because if you wanna change society,

00:31:26.292 --> 00:31:27.959
you\'ve gotta change the genes.

00:31:27.959 --> 00:31:32.125
That\'s where their worldview
inevitably leads them.

00:31:33.292 --> 00:31:37.209
- The lower 10%, who
really have difficulty

00:31:37.209 --> 00:31:41.375
even in elementary school
-- what\'s the cause of it?

00:31:42.959 --> 00:31:44.250
A lot of people would like to say, oh,

00:31:44.250 --> 00:31:47.334
this was poverty and things like that,

00:31:47.334 --> 00:31:49.125
but it probably isn\'t.

00:31:51.501 --> 00:31:55.667
So, I\'d like to get rid of,
you know, help that lower 10%.

00:31:56.501 --> 00:31:59.000
(tense music)

00:32:01.918 --> 00:32:03.417
- Suppose we have a gene therapy

00:32:03.417 --> 00:32:06.250
which will raise IQs by 15 points,

00:32:07.209 --> 00:32:09.042
I think parents, it\'s
okay if they the right

00:32:09.042 --> 00:32:13.209
to introduce those kinds of
changes in their own children.

00:32:15.083 --> 00:32:19.209
- Molecular genetics has
been area full of promises.

00:32:19.209 --> 00:32:22.542
We were told that this going to allow us

00:32:23.501 --> 00:32:27.417
to design babies any way we want them,

00:32:27.417 --> 00:32:32.167
to decide whether we want
smart kids, tall kids,

00:32:32.167 --> 00:32:34.626
short kids, what have you.

00:32:34.626 --> 00:32:38.334
We now know that it\'s
built on false promises

00:32:39.626 --> 00:32:44.417
because the theory that
gave rise to it is wrong.

00:32:44.417 --> 00:32:47.042
(gentle music)

00:32:47.042 --> 00:32:48.709
- [Narrator] Scientists
have actually shown

00:32:48.709 --> 00:32:53.250
that genetic excuses for
inequality are unscientific,

00:32:53.250 --> 00:32:55.959
but the story hasn\'t been told very often.

00:32:55.959 --> 00:32:59.542
It puts the very notion
of a gene into question

00:32:59.542 --> 00:33:02.709
and reveals that the concept
itself may never have been

00:33:02.709 --> 00:33:06.876
more than a figment of our
collective imagination.

00:33:09.417 --> 00:33:11.834
- The gene was never discovered.

00:33:11.834 --> 00:33:14.667
It was not a discovery that somebody did,

00:33:14.667 --> 00:33:18.792
looked down a microscope and
said, ha, behold the gene.

00:33:18.792 --> 00:33:22.125
Instead of that, the gene was a concept

00:33:22.125 --> 00:33:24.792
and so we can see
throughout the 20th century

00:33:24.792 --> 00:33:29.584
how different discoveries
in science were fitted

00:33:29.584 --> 00:33:33.751
into the box, the pre-made
conceptual box of the gene.

00:33:34.876 --> 00:33:37.459
(gentle music)

00:33:39.709 --> 00:33:42.000
- [Narrator] The Austrian
monk Gregor Mendel

00:33:42.000 --> 00:33:44.000
never knew that his garden experiments

00:33:44.000 --> 00:33:45.000
would eventually be used

00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:48.751
to explain human heredity and behavior.

00:33:48.751 --> 00:33:50.792
His work on sweet peas convinced him

00:33:50.792 --> 00:33:54.000
that plants carried
discreet biological elements

00:33:54.000 --> 00:33:55.834
from one generation to the next

00:33:55.834 --> 00:33:58.542
in a mathematical, predictable way

00:33:58.542 --> 00:34:01.459
and that traits, such
as the color of a flower

00:34:01.459 --> 00:34:05.542
could not be changed by
changing the environment.

00:34:06.709 --> 00:34:08.542
- So, they translated immediately,

00:34:08.542 --> 00:34:11.250
without really having to test it,

00:34:11.250 --> 00:34:13.792
the work on the peas that Mendel had done

00:34:13.792 --> 00:34:16.751
and they just assumed
that the same principle

00:34:16.751 --> 00:34:20.918
would apply in all other
organisms, especially humans.

00:34:22.083 --> 00:34:26.250
It allows you to separate
anything that is biological

00:34:27.250 --> 00:34:30.584
from anything that is
so-called environment

00:34:30.584 --> 00:34:34.876
in such a way that you
are born with instructions

00:34:34.876 --> 00:34:37.125
of who you\'re going to be,

00:34:37.125 --> 00:34:39.626
and there\'s nothing you
can do to change that.

00:34:39.626 --> 00:34:41.876
(dramatic music)

00:34:41.876 --> 00:34:43.959
- The word was coined with the expectation

00:34:43.959 --> 00:34:46.959
that there existed a hereditary unit

00:34:48.000 --> 00:34:51.250
that would have certain properties.

00:34:51.250 --> 00:34:55.292
It was to determine the
traits of an organism.

00:34:55.292 --> 00:34:59.292
It was to pilot life\'s
journey, if you will.

00:34:59.292 --> 00:35:03.250
And the question for the
first half of the 20th century

00:35:03.250 --> 00:35:07.417
was what kind of an entity
would have these properties.

00:35:09.459 --> 00:35:12.751
- The race was on when
very many different labs

00:35:12.751 --> 00:35:16.709
start chasing their own favorite molecule,

00:35:16.709 --> 00:35:19.334
and these biologists and
physicists and chemists

00:35:19.334 --> 00:35:21.834
are all scrambling to come up with some

00:35:21.834 --> 00:35:24.876
physical embodiment of the gene.

00:35:24.876 --> 00:35:27.626
(dramatic music)

00:35:33.751 --> 00:35:36.834
- And in 1953 with Watson and Crick\'s

00:35:37.667 --> 00:35:41.834
identification of the double
helix, a candidate appeared.

00:35:43.209 --> 00:35:45.709
(eerie music)

00:35:48.918 --> 00:35:51.667
- Could this complicated
substance with the long name

00:35:51.667 --> 00:35:55.834
be Mendel\'s particle of
heredity, the gene itself?

00:35:58.125 --> 00:36:01.209
- [Narrator] Watson and
Crick\'s team had focused on DNA

00:36:01.209 --> 00:36:04.209
and they felt they\'d won the race.

00:36:04.209 --> 00:36:07.167
Four chemicals made up the DNA molecule

00:36:07.167 --> 00:36:09.959
and they believed different
sequences of these chemicals

00:36:09.959 --> 00:36:12.292
determined different traits.

00:36:16.292 --> 00:36:18.626
To explain how it all
worked, Francis Crick

00:36:18.626 --> 00:36:22.876
created the famous
central dogma of genetics.

00:36:22.876 --> 00:36:25.709
Crick\'s theory was much
like the chain of command

00:36:25.709 --> 00:36:28.792
in a typical 1950s\' corporation.

00:36:28.792 --> 00:36:32.959
DNA was the gene, the CEO,
in total control of heredity.

00:36:34.334 --> 00:36:37.167
DNA gave orders in the
form of the genetic code

00:36:37.167 --> 00:36:38.792
to middle management.

00:36:38.792 --> 00:36:41.083
RNA transcribed that message

00:36:41.083 --> 00:36:44.125
and passed it on to the
workers the proteins.

00:36:44.125 --> 00:36:46.501
Then the proteins
translated the unique code

00:36:46.501 --> 00:36:49.083
of each living thing and constructed them

00:36:49.083 --> 00:36:51.375
according to the blueprint.

00:36:51.375 --> 00:36:53.918
Under Crick\'s dogma,
more complex organisms,

00:36:53.918 --> 00:36:57.209
like human beings, must
have millions of genes,

00:36:57.209 --> 00:36:59.125
unlike simpler creatures.

00:36:59.125 --> 00:37:01.626
(baby crying)

00:37:02.959 --> 00:37:05.542
- We need to remember
that when Watson, Crick

00:37:05.542 --> 00:37:07.792
presented all this theory,

00:37:07.792 --> 00:37:11.459
they said flat out that
it was a hypothesis.

00:37:12.626 --> 00:37:15.042
There was no evidence for it.

00:37:15.959 --> 00:37:17.584
- [Narrator] Biologist Barry Commoner

00:37:17.584 --> 00:37:20.792
immediately dismissed the central dogma.

00:37:20.792 --> 00:37:24.959
- It offended my sense of the
uniqueness of living things

00:37:26.667 --> 00:37:29.834
because here was a paper that insisted

00:37:32.000 --> 00:37:35.167
that something quite dead, a chemical,

00:37:36.250 --> 00:37:39.667
was the source of the uniqueness of life.

00:37:40.792 --> 00:37:43.626
- That notion of a magical double helix

00:37:43.626 --> 00:37:45.626
mapped so perfectly onto this idea

00:37:45.626 --> 00:37:49.083
that at our core there\'s
a biological unit,

00:37:49.083 --> 00:37:53.000
a thing right there that
I pass to my children,

00:37:53.000 --> 00:37:54.709
that you pass to your children,

00:37:54.709 --> 00:37:57.417
that that thing is
identifiable and knowable

00:37:57.417 --> 00:38:00.459
as a single entity and that entity is DNA.

00:38:00.459 --> 00:38:03.792
That\'s not the case, but
it\'s a powerful metaphor

00:38:03.792 --> 00:38:05.626
and a really good story.

00:38:05.626 --> 00:38:08.375
(dramatic music)

00:38:17.000 --> 00:38:18.542
- Will radically change the way

00:38:18.542 --> 00:38:20.876
we think about ourselves as persons

00:38:20.876 --> 00:38:23.209
and also eventually people in society,

00:38:23.209 --> 00:38:26.209
and I think this is a scientific
revolution that is coming.

00:38:26.209 --> 00:38:29.501
(gentle music)

00:38:29.501 --> 00:38:30.918
- [Narrator] The mythology of the gene

00:38:30.918 --> 00:38:34.751
allowed DNA to be imbued
with more and more power.

00:38:34.751 --> 00:38:36.876
Some scientists believed
it was the mechanism

00:38:36.876 --> 00:38:38.626
they\'d been looking for to explain

00:38:38.626 --> 00:38:43.083
Charles Darwin\'s theory of
evolution by natural selection.

00:38:43.083 --> 00:38:45.584
Random mutations in DNA sequences

00:38:45.584 --> 00:38:48.083
could be the source of changes in traits

00:38:48.083 --> 00:38:50.667
that made some organisms
better able to adapt,

00:38:50.667 --> 00:38:54.834
survive, and pass those traits
on to the next generation.

00:38:56.542 --> 00:38:59.876
By the 1980s, the gene
myth reached its pinnacle

00:38:59.876 --> 00:39:01.709
when Richard Dawkins introduced

00:39:01.709 --> 00:39:04.125
the concept of the selfish gene.

00:39:05.083 --> 00:39:08.918
This popular theory puts
genes in charge of us,

00:39:08.918 --> 00:39:12.834
body and mind, using us
as temporary vehicles

00:39:12.834 --> 00:39:15.834
in their selfish pursuit to survive.

00:39:18.459 --> 00:39:21.083
- I was wanting to conjure
up in the mind of the reader

00:39:21.083 --> 00:39:23.751
the image of the organism,
including ourselves,

00:39:23.751 --> 00:39:26.083
as a machine for passing on genes.

00:39:26.083 --> 00:39:28.334
I wanted to shift the focus away from

00:39:28.334 --> 00:39:31.250
the idea of the organism as being the,

00:39:31.250 --> 00:39:35.542
the agent in life to
the immortal replicator,

00:39:35.542 --> 00:39:36.375
which is the gene

00:39:36.375 --> 00:39:37.709
because that was the logic
of natural selection,

00:39:37.709 --> 00:39:40.959
that is the logic of natural selection.

00:39:42.125 --> 00:39:43.292
- [Narrator] But the notion that DNA

00:39:43.292 --> 00:39:46.042
held the secret of heredity
was seriously challenged

00:39:46.042 --> 00:39:49.792
when scientists found that
only 2% of DNA sequences

00:39:49.792 --> 00:39:52.876
were associated with creating proteins.

00:39:52.876 --> 00:39:56.709
The majority of DNA appeared
to have no purpose at all.

00:39:56.709 --> 00:40:00.876
So, they referred to the
remaining 98% as junk DNA.

00:40:01.709 --> 00:40:05.876
How could only 2% of a molecule
hold the blueprint for life?

00:40:09.000 --> 00:40:11.459
The discovery came at
an inconvenient time.

00:40:11.459 --> 00:40:14.918
University and government
labs had gone molecular,

00:40:14.918 --> 00:40:18.000
spending millions on DNA research.

00:40:18.000 --> 00:40:20.417
Rapid developments in
sequencing technology

00:40:20.417 --> 00:40:24.209
laid the ground for
the supreme gene dream,

00:40:24.209 --> 00:40:27.250
to construct a map of the
entirety of human DNA,

00:40:27.250 --> 00:40:31.292
junk and all, the Human Genome Project.

00:40:31.292 --> 00:40:34.584
- [Reporter] Locating the 100,000 genes

00:40:34.584 --> 00:40:37.042
that are blueprints for humanity.

00:40:37.042 --> 00:40:39.626
- [Reporter] The Genome Project
and this effort to identify

00:40:39.626 --> 00:40:42.751
the 100,000 genes that
make us what we are--

00:40:42.751 --> 00:40:45.626
- [Narrator] Dr. Francis
Collins directed the project,

00:40:45.626 --> 00:40:47.459
coordinating thousands of university

00:40:47.459 --> 00:40:50.584
and government labs that participated.

00:40:50.584 --> 00:40:53.459
- This, in fact, eclipses
splitting the atom

00:40:53.459 --> 00:40:54.834
or going to the moon.

00:40:54.834 --> 00:40:57.501
This is an adventure into ourselves.

00:40:57.501 --> 00:41:01.667
We\'re embarked on this effort
to read our own blueprint.

00:41:07.250 --> 00:41:08.792
(tense music)

00:41:08.792 --> 00:41:11.876
- The purpose of the
project was to find out

00:41:11.876 --> 00:41:14.459
all about human genetic structure

00:41:15.626 --> 00:41:18.792
and as a consequence, we\'d
know all about health,

00:41:18.792 --> 00:41:21.209
but within a very short
time it became clear

00:41:21.209 --> 00:41:23.125
that crime and alcoholism

00:41:23.125 --> 00:41:26.125
and intelligence were on the agenda.

00:41:29.959 --> 00:41:31.250
- [Interviewer] How far are we

00:41:31.250 --> 00:41:35.709
from discovering the genetic
causes of human nature?

00:41:35.709 --> 00:41:37.375
- Very close.

00:41:37.375 --> 00:41:40.542
What it\'s going to do is to blow apart

00:41:41.459 --> 00:41:45.959
a lot of the egalitarian
dogma that we have now.

00:41:45.959 --> 00:41:49.250
That whole way of looking
at the world has to change.

00:41:49.250 --> 00:41:52.626
(somber music)

00:41:52.626 --> 00:41:54.584
- [Narrator] Hype about the Genome Project

00:41:54.584 --> 00:41:56.709
also excited private investors.

00:41:56.709 --> 00:41:59.125
Scientist J. Craig Venter attracted

00:41:59.125 --> 00:42:02.042
billions in venture capital
when he began his own effort

00:42:02.042 --> 00:42:03.918
to map the human genome

00:42:03.918 --> 00:42:06.542
and became the government\'s
heated competitor.

00:42:06.542 --> 00:42:08.375
A race was on to stake claims

00:42:08.375 --> 00:42:11.083
on virtually any stretch of DNA

00:42:11.083 --> 00:42:15.000
with the promise of
profitable patents on genes.

00:42:15.000 --> 00:42:16.501
- [Reporter] Think of the possibilities.

00:42:16.501 --> 00:42:17.542
Think of the profits.

00:42:17.542 --> 00:42:20.000
A lot of people are, the 300 companies

00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:24.083
already in billion-dollar
biotechnology business.

00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:26.709
(cheerful music)

00:42:26.709 --> 00:42:28.626
(indistinct yelling)

00:42:28.626 --> 00:42:32.542
- The Human Genome Project
reaches this incredible climax

00:42:32.542 --> 00:42:35.250
on the cusp of the millennium,
and that, of course,

00:42:35.250 --> 00:42:38.542
is metaphorically incredibly significant

00:42:38.542 --> 00:42:42.709
because this idea that this
whole vast new area of knowledge

00:42:44.209 --> 00:42:48.792
and what becomes available
just at this historic moment

00:42:48.792 --> 00:42:52.542
as one moves from one
millennium to the next.

00:42:54.459 --> 00:42:57.501
- [Reporter] Today\'s main
story is a story for the ages

00:42:57.501 --> 00:43:01.709
that will affect the lives
of every human being.

00:43:01.709 --> 00:43:04.042
- Without a doubt, this
is the most important,

00:43:04.042 --> 00:43:07.876
most wondrous map ever
produced by humankind.

00:43:07.876 --> 00:43:09.417
(applauding)

00:43:09.417 --> 00:43:12.000
- [James] And so, we
have this great publicity

00:43:12.000 --> 00:43:14.209
and this big press conference,

00:43:14.209 --> 00:43:18.918
and there was this great,
enormous sense of optimism.

00:43:18.918 --> 00:43:21.250
- It is humbling for me and awe-inspiring

00:43:21.250 --> 00:43:23.375
to realize that we have
caught the first glimpse

00:43:23.375 --> 00:43:25.417
of our own instruction book

00:43:25.417 --> 00:43:27.709
previously known only to God.

00:43:27.709 --> 00:43:30.459
(ethereal music)

00:43:34.417 --> 00:43:37.042
- [Narrator] Scientists
began delving into their data

00:43:37.042 --> 00:43:38.709
searching for genes.

00:43:41.709 --> 00:43:43.876
- And there\'s big scientific news today.

00:43:43.876 --> 00:43:46.584
If your DNA is the book of who you are,

00:43:46.584 --> 00:43:49.501
it turns out to be
closer to a short story.

00:43:49.501 --> 00:43:52.250
New studies suggest that
some past assumptions

00:43:52.250 --> 00:43:55.542
about our genetic makeup were off base.

00:43:55.542 --> 00:43:58.125
(anticipatory music)

00:43:58.125 --> 00:44:00.459
- As soon as they
cracked the human genome,

00:44:00.459 --> 00:44:02.209
immediately, it\'s obvious that there is

00:44:02.209 --> 00:44:05.292
some very anomalous things about it.

00:44:05.292 --> 00:44:08.000
- One of the people who was instrumental

00:44:08.000 --> 00:44:12.167
in working out the genome
is quoted as having said

00:44:13.042 --> 00:44:17.209
that we don\'t know shit
about how the genome works.

00:44:18.584 --> 00:44:20.209
- Our understanding of the human genome

00:44:20.209 --> 00:44:23.542
has changed in the most fundamental ways.

00:44:23.542 --> 00:44:26.209
The small number genes supports the notion

00:44:26.209 --> 00:44:29.125
that we\'re not hardwired.

00:44:30.125 --> 00:44:31.375
- [Interviewer] Dr.
Collins, were you surprised

00:44:31.375 --> 00:44:34.751
at the relatively small number
of human genes that we carry?

00:44:34.751 --> 00:44:35.918
- I certainly was.

00:44:35.918 --> 00:44:37.334
I was one of those that expected

00:44:37.334 --> 00:44:40.083
the count to be around
100,000 and what do you know,

00:44:40.083 --> 00:44:42.083
we turn out to have, oh, slightly less

00:44:42.083 --> 00:44:46.042
than twice as many genes as
a roundworm or a fruit fly.

00:44:46.042 --> 00:44:48.250
Oh well, I guess we\'re still complicated

00:44:48.250 --> 00:44:52.417
and that complication must
come from other features.

00:44:53.584 --> 00:44:55.501
- [Narrator] Francis
Collins didn\'t elaborate

00:44:55.501 --> 00:44:59.167
on what he meant by other features.

00:44:59.167 --> 00:45:00.918
He was faced with the shocking evidence

00:45:00.918 --> 00:45:03.709
that human beings had fewer than 20,000

00:45:03.709 --> 00:45:08.292
of these important DNA
sequences called genes,

00:45:08.292 --> 00:45:11.834
not too different than the humble housefly

00:45:11.834 --> 00:45:16.417
and less than a tomato,
which had over 30,000.

00:45:16.417 --> 00:45:20.667
Pinot noir grapes and
rabbits had twice as many,

00:45:20.667 --> 00:45:23.375
and wheat had five times as many.

00:45:24.792 --> 00:45:27.959
- So, this was sort of like,
Houston, we have a problem

00:45:27.959 --> 00:45:30.459
because if these sequences of DNA

00:45:30.459 --> 00:45:31.918
that they were calling genes

00:45:31.918 --> 00:45:34.459
were really the
Mendelian-like determinates

00:45:34.459 --> 00:45:37.417
of all of our traits and
all of our complexity,

00:45:37.417 --> 00:45:39.542
we would, of course, have
to have a lot more of them

00:45:39.542 --> 00:45:41.876
than much simpler creatures.

00:45:43.959 --> 00:45:45.459
- [Narrator] Not only
does simpler creatures

00:45:45.459 --> 00:45:49.375
often have more of these
important DNA sequences,

00:45:49.375 --> 00:45:54.167
the sequences themselves
are basically the same,

00:45:54.167 --> 00:45:58.334
50% the same as bananas, 70%
the same as a sea urchin,

00:46:00.250 --> 00:46:03.918
and we share virtually all
of our sequences with mice.

00:46:03.918 --> 00:46:05.083
(mouse squeaks)

00:46:05.083 --> 00:46:05.918
- I mean, mice are very nice

00:46:05.918 --> 00:46:09.000
but they certainly don\'t write
novels or compose symphonies,

00:46:09.000 --> 00:46:13.125
so it couldn\'t be that
small difference in DNA

00:46:13.125 --> 00:46:17.167
that creates the enormous
differences in physiology,

00:46:17.167 --> 00:46:20.042
in behavior, and development

00:46:20.042 --> 00:46:21.709
between a human being and a banana

00:46:21.709 --> 00:46:23.083
or a human being and sea urchin

00:46:23.083 --> 00:46:25.375
or a human being and a mouse.

00:46:25.375 --> 00:46:27.459
So, at that moment, we really see

00:46:27.459 --> 00:46:30.792
this 50-year sort of delusion shattered.

00:46:30.792 --> 00:46:32.501
(dramatic music)

00:46:32.501 --> 00:46:33.918
- [Narrator] And if DNA can\'t account

00:46:33.918 --> 00:46:35.959
for the differences between organisms,

00:46:35.959 --> 00:46:40.125
how can it be the mechanism of
Darwin\'s evolutionary theory?

00:46:40.125 --> 00:46:43.417
- Up until very recently,
there is an evolutionary story

00:46:43.417 --> 00:46:46.209
about natural selection acting
on random mutation of genes.

00:46:46.209 --> 00:46:48.083
Which genes, what are they?

00:46:48.083 --> 00:46:50.876
Tell us, you know, I\'d be
very interested to know.

00:46:50.876 --> 00:46:55.125
So, they\'re really,
they\'re really in trouble.

00:46:55.125 --> 00:46:55.918
- [Narrator] In the years since

00:46:55.918 --> 00:46:57.918
the conclusion of the genome project,

00:46:57.918 --> 00:46:59.375
scientists have been reeling

00:46:59.375 --> 00:47:02.709
from the downfall of
their long-held gene myth.

00:47:02.709 --> 00:47:04.417
Behind the scenes, it\'s clear

00:47:04.417 --> 00:47:07.751
they can\'t even agree on what a gene is.

00:47:10.000 --> 00:47:11.042
- What\'s the gene these days?

00:47:11.042 --> 00:47:14.584
Ha ha ha, I think a
gene is like art, right?

00:47:14.584 --> 00:47:16.667
It\'s up to your interpretation.

00:47:16.667 --> 00:47:18.042
- You\'ll ask 10 different people

00:47:18.042 --> 00:47:20.959
and they\'ll describe it differently.

00:47:20.959 --> 00:47:22.334
- There\'s gonna be debate

00:47:22.334 --> 00:47:25.626
about what a gene is, probably forever.

00:47:25.626 --> 00:47:28.459
- When people talk about this
problem of defining a gene,

00:47:28.459 --> 00:47:30.250
there\'s some hand wringing that goes on

00:47:30.250 --> 00:47:31.459
about, oh my gosh,

00:47:31.459 --> 00:47:33.334
the whole science of
genetics is in trouble.

00:47:33.334 --> 00:47:35.292
Not at all, it\'s only when you try to do

00:47:35.292 --> 00:47:39.667
the Webster\'s dictionary
thing that you get in trouble.

00:47:39.667 --> 00:47:41.292
(playful music)

00:47:41.292 --> 00:47:43.083
- So in a sense, what one has found

00:47:43.083 --> 00:47:45.000
with the Human Genome Project

00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:49.626
is the exact reverse of
that which was anticipated.

00:47:49.626 --> 00:47:52.042
It was going to make everything clear.

00:47:52.042 --> 00:47:54.876
In fact, this was not the Holy Grail.

00:47:54.876 --> 00:47:57.626
This was not the bible of who we are,

00:47:57.626 --> 00:48:00.834
that you only had to read
it and understand things.

00:48:00.834 --> 00:48:03.667
It only highlights how incredibly,

00:48:05.542 --> 00:48:08.792
incredibly complex biology is.

00:48:08.792 --> 00:48:11.375
(gentle music)

00:48:13.209 --> 00:48:16.626
- Strictly speaking, the
DNA doesn\'t act at all.

00:48:16.626 --> 00:48:17.959
The DNA is inert.

00:48:17.959 --> 00:48:20.709
The DNA has to be acted upon.

00:48:20.709 --> 00:48:22.250
It doesn\'t replicate itself.

00:48:22.250 --> 00:48:26.667
It has to be uncurled in order
to be able to be expressed.

00:48:26.667 --> 00:48:30.626
There are a zillion agents around the cell

00:48:30.626 --> 00:48:34.626
that are operating on this
quite passive but stable

00:48:36.918 --> 00:48:38.000
piece of DNA.

00:48:41.375 --> 00:48:44.501
And what\'s so exciting about
the present moment in biology

00:48:44.501 --> 00:48:48.375
has been looking at the cell as a system

00:48:48.375 --> 00:48:52.918
in which there are many
actors and many components,

00:48:52.918 --> 00:48:55.042
that DNA is an absolutely critical one,

00:48:55.042 --> 00:48:58.626
but it\'s not the orchestra leader,

00:48:58.626 --> 00:49:00.083
it\'s not the whole orchestra.

00:49:00.083 --> 00:49:01.667
It\'s one component.

00:49:02.667 --> 00:49:05.375
(tense music)

00:49:05.375 --> 00:49:07.709
- [Narrator] While DNA
isn\'t the master molecule

00:49:07.709 --> 00:49:09.501
that biologists imagined,

00:49:09.501 --> 00:49:11.792
it is a critical molecule in the cell

00:49:11.792 --> 00:49:15.792
that the organism uses in
the production of proteins.

00:49:15.792 --> 00:49:18.918
DNA is also a sort of
cellular fingerprint.

00:49:18.918 --> 00:49:20.542
Certain sequences are unique enough

00:49:20.542 --> 00:49:23.375
that people who have been
wrongly convicted of a crime

00:49:23.375 --> 00:49:25.584
can be exonerated.

00:49:25.584 --> 00:49:27.918
And we can often match pieces of our DNA

00:49:27.918 --> 00:49:29.709
with family members,

00:49:29.709 --> 00:49:34.250
but DNA doesn\'t determine
our physical traits.

00:49:34.250 --> 00:49:37.751
- I don\'t think we\'ll
ever be able to predict

00:49:37.751 --> 00:49:41.000
who\'s gonna look similar and who isn\'t.

00:49:42.042 --> 00:49:45.209
We can have two children
of the same parents

00:49:45.209 --> 00:49:48.209
and they can look vastly different,

00:49:48.209 --> 00:49:51.709
but they can also look very similar.

00:49:51.709 --> 00:49:53.167
- [Narrator] And although we continue

00:49:53.167 --> 00:49:55.375
to hear that heredity plays a major role

00:49:55.375 --> 00:49:57.792
in determining our personalities,

00:49:57.792 --> 00:50:02.375
these claims have never been
based in molecular biology.

00:50:02.375 --> 00:50:05.584
They\'re based on conclusions
of psychological studies,

00:50:05.584 --> 00:50:07.792
primarily of twins.

00:50:07.792 --> 00:50:10.459
When researchers
interview identical twins,

00:50:10.459 --> 00:50:14.000
they often find more similarities
in behavior and talent

00:50:14.000 --> 00:50:16.542
than they find in fraternal twins,

00:50:16.542 --> 00:50:20.042
and they assume that the
reason is biological,

00:50:20.042 --> 00:50:24.083
but psychologist Jay
Joseph says this assumption

00:50:24.083 --> 00:50:28.083
is at the heart of the
problem with twin studies.

00:50:28.083 --> 00:50:29.501
- Twin studies have been used frequently

00:50:29.501 --> 00:50:32.250
to argue the point of genetic determinism,

00:50:32.250 --> 00:50:33.834
and there\'s a theoretical assumption

00:50:33.834 --> 00:50:35.000
underlying the twin method,

00:50:35.000 --> 00:50:36.667
which is that the environments

00:50:36.667 --> 00:50:39.792
of identical and fraternal
twins are the same,

00:50:39.792 --> 00:50:42.501
that identical twins are not more similar

00:50:42.501 --> 00:50:45.459
because their environment is more similar,

00:50:45.459 --> 00:50:47.417
but this assumption is false.

00:50:47.417 --> 00:50:49.542
They look alike, they\'re
treated more alike.

00:50:49.542 --> 00:50:51.709
They\'re socialized to be more similar.

00:50:51.709 --> 00:50:54.125
They have a much stronger emotional bond

00:50:54.125 --> 00:50:56.751
and connection with each
other than fraternal twins.

00:50:56.751 --> 00:50:58.626
They\'re much more likely to see themselves

00:50:58.626 --> 00:51:00.542
as two halves of the same whole.

00:51:00.542 --> 00:51:04.167
So, it\'s very natural that
they would be more alike

00:51:04.167 --> 00:51:07.709
in their behavior and
abilities than fraternal twins

00:51:07.709 --> 00:51:11.626
for reasons having nothing
to do with genetics.

00:51:12.584 --> 00:51:14.459
- [Narrator] For those who
claim that it\'s worthwhile

00:51:14.459 --> 00:51:17.000
to continue to search
for a biological basis

00:51:17.000 --> 00:51:19.667
to our personalities and abilities,

00:51:19.667 --> 00:51:23.417
the burden of proof
remains in their hands.

00:51:23.417 --> 00:51:26.083
Not only do they face the
dynamic complex nature

00:51:26.083 --> 00:51:30.334
of our biology but also the
infinitely dynamic reality

00:51:30.334 --> 00:51:34.501
of how each of us develops
individually as human beings,

00:51:34.501 --> 00:51:37.209
how we interact with
our families and others

00:51:37.209 --> 00:51:39.083
to create a society,

00:51:39.083 --> 00:51:42.375
and how our society feeds
back and influences us

00:51:42.375 --> 00:51:44.125
throughout our lives.

00:51:47.209 --> 00:51:51.125
- When this kind of interaction
and this kind of complexity

00:51:51.125 --> 00:51:53.959
plays itself out before we are born

00:51:53.959 --> 00:51:57.626
and goes right on after we are born.

00:51:57.626 --> 00:52:01.334
I mean, where we live, how we live,

00:52:01.334 --> 00:52:04.250
how active we are, what
our opportunities are

00:52:04.250 --> 00:52:06.375
as children, as grownups,

00:52:06.375 --> 00:52:09.459
our education, our parents\' marriage,

00:52:10.959 --> 00:52:15.000
all of this is involved
in shaping who we are

00:52:15.000 --> 00:52:19.167
in complicated, interactive,
and unpredictable ways,

00:52:21.000 --> 00:52:23.501
and people change over time.

00:52:23.501 --> 00:52:26.626
I think we have to face the
fact that we are complicated,

00:52:26.626 --> 00:52:30.626
as are all organisms, and
that you can\'t predict

00:52:31.501 --> 00:52:34.751
behavior on the basis of biology

00:52:34.751 --> 00:52:38.918
or on the basis of simple,
single environmental reasons.

00:52:42.042 --> 00:52:44.000
(gentle music)

00:52:44.000 --> 00:52:45.501
(baby cooing)

00:52:45.501 --> 00:52:48.792
- That is huge, huge implications

00:52:48.792 --> 00:52:50.667
in terms of political economics.

00:52:50.667 --> 00:52:54.834
It suggests that if you get
the childhood history right,

00:52:54.834 --> 00:52:58.918
if you get the society
right, people will thrive.

00:52:59.792 --> 00:53:01.918
For a long time, you know,
people like Charles Murray

00:53:01.918 --> 00:53:06.125
propounded this view of
why society\'s like it is

00:53:06.125 --> 00:53:10.250
and the Human Genome Project
has proved that they are wrong.

00:53:11.918 --> 00:53:14.501
(gentle music)

00:53:17.751 --> 00:53:19.751
- [Narrator] So, we now know that the gene

00:53:19.751 --> 00:53:24.459
is not a biological reality,
but rather an abstract concept

00:53:24.459 --> 00:53:27.918
scientists mistakenly placed on DNA.

00:53:27.918 --> 00:53:29.751
The long-held belief
that there\'s a discreet

00:53:29.751 --> 00:53:33.125
unit of heredity can no longer hold.

00:53:33.125 --> 00:53:35.417
Heredity is still a mystery, a complex,

00:53:35.417 --> 00:53:39.918
unpredictable process
not controlled by DNA.

00:53:39.918 --> 00:53:41.459
- Getting ready to hit
the bars and the clubs--

00:53:41.459 --> 00:53:42.876
- [Narrator] Though it may be a while

00:53:42.876 --> 00:53:45.959
before textbooks and the media catch up.

00:53:45.959 --> 00:53:47.542
- [Tony] Researchers at
a genetic testing firm

00:53:47.542 --> 00:53:51.334
say that one gene can predict
your child\'s athletic ability.

00:53:51.334 --> 00:53:54.459
- We\'ve established that
this is not about science.

00:53:54.459 --> 00:53:57.834
This is about PR, this is about buzzwords,

00:53:57.834 --> 00:54:01.334
this is about keeping a paradigm going

00:54:01.334 --> 00:54:04.834
that doesn\'t seem to want to go away.

00:54:04.834 --> 00:54:07.167
(dramatic music)

00:54:07.167 --> 00:54:08.501
- We still see scientists convincing

00:54:08.501 --> 00:54:10.167
public and private investors to spend

00:54:10.167 --> 00:54:11.584
tens of billions of dollars,

00:54:11.584 --> 00:54:16.042
not only looking for genes for
intelligence or alcoholism,

00:54:16.042 --> 00:54:19.918
but saying, then we can
develop drugs or gene therapies

00:54:19.918 --> 00:54:21.626
that will cure those problems

00:54:21.626 --> 00:54:23.250
or perhaps increase intelligence

00:54:23.250 --> 00:54:26.834
and whoever does that is
gonna be making billions.

00:54:26.834 --> 00:54:30.000
- It\'s been called the scientific
breakthrough of the year.

00:54:30.000 --> 00:54:34.751
It\'s all about a way of
editing genes known as CRISPR.

00:54:34.751 --> 00:54:37.751
- If we say that there is a gene

00:54:37.751 --> 00:54:40.375
that can make somebody brighter

00:54:40.375 --> 00:54:42.542
or a gene for criminality,

00:54:44.751 --> 00:54:48.918
that gives the illusion
that you could deal with it

00:54:50.083 --> 00:54:53.000
by identifying that gene and either

00:54:54.209 --> 00:54:58.375
predicting it in embryos or
fetuses and not let them be born

00:55:01.375 --> 00:55:05.542
or maybe find treatment
with so-called gene therapy.

00:55:07.792 --> 00:55:09.792
- They predict that about
1% of the population

00:55:09.792 --> 00:55:12.501
has these violence or bad behavior genes,

00:55:12.501 --> 00:55:13.751
which is fascinating.

00:55:13.751 --> 00:55:14.918
The real goal, according to the doctors

00:55:14.918 --> 00:55:16.334
that we spoke with about this

00:55:16.334 --> 00:55:18.167
is to eventually develop treatments

00:55:18.167 --> 00:55:21.542
to counteract those genes
and get rid of violence.

00:55:21.542 --> 00:55:23.626
Really interesting stuff.

00:55:24.709 --> 00:55:25.834
- Now, we know because of the science,

00:55:25.834 --> 00:55:27.626
that\'s just not gonna work,

00:55:27.626 --> 00:55:30.459
but what concerns me is
even the attempt to do so

00:55:30.459 --> 00:55:33.626
would mean genetically
engineering human biology

00:55:33.626 --> 00:55:34.918
in a state of ignorance,

00:55:34.918 --> 00:55:37.250
not knowing really what you\'re changing,

00:55:37.250 --> 00:55:38.584
so they won\'t be successful

00:55:38.584 --> 00:55:40.918
in making a more intelligent child,

00:55:40.918 --> 00:55:43.209
but they could do a lot
of damage on the way.

00:55:43.209 --> 00:55:46.042
(clapping)

00:55:46.042 --> 00:55:48.626
- I sense the tide has changed.

00:55:50.292 --> 00:55:54.626
Genetic manipulation will
be more and more accepted.

00:55:54.626 --> 00:55:57.959
Our people say, well, we\'re playing god.

00:55:59.667 --> 00:56:02.167
I have a straightforward answer,

00:56:02.167 --> 00:56:04.751
if we don\'t play god, who will?

00:56:09.876 --> 00:56:12.000
(gentle music)

00:56:12.000 --> 00:56:14.709
- [Narrator] The demise of
the gene clearly isn\'t enough

00:56:14.709 --> 00:56:18.876
to deter Watson and others
from fantasies of playing god.

00:56:20.083 --> 00:56:22.918
The question is, will they
ignore the tragic lessons

00:56:22.918 --> 00:56:26.334
of the past century when pseudoscience

00:56:26.334 --> 00:56:28.501
claimed the minds of many Americans

00:56:28.501 --> 00:56:30.959
and state governments stripped generations

00:56:30.959 --> 00:56:33.250
of their most fundamental rights,

00:56:33.250 --> 00:56:37.417
contributing to the greatest
crime of the 20th century.

00:56:41.292 --> 00:56:42.125
(sighs)

00:56:42.125 --> 00:56:42.959
- Now.

00:56:43.918 --> 00:56:48.083
Okay, this is Lauren\'s
first plane ride right here.

00:56:50.042 --> 00:56:53.375
We was raised in a very
rural area of North Carolina

00:56:53.375 --> 00:56:56.292
where there was hardly jobs or any work

00:56:56.292 --> 00:57:00.876
and the only form of work
that was there was farming.

00:57:00.876 --> 00:57:02.667
We used to go in to pick cotton

00:57:02.667 --> 00:57:05.959
or potatoes or beans or something like.

00:57:05.959 --> 00:57:08.375
Instead of us being in school,

00:57:08.375 --> 00:57:11.375
sometimes we had to be in the field.

00:57:12.250 --> 00:57:14.834
I remember, my hair was unkept.

00:57:15.918 --> 00:57:18.876
I used to wear the same
thing over and over and over

00:57:18.876 --> 00:57:21.334
to school at least three times a week.

00:57:21.334 --> 00:57:24.250
I was really an unkept little girl.

00:57:25.667 --> 00:57:27.042
- [Narrator] Like many people growing up

00:57:27.042 --> 00:57:30.125
in North Carolina in the \'50s and \'60s,

00:57:30.125 --> 00:57:32.792
Elaine Riddick Jessie never
had the real opportunities

00:57:32.792 --> 00:57:36.167
she\'d been guaranteed
as an American citizen.

00:57:36.167 --> 00:57:38.417
Her fate was bound up with a state built

00:57:38.417 --> 00:57:42.167
on a system of segregation
and Jim Crow laws.

00:57:44.042 --> 00:57:47.042
The Winfall community
suffered an extreme poverty.

00:57:47.042 --> 00:57:49.918
Elaine watched her parents\'
marriage fall apart,

00:57:49.918 --> 00:57:51.501
eventually leading social workers

00:57:51.501 --> 00:57:55.250
to send her to live with her grandmother.

00:57:55.250 --> 00:57:58.918
Then Elaine\'s life took
another tragic turn.

00:58:00.292 --> 00:58:02.375
- I was a victim of rape.

00:58:03.250 --> 00:58:06.626
I was molested when I was 13 years old,

00:58:06.626 --> 00:58:09.626
and the guy that raped me told me

00:58:09.626 --> 00:58:13.667
if I told anybody that
he was gonna kill me.

00:58:13.667 --> 00:58:16.584
So, I had to keep it to myself.

00:58:16.584 --> 00:58:19.584
(somber music)

00:58:19.584 --> 00:58:21.125
- [Narrator] Eventually,
the social worker noticed

00:58:21.125 --> 00:58:24.834
that Elaine was pregnant,
assumed that she was promiscuous,

00:58:24.834 --> 00:58:26.792
and recommended that Elaine be examined

00:58:26.792 --> 00:58:28.876
the state Eugenics Board.

00:58:29.751 --> 00:58:32.667
- The Eugenics Board
was a board of five men

00:58:32.667 --> 00:58:33.792
that sat around a table,

00:58:33.792 --> 00:58:35.876
and of course, they were white men too.

00:58:35.876 --> 00:58:38.751
They sat around a table and
they just marked the paper

00:58:38.751 --> 00:58:40.918
anybody that the social worker

00:58:40.918 --> 00:58:45.042
would deem feebleminded or
slow or havin\' a problem.

00:58:47.792 --> 00:58:49.584
This social worker would come in and say,

00:58:49.584 --> 00:58:51.667
I want this person sterilized,

00:58:51.667 --> 00:58:55.417
and boom, they stamped it and that was it.

00:58:55.417 --> 00:58:56.417
- [Narrator] The Board was presented

00:58:56.417 --> 00:58:58.709
with an evaluation from the social worker

00:58:58.709 --> 00:59:01.834
who insisted that there
was no hope for Elaine,

00:59:01.834 --> 00:59:03.918
that she got along poorly
with other children,

00:59:03.918 --> 00:59:08.584
and that an IQ test showed
that she was feebleminded.

00:59:08.584 --> 00:59:11.250
- No one asked me, what\'s wrong?

00:59:12.584 --> 00:59:14.501
Can I help you?

00:59:14.501 --> 00:59:16.250
Are you hungry?

00:59:16.250 --> 00:59:17.334
Are you cold?

00:59:18.167 --> 00:59:20.167
Maybe I\'m sick.

00:59:20.167 --> 00:59:24.334
No one took the time to find
out what was the problem.

00:59:25.876 --> 00:59:27.209
- [Narrator] Elaine discovered the Board

00:59:27.209 --> 00:59:30.042
had completely ignored another evaluation

00:59:30.042 --> 00:59:32.125
they received by a psychologist

00:59:32.125 --> 00:59:35.292
who said her chief problem
was her environment.

00:59:35.292 --> 00:59:38.125
She was doing above average work in school

00:59:38.125 --> 00:59:40.751
and any difficulties she had
getting along with others

00:59:40.751 --> 00:59:41.959
was likely due to the fact

00:59:41.959 --> 00:59:44.792
that she was always being
bullied by other students

00:59:44.792 --> 00:59:46.876
and was generally hungry.

00:59:48.083 --> 00:59:52.250
The Board favored the social
worker\'s recommendation.

00:59:53.459 --> 00:59:57.626
- I had my son and I woke up in bandages,

00:59:57.626 --> 00:59:59.959
not knowin\' what it was for.

01:00:01.250 --> 01:00:03.459
They went inside of me and sterilized me

01:00:03.459 --> 01:00:05.125
without my knowledge

01:00:06.125 --> 01:00:10.292
because I was black, poor,
and my mother was in a prison,

01:00:11.918 --> 01:00:14.667
my dad was runnin\' around,
he was an alcoholic,

01:00:14.667 --> 01:00:15.834
my mother was an alcoholic,

01:00:15.834 --> 01:00:17.792
so they automatically assumed

01:00:17.792 --> 01:00:19.751
that I was gonna become an alcoholic

01:00:19.751 --> 01:00:22.501
and then without even my son as a baby,

01:00:22.501 --> 01:00:25.792
automatically assumin\' that
he was a third generation

01:00:25.792 --> 01:00:28.209
and that he was gonna
be an alcoholic also.

01:00:28.209 --> 01:00:31.209
What they wanted to do was
nip it in the bud right then,

01:00:31.209 --> 01:00:32.626
stop this family tree.

01:00:32.626 --> 01:00:34.792
They wanna cut the tree down.

01:00:34.792 --> 01:00:36.501
And I wanna know who in the world

01:00:36.501 --> 01:00:38.167
give these people the right to go

01:00:38.167 --> 01:00:41.083
and do these sort of things
to another human being,

01:00:41.083 --> 01:00:43.083
even in Germany, you don\'t have the,

01:00:43.083 --> 01:00:45.167
Hitler didn\'t have the right to do this.

01:00:45.167 --> 01:00:47.042
We\'re the ones that educated Hitler

01:00:47.042 --> 01:00:49.876
on this stuff here, sterilization.

01:00:50.834 --> 01:00:53.417
(mellow music)

01:01:07.542 --> 01:01:11.250
- My interest in eugenics
certainly comes in part

01:01:11.250 --> 01:01:15.042
from the experience of myself being

01:01:15.042 --> 01:01:19.125
a refugee from Hitler

01:01:19.876 --> 01:01:23.125
and being keenly aware of what was done

01:01:24.792 --> 01:01:26.626
in the name of science

01:01:26.626 --> 01:01:29.876
and specifically in the name of genetics,

01:01:29.876 --> 01:01:32.834
but that happened in this
country as well, of course,

01:01:32.834 --> 01:01:34.542
in a certain sense.

01:01:34.542 --> 01:01:38.250
The Nazis imported it
from the United States,

01:01:38.250 --> 01:01:41.584
which had a flourishing eugenics movement.

01:01:41.584 --> 01:01:43.459
(somber music)

01:01:43.759 --> 01:01:45.592
- [Narrator] At the turn
of the 20th century,

01:01:45.592 --> 01:01:48.467
eugenics was widely accepted
in the United States

01:01:48.467 --> 01:01:52.259
as solid science among the
country\'s top psychologists,

01:01:52.259 --> 01:01:56.009
scientists, politicians,
and social thinkers.

01:01:58.801 --> 01:02:00.509
During this first Gilded Age,

01:02:00.509 --> 01:02:03.550
it was the creation of
the gene concept itself

01:02:03.550 --> 01:02:07.717
that ignited what became a
powerful eugenics movement.

01:02:09.176 --> 01:02:10.926
- So, one reason that
the eugenics movement

01:02:10.926 --> 01:02:13.759
was so influential at the time

01:02:13.759 --> 01:02:17.717
was because it provided
a scientific solution

01:02:17.717 --> 01:02:21.842
or a supposedly scientific
solution to a political problem.

01:02:23.550 --> 01:02:26.134
(mellow music)

01:02:27.509 --> 01:02:31.509
- The Gilded Age was the
first time in American history

01:02:31.509 --> 01:02:33.425
in which you had people

01:02:35.009 --> 01:02:38.259
sitting on top of the entire economy.

01:02:38.259 --> 01:02:41.926
Vast fortunes made on the
backs of average people,

01:02:41.926 --> 01:02:44.176
at the same, a new wave of immigrants

01:02:44.176 --> 01:02:46.134
coming into this country with nothing,

01:02:46.134 --> 01:02:48.967
and our cities became fitted slums

01:02:50.509 --> 01:02:52.967
in contrast to the extraordinary wealth

01:02:52.967 --> 01:02:56.717
that the robber barons, as we
called them, were enjoying.

01:02:56.717 --> 01:02:58.884
We were in danger of losing our economy

01:02:58.884 --> 01:03:00.383
and our democracy.

01:03:02.176 --> 01:03:04.383
- People forget, in 1900,

01:03:04.383 --> 01:03:06.300
there was no middle class in America.

01:03:06.300 --> 01:03:08.759
In 1900, there was no weekend in America.

01:03:08.759 --> 01:03:11.259
There\'s not one single paid holiday.

01:03:11.259 --> 01:03:15.967
We had this extreme laissez
faire Social Darwinist reality,

01:03:15.967 --> 01:03:18.009
and the vast majority of Americans

01:03:18.009 --> 01:03:20.259
were fighting to change it.

01:03:22.092 --> 01:03:23.884
- [Narrator] People took to the streets,

01:03:23.884 --> 01:03:26.425
held massive general strikes,

01:03:26.425 --> 01:03:29.092
demanded better living
and working conditions,

01:03:29.092 --> 01:03:33.259
and an end to laissez faire,
unregulated capitalism.

01:03:34.467 --> 01:03:37.634
- If that\'s the explanation,
then the true way to fix that

01:03:37.634 --> 01:03:40.801
is to pay higher wages and to give people

01:03:40.801 --> 01:03:43.009
a better environment in which to live,

01:03:43.009 --> 01:03:46.884
and it was clear which
explanation would be preferable

01:03:46.884 --> 01:03:50.051
to the captains of capitalist industry

01:03:50.051 --> 01:03:51.675
in the early 20th century,

01:03:51.675 --> 01:03:53.842
and that is the biological explanation.

01:03:53.842 --> 01:03:56.425
(sullen music)

01:04:00.467 --> 01:04:02.383
- [Narrator] The wealthiest
families in the country

01:04:02.383 --> 01:04:05.675
provided millions in research
funding to scientists

01:04:05.675 --> 01:04:08.176
in an attempt to prove
that social problems

01:04:08.176 --> 01:04:12.634
were primarily a result
of defective genetics.

01:04:12.634 --> 01:04:15.218
At the prestigious Cold
Spring Harbor Laboratory

01:04:15.218 --> 01:04:18.675
in New York, Harry
Laughlin, an animal breeder

01:04:18.675 --> 01:04:21.176
directed the eugenics records office.

01:04:21.176 --> 01:04:22.675
He claimed they could predict

01:04:22.675 --> 01:04:24.926
who would inherit good or bad traits

01:04:24.926 --> 01:04:29.009
by using a mathematical
formula from Mendel.

01:04:29.009 --> 01:04:31.884
They were also firm
believers in Charles Darwin,

01:04:31.884 --> 01:04:34.967
who clearly applied his
theory of natural selection

01:04:34.967 --> 01:04:36.842
to human society.

01:04:36.842 --> 01:04:39.967
Eugenicists saw themselves
as agents of evolution,

01:04:39.967 --> 01:04:44.134
during their duty to ensure
that fittest Americans survived.

01:04:46.092 --> 01:04:48.592
- They said, we have to find a way

01:04:48.592 --> 01:04:52.300
to have people who are more
evolved make more babies.

01:04:52.300 --> 01:04:54.801
We have to find a way to
have people who are poor

01:04:54.801 --> 01:04:56.550
and who have all these diseases

01:04:56.550 --> 01:05:01.051
and all this bad genetic
structure produce less.

01:05:01.051 --> 01:05:03.634
(mellow music)

01:05:05.926 --> 01:05:07.967
- [Narrator] Laughlin organized
exhibits in communities

01:05:07.967 --> 01:05:11.884
across the country to educate
the public about eugenics.

01:05:11.884 --> 01:05:15.134
Families underwent detailed
physical and mental examinations

01:05:15.134 --> 01:05:19.300
as they competed to win the
prize for the best heredity.

01:05:24.509 --> 01:05:27.842
But eugenicists disagreed
on what should be done

01:05:27.842 --> 01:05:30.383
with people they considered unfit.

01:05:30.383 --> 01:05:32.884
(tense music)

01:05:35.009 --> 01:05:37.592
Some argued that laissez
faire economic policies

01:05:37.592 --> 01:05:39.592
might be severe enough to eliminate

01:05:39.592 --> 01:05:42.926
so-called defectives from the gene pool.

01:05:44.467 --> 01:05:48.342
- Society should not coddle,
in any way, the poor.

01:05:48.342 --> 01:05:49.509
Don\'t help them.

01:05:49.509 --> 01:05:50.801
Don\'t help them through charity.

01:05:50.801 --> 01:05:53.218
Don\'t help them through legislation.

01:05:53.218 --> 01:05:54.342
You see, if you help them,

01:05:54.342 --> 01:05:55.842
according to the Social Darwinists,

01:05:55.842 --> 01:05:59.967
you would only enable them
to reproduce more of them.

01:05:59.967 --> 01:06:01.259
Society would be better off

01:06:01.259 --> 01:06:04.592
if we instituted survival of the fittest.

01:06:04.592 --> 01:06:07.634
We could get stronger, just
as species become stronger

01:06:07.634 --> 01:06:09.675
when their weakest members die off

01:06:09.675 --> 01:06:13.759
and their strongest members
live on to reproduce.

01:06:14.926 --> 01:06:16.300
- [Narrator] But it would take decades

01:06:16.300 --> 01:06:19.675
before this Social Darwinian
approach would be effective,

01:06:19.675 --> 01:06:23.092
so many eugenicists
considered a quicker solution,

01:06:23.092 --> 01:06:27.259
one that would eventually be
used by the Nazis, euthanasia.

01:06:29.467 --> 01:06:32.884
Some called for outright
execution of the unfit,

01:06:32.884 --> 01:06:34.509
as well as lethal neglect

01:06:34.509 --> 01:06:37.675
of newborns they considered defective.

01:06:46.051 --> 01:06:48.759
But in the end, they
agreed that euthanasia

01:06:48.759 --> 01:06:52.092
would be used at too dear a moral price.

01:06:54.009 --> 01:06:57.509
Sterilization was the favored alternative.

01:06:59.926 --> 01:07:02.842
Biologist Harry Laughlin
wrote the model law

01:07:02.842 --> 01:07:05.051
that North Carolina eventually used

01:07:05.051 --> 01:07:07.759
to sterilize Elaine Riddick.

01:07:07.759 --> 01:07:10.675
He called for millions of
people he considered defective

01:07:10.675 --> 01:07:13.592
to be forcibly sterilized,
as well as relatives

01:07:13.592 --> 01:07:16.467
who might be carrying
supposed recessive genes

01:07:16.467 --> 01:07:18.675
for inferior traits.

01:07:18.675 --> 01:07:21.176
(tense music)

01:07:24.634 --> 01:07:29.134
In 1927, the Supreme Court
upheld Harry Laughlin\'s model law

01:07:29.134 --> 01:07:31.592
and ruled eight to one
that the Constitution

01:07:31.592 --> 01:07:35.759
permitted U.S. citizens
to be forcibly sterilized.

01:07:50.218 --> 01:07:53.842
Congress never passed a
federal sterilization law,

01:07:53.842 --> 01:07:56.592
but it\'s estimated that by
the end of World War II,

01:07:56.592 --> 01:08:00.092
under state laws, at
least 80,000 Americans

01:08:00.092 --> 01:08:02.425
had been forced to undergo hysterectomies,

01:08:02.425 --> 01:08:06.092
tubal ligation,
vasectomies, and castration.

01:08:15.675 --> 01:08:18.759
- It was only in 1933
after the Nazis took over

01:08:18.759 --> 01:08:21.342
that Germany had any eugenic laws at all.

01:08:21.342 --> 01:08:22.926
The first law they passed was

01:08:22.926 --> 01:08:25.218
for the heredity of future generations,

01:08:25.218 --> 01:08:27.425
and that was their sterilization law,

01:08:27.425 --> 01:08:30.926
and they modeled it off
Laughlin\'s model law.

01:08:30.926 --> 01:08:33.425
In fact, they were so grateful to Laughlin

01:08:33.425 --> 01:08:35.092
for his leadership in this area

01:08:35.092 --> 01:08:38.884
that they gave him an
honorary medical degree

01:08:38.884 --> 01:08:42.051
from Heidelberg in 1936 for research

01:08:42.051 --> 01:08:45.926
on purifying the germ plasm
of the human population.

01:08:45.926 --> 01:08:47.967
(tense music)

01:08:47.967 --> 01:08:52.592
- Laughlin was an enthusiastic
supporter of the Third Reich.

01:08:52.592 --> 01:08:55.218
The Eugenical News, which Laughlin edited

01:08:55.218 --> 01:08:59.009
just fawned over Germany
and its progressive policies

01:08:59.009 --> 01:09:02.842
and in fact, there was a certain envy.

01:09:02.842 --> 01:09:04.801
Germany is getting too far ahead of us

01:09:04.801 --> 01:09:07.176
in applying the conclusions of science

01:09:07.176 --> 01:09:09.509
to the structure of society.

01:09:11.009 --> 01:09:12.675
The most significant similarity

01:09:12.675 --> 01:09:15.509
was the emphasis on racial purity.

01:09:17.801 --> 01:09:19.759
- [Narrator] Strict control of immigration

01:09:19.759 --> 01:09:22.717
was crucial to eugenic goals.

01:09:22.717 --> 01:09:24.884
In the 1920s, Congress debated

01:09:24.884 --> 01:09:27.051
whether to impose racial quotas

01:09:27.051 --> 01:09:29.759
and hired Harry Laughlin
as a special agent

01:09:29.759 --> 01:09:33.717
to investigate the subject
and offer his recommendations.

01:09:33.717 --> 01:09:35.383
Laughlin particularly wanted to shut out

01:09:35.383 --> 01:09:37.967
Eastern and Southern Europeans.

01:09:39.300 --> 01:09:42.884
- Immigrants were being
castigated as low-level people,

01:09:42.884 --> 01:09:44.967
as the dregs of humanity.

01:09:44.967 --> 01:09:47.342
Words like this were used in publications

01:09:47.342 --> 01:09:49.967
as prestigious as the
Saturday Evening Post,

01:09:49.967 --> 01:09:53.134
and the call was very strong politically

01:09:53.134 --> 01:09:56.884
and economically to restrict immigration.

01:09:56.884 --> 01:10:00.259
What Harry Laughlin
provided was charts of data

01:10:00.259 --> 01:10:02.300
that he took to the
Congressional Committee

01:10:02.300 --> 01:10:05.425
purporting to show that people from Italy,

01:10:05.425 --> 01:10:08.509
from Poland, from the Slavic countries

01:10:08.509 --> 01:10:12.009
were genetically inferior
to the Northern European,

01:10:12.009 --> 01:10:14.842
to the Nordic, the Aryan, the Anglo-Saxon

01:10:14.842 --> 01:10:16.884
and that this genetic inferiority

01:10:16.884 --> 01:10:19.176
was going to have a major impact

01:10:19.176 --> 01:10:22.342
on future generations
in the United States.

01:10:22.342 --> 01:10:23.884
(tense music)

01:10:23.884 --> 01:10:25.009
- [Narrator] Laughlin presented data

01:10:25.009 --> 01:10:28.425
from supposedly objective
IQ tests that immigrants

01:10:28.425 --> 01:10:32.801
were forced to take at Ellis
Island upon their arrival.

01:10:32.801 --> 01:10:35.592
Laughlin neglected to
mention that many of them

01:10:35.592 --> 01:10:38.342
were reeling from the
crowded, two-week journey

01:10:38.342 --> 01:10:41.300
they\'d just made across the Atlantic,

01:10:41.300 --> 01:10:43.509
trips that were often marked by sickness,

01:10:43.509 --> 01:10:46.218
sleeplessness, and hunger.

01:10:46.218 --> 01:10:48.176
If they didn\'t do well on math problems

01:10:48.176 --> 01:10:50.926
or abstract image or writing tests,

01:10:50.926 --> 01:10:52.801
immigrants were marked with an X,

01:10:52.801 --> 01:10:55.218
declared feebleminded, and deported.

01:10:55.218 --> 01:10:58.051
(somber music)

01:10:58.051 --> 01:11:01.092
- And they used eugenics arguments

01:11:01.092 --> 01:11:04.342
that people who were coming
here had these bad genes.

01:11:04.342 --> 01:11:07.051
The Congress passed
overwhelming legislation

01:11:07.051 --> 01:11:10.092
to limit the capacity of
these groups to come in.

01:11:10.092 --> 01:11:12.675
(somber music)

01:11:18.509 --> 01:11:20.592
- [Narrator] Even when it
was clear that Jewish people

01:11:20.592 --> 01:11:23.092
were being persecuted by the Nazis,

01:11:23.092 --> 01:11:25.634
they were a central target
of the racial quotas

01:11:25.634 --> 01:11:28.759
and were denied entry
into the United States.

01:11:28.759 --> 01:11:31.342
In some estimates, up to two
million Jewish immigrants

01:11:31.342 --> 01:11:34.509
who died in the Holocaust
might have escaped their fate

01:11:34.509 --> 01:11:37.926
if Congress hadn\'t passed the racist law.

01:11:40.634 --> 01:11:44.467
In 1939, nearly 1,000 refugees escaped

01:11:44.467 --> 01:11:46.259
and sailed all the way to Cuba

01:11:46.259 --> 01:11:50.134
hoping to eventually
enter the United States.

01:11:50.134 --> 01:11:52.634
They were stranded in
the waters off Havana,

01:11:52.634 --> 01:11:56.218
as they awaited news of their fate.

01:11:56.218 --> 01:11:58.051
Families rode out to the ship

01:11:58.051 --> 01:12:01.842
hoping to get a glimpse
of their loved ones.

01:12:01.842 --> 01:12:04.134
But the Cuban government turned them away

01:12:04.134 --> 01:12:06.717
and the White House was silent.

01:12:07.634 --> 01:12:10.717
The refugees were forced
to return to Europe

01:12:10.717 --> 01:12:13.967
as the Nazis expanded their occupation.

01:12:16.342 --> 01:12:18.509
The same year a bill was introduced

01:12:18.509 --> 01:12:20.634
that would have allowed 20,000 children,

01:12:20.634 --> 01:12:23.926
most of them Jewish, to
come to the United States.

01:12:23.926 --> 01:12:27.509
Foster families were
ready to take them in,

01:12:35.884 --> 01:12:39.092
but Laughlin and other members
of an anti-Semitic coalition

01:12:39.092 --> 01:12:43.218
lobbied against relaxing the
racial quotas for any reason.

01:12:45.051 --> 01:12:47.550
The bill was defeated,
leaving the children

01:12:47.550 --> 01:12:50.717
no escape from the hands of the Nazis.

01:12:53.009 --> 01:12:55.550
The widespread rejection
of Jewish refugees

01:12:55.550 --> 01:12:57.842
convinced the Nazis that other nations

01:12:57.842 --> 01:13:01.842
shared their views of
Jewish racial inferiority.

01:13:03.550 --> 01:13:05.550
- Since being Jewish was considered to be

01:13:05.550 --> 01:13:09.759
an inherited thing, you
couldn\'t convert away from it.

01:13:09.759 --> 01:13:12.550
The only thing to do
to rid the body politic

01:13:12.550 --> 01:13:15.176
of that burden was kill people.

01:13:15.176 --> 01:13:18.592
And that makes that worst crime of history

01:13:18.592 --> 01:13:22.176
a piece of bad science among other things.

01:13:22.176 --> 01:13:24.759
When Hitler was elected in
1933 in a free election,

01:13:24.759 --> 01:13:28.926
one of his slogans was, all
politics is applied biology.

01:13:29.967 --> 01:13:33.884
And that\'s the red light that
one has to see on the road

01:13:33.884 --> 01:13:36.467
and not go down that road ever.

01:13:37.717 --> 01:13:40.300
(somber music)

01:13:58.342 --> 01:14:00.842
(tense music)

01:14:03.926 --> 01:14:05.759
- [Narrator] By the end of World War II,

01:14:05.759 --> 01:14:10.717
sterilization continued but
rates diminished in most states.

01:14:11.017 --> 01:14:14.101
Organizations and journals
changed the word eugenics

01:14:14.101 --> 01:14:16.101
in their names to genetics

01:14:16.101 --> 01:14:20.184
to avoid association with
the unpopular movement.

01:14:21.559 --> 01:14:23.434
But many prominent scientists,

01:14:23.434 --> 01:14:25.934
encouraged by the discovery of DNA,

01:14:25.934 --> 01:14:27.809
continue to believe in the gene

01:14:27.809 --> 01:14:30.392
and to advocate for eugenics,

01:14:30.392 --> 01:14:33.892
including the two
co-discoverers themselves.

01:14:33.892 --> 01:14:35.892
In a speech to his fellow scientists,

01:14:35.892 --> 01:14:39.683
Francis Crick offered
his own eugenic vision.

01:14:39.683 --> 01:14:42.184
(baby crying)

01:14:44.267 --> 01:14:45.683
- [Francis] We have to
ask, do people have a right

01:14:45.683 --> 01:14:47.767
to have children or to have at least

01:14:47.767 --> 01:14:51.059
as many children as they please,

01:14:51.059 --> 01:14:53.642
and it seems to me that we
have to begin to consider

01:14:53.642 --> 01:14:55.892
that the answer to this
question might be no,

01:14:55.892 --> 01:14:58.184
they don\'t have a right,

01:14:58.184 --> 01:15:00.142
but the child is handicapped,

01:15:00.142 --> 01:15:02.850
wouldn\'t it be better
to let that child die

01:15:02.850 --> 01:15:05.392
than to have another one?

01:15:05.392 --> 01:15:08.683
And what about a child
that\'s born incurably blind?

01:15:08.683 --> 01:15:12.850
Is there any reason nowadays
for keeping such a child alive?

01:15:14.434 --> 01:15:15.975
In other words, should we not

01:15:15.975 --> 01:15:19.059
have an acceptance test for children?

01:15:25.809 --> 01:15:28.559
- [Narrator] James Watson
also regrets that eugenics

01:15:28.559 --> 01:15:31.392
has been tainted by the Nazi legacy.

01:15:31.392 --> 01:15:33.267
He says it\'s our responsibility to prevent

01:15:33.267 --> 01:15:35.683
the birth of those he deems unfit

01:15:35.683 --> 01:15:39.059
as long as families
themselves make the decisions.

01:15:39.059 --> 01:15:42.226
Watson believes in the unlimited
use of genetic engineering

01:15:42.226 --> 01:15:44.351
to enhance future generations

01:15:44.351 --> 01:15:46.559
and isn\'t worried such eugenic measures

01:15:46.559 --> 01:15:49.809
would be taken to the extreme.

01:15:49.809 --> 01:15:51.809
- Hitler\'s got us twice.

01:15:53.809 --> 01:15:56.518
We\'re a hostage to what Hitler did

01:15:56.518 --> 01:16:00.934
and that things which we
might say are sensible,

01:16:02.683 --> 01:16:04.267
we can\'t do because people say,

01:16:04.267 --> 01:16:08.642
well, Hitler would\'ve done
exactly the same thing.

01:16:08.642 --> 01:16:11.392
(tense music)

01:16:11.392 --> 01:16:13.725
- [Narrator] The DNA
discovery helped to obscure

01:16:13.725 --> 01:16:17.725
the country\'s eugenic past,
but the battle continued

01:16:17.725 --> 01:16:19.725
between those who claim that inequality

01:16:19.725 --> 01:16:21.642
is natural and inevitable

01:16:21.642 --> 01:16:23.892
and those who fought
to expand equal rights

01:16:23.892 --> 01:16:26.559
to everyone who\'d been left out.

01:16:31.850 --> 01:16:35.059
- So will you join in the battle

01:16:35.059 --> 01:16:37.392
to give every citizen the full equality

01:16:37.392 --> 01:16:40.642
which God enjoins and the law requires,

01:16:40.642 --> 01:16:44.309
whatever his belief or race
or the color of his skin.

01:16:44.309 --> 01:16:45.809
(applauding)

01:16:45.809 --> 01:16:47.809
- [Narrator] Lyndon
Johnson\'s Great Society

01:16:47.809 --> 01:16:51.725
represented a total rejection
of the eugenic worldview.

01:16:51.725 --> 01:16:54.434
It was the most ambitious effort
in the government\'s history

01:16:54.434 --> 01:16:58.059
to deliver on the American promise.

01:16:58.059 --> 01:16:59.226
Among the hundreds of pieces

01:16:59.226 --> 01:17:01.892
of the Johnson
administration\'s legislation

01:17:01.892 --> 01:17:04.725
was the Immigration
Reform Act which abolished

01:17:04.725 --> 01:17:08.892
racial quotas encouraged by
Harry Laughlin in the 1920s.

01:17:10.059 --> 01:17:11.642
Other laws banned discrimination

01:17:11.642 --> 01:17:13.434
against people with disabilities

01:17:13.434 --> 01:17:17.184
who had also been targets of eugenics.

01:17:17.184 --> 01:17:21.683
- So there is a kind of
dominant theme that\'s going to

01:17:21.683 --> 01:17:24.683
take over American
political intellectual life

01:17:24.683 --> 01:17:26.809
that people can and should mobilize

01:17:26.809 --> 01:17:29.267
to change their condition.

01:17:29.267 --> 01:17:30.101
(applauding)

01:17:30.101 --> 01:17:33.351
- We will walk until we are free,

01:17:33.351 --> 01:17:34.934
until we can walk to any school

01:17:34.934 --> 01:17:37.892
and take our children to any
school in the United States.

01:17:37.892 --> 01:17:39.767
(cheering)

01:17:39.767 --> 01:17:41.309
- [Narrator] Social movements mobilized

01:17:41.309 --> 01:17:43.267
under the banner of equality

01:17:43.267 --> 01:17:45.309
and created the pressure Johnson needed

01:17:45.309 --> 01:17:49.600
to push through bills that
addressed racial discrimination.

01:17:49.600 --> 01:17:52.518
(gentle music)

01:17:52.518 --> 01:17:55.309
- Not only did the Great Society defeat

01:17:55.309 --> 01:17:58.683
centuries-long beliefs in
biological, genetic determinism

01:17:58.683 --> 01:18:00.476
of poverty and inequality,

01:18:00.476 --> 01:18:02.476
it said that those could be conquered

01:18:02.476 --> 01:18:05.767
through social programs,
and then it did that.

01:18:05.767 --> 01:18:08.351
- [Narrator] Johnson
was a New Deal Democrat.

01:18:08.351 --> 01:18:10.142
He intended to use his presidency

01:18:10.142 --> 01:18:12.476
to go further than Franklin Roosevelt

01:18:12.476 --> 01:18:16.226
and to reach millions who
still languished in poverty.

01:18:16.226 --> 01:18:18.683
He reminded Americans that genetics

01:18:18.683 --> 01:18:21.975
was not the route of the problem.

01:18:21.975 --> 01:18:25.518
- [Narrator] Poverty is
not a trait of character.

01:18:25.518 --> 01:18:28.101
It is created anew in each generation

01:18:28.101 --> 01:18:31.267
but not by heredity, by circumstances.

01:18:33.017 --> 01:18:35.184
Today, millions of American families

01:18:35.184 --> 01:18:39.267
are caught in circumstances
beyond their control.

01:18:40.101 --> 01:18:43.142
- People are interested in
being treated as human beings.

01:18:43.142 --> 01:18:45.725
They\'re interested in having
other people treat them

01:18:45.725 --> 01:18:49.226
as the Declaration of
Independence says, as equals.

01:18:49.600 --> 01:18:51.434
That\'s the first thing that\'s needed

01:18:51.434 --> 01:18:54.101
in the war against poverty.

01:18:54.101 --> 01:18:56.226
- [Narrator] There was no
better person to represent

01:18:56.226 --> 01:19:00.975
the view that biology was not
destiny than Sargent Shriver.

01:19:00.975 --> 01:19:04.518
As director of OEO, the Office
of Economic Opportunity,

01:19:04.518 --> 01:19:07.476
he knew he could pass concrete legislation

01:19:07.476 --> 01:19:10.351
that would tackle poverty head on.

01:19:10.351 --> 01:19:13.642
With Johnson\'s help, Shriver
convinced Congress to approve

01:19:13.642 --> 01:19:17.809
$700 million to launch a
remarkable set of programs.

01:19:18.892 --> 01:19:21.392
- This is Dick Van Dyke here
to tell you about an army

01:19:21.392 --> 01:19:25.434
America is using in this
all-out war against poverty.

01:19:25.434 --> 01:19:26.892
- [Narrator] Thousands of Americans

01:19:26.892 --> 01:19:29.975
seeking equality of opportunity
enlisted in programs

01:19:29.975 --> 01:19:32.850
such as Volunteers in Service to America,

01:19:32.850 --> 01:19:37.017
Job Corps, Upward Bound,
Teacher Corps, and Youth Corps.

01:19:38.392 --> 01:19:41.559
Shriver also created the
Legal Services Program

01:19:41.559 --> 01:19:43.059
to provide lawyers to people

01:19:43.059 --> 01:19:45.518
who couldn\'t afford representation.

01:19:45.518 --> 01:19:48.725
Thousands of communities
were now able to sue cities

01:19:48.725 --> 01:19:52.017
for discrimination, to fight evictions,

01:19:52.017 --> 01:19:56.184
and to hold landlords accountable
for housing violations.

01:19:57.725 --> 01:20:00.975
(cheerful music)

01:20:00.975 --> 01:20:03.559
In an effort to advance
equality of condition,

01:20:03.559 --> 01:20:05.934
communities in remote
areas were given access

01:20:05.934 --> 01:20:08.226
to healthcare for the first time,

01:20:08.226 --> 01:20:11.101
as well as grants for
adult literacy programs

01:20:11.101 --> 01:20:13.892
and to improve infrastructure.

01:20:13.892 --> 01:20:16.184
- I think people have the wrong ideas

01:20:16.184 --> 01:20:17.892
about the poverty program,

01:20:17.892 --> 01:20:20.059
that it\'s sort of a handout,
that you\'re goin\' around

01:20:20.059 --> 01:20:22.642
giving money to people and
as soon as the money\'s spent,

01:20:22.642 --> 01:20:24.184
it\'s not gonna do any good.

01:20:24.184 --> 01:20:27.934
What I\'ve seen today indicates
that what you are doing

01:20:27.934 --> 01:20:30.351
is training people and
you\'re giving people

01:20:30.351 --> 01:20:32.351
an opportunity to do for themselves,

01:20:32.351 --> 01:20:34.809
and it takes the action of government.

01:20:34.809 --> 01:20:38.309
(children chattering)

01:20:38.309 --> 01:20:40.434
- [Narrator] One of Shriver\'s
most successful programs

01:20:40.434 --> 01:20:43.559
was Head Start, which
provided early education,

01:20:43.559 --> 01:20:46.850
nutrition, and medical
services to compensate

01:20:46.850 --> 01:20:50.392
for the lack of opportunities
that held poor children back.

01:20:50.392 --> 01:20:52.059
- [Doctor] Take a deep breath.

01:20:52.559 --> 01:20:53.976
- [Narrator] Head Start programs allowed

01:20:53.976 --> 01:20:56.225
millions of children to thrive.

01:20:56.225 --> 01:20:58.976
(peaceful music)

01:21:00.392 --> 01:21:01.934
The success of these programs

01:21:01.934 --> 01:21:05.225
disrupted power relations
across the country,

01:21:05.225 --> 01:21:07.059
prompting city and state officials

01:21:07.059 --> 01:21:10.809
to pressure Shriver to cut off funding.

01:21:10.809 --> 01:21:13.434
Shriver didn\'t back down.

01:21:13.434 --> 01:21:15.018
- For the first in the
history of this country,

01:21:15.018 --> 01:21:17.183
poor people actually have a place

01:21:17.183 --> 01:21:20.059
and a way in which to express themselves.

01:21:20.059 --> 01:21:22.142
We\'re creating life at
the community level,

01:21:22.142 --> 01:21:23.517
when you got life, you got movement,

01:21:23.517 --> 01:21:27.684
you got dissention, you got
action, that\'s what we want.

01:21:27.684 --> 01:21:30.350
- [Narrator] By 1970, War On Poverty

01:21:30.350 --> 01:21:32.642
and other Great Society programs

01:21:32.642 --> 01:21:35.809
led to the fastest and
sharpest decrease in poverty

01:21:35.809 --> 01:21:39.142
in the country\'s history, over 40%.

01:21:40.392 --> 01:21:42.059
- And that goes completely
against the genetic theory,

01:21:42.059 --> 01:21:44.434
no one was changing genes at this time.

01:21:44.434 --> 01:21:47.309
This was done through social programs.

01:21:47.309 --> 01:21:49.309
And that\'s when we begin
to see this very strong

01:21:49.309 --> 01:21:51.642
counter revolution begin to take shape.

01:21:51.642 --> 01:21:54.392
(dramatic music)

01:21:56.809 --> 01:21:59.767
- [Narrator] By 1969, new
leadership at the White House

01:21:59.767 --> 01:22:02.225
radically shifted the
direction of the country

01:22:02.225 --> 01:22:06.392
away from Johnson\'s egalitarian
vision of a Great Society.

01:22:09.475 --> 01:22:12.100
- [Richard] Black Africans,
most of them basically

01:22:12.100 --> 01:22:13.517
are just out of the trees.

01:22:13.517 --> 01:22:16.601
Now let\'s face it, they are.

01:22:16.601 --> 01:22:19.225
- [Narrator] Secret tapes
recorded in the Oval Office

01:22:19.225 --> 01:22:22.475
revealed Nixon\'s racist view
that certain groups of people

01:22:22.475 --> 01:22:25.392
were less evolved than others.

01:22:25.392 --> 01:22:27.684
Pseudoscientific papers
came out at the time

01:22:27.684 --> 01:22:30.100
that bolstered Nixon\'s prejudices

01:22:30.100 --> 01:22:33.100
and revived eugenic claims about IQ.

01:22:34.809 --> 01:22:38.267
- And it was the center
of the counter attack,

01:22:38.267 --> 01:22:41.183
the resistance to widening equality

01:22:42.183 --> 01:22:45.267
and widening equality of opportunity.

01:22:46.517 --> 01:22:48.601
- And the argument was
programs like Head Start

01:22:48.601 --> 01:22:53.309
were essentially not workable
because the difference

01:22:53.309 --> 01:22:56.726
between inner city black kids\' IQs

01:22:56.726 --> 01:22:59.642
and white Caucasian IQs was genetic

01:23:00.851 --> 01:23:04.475
and that because of genetic determinism,

01:23:04.475 --> 01:23:06.976
there\'s nothing you can
do in the environment

01:23:06.976 --> 01:23:08.309
and the educational process

01:23:08.309 --> 01:23:10.934
that will make up for that difference.

01:23:10.934 --> 01:23:15.100
- 15% of the blacks are
above the average white.

01:23:16.100 --> 01:23:17.684
85% are below.

01:23:19.517 --> 01:23:21.517
- [Narrator] Like eugenicists before him,

01:23:21.517 --> 01:23:24.851
Jensen believed black people
should limit their birthrate

01:23:24.851 --> 01:23:28.392
in order to phase out
bad intelligence genes

01:23:28.392 --> 01:23:30.267
and he felt the policies allowing them

01:23:30.267 --> 01:23:34.517
to receive welfare benefits
only exacerbated the problem.

01:23:34.517 --> 01:23:39.225
Nixon was also disturbed by
continuing the current policies.

01:23:39.225 --> 01:23:42.392
- First, we cannot delay longer

01:23:42.392 --> 01:23:47.309
in accomplishing a total
reform of our welfare system.

01:23:47.309 --> 01:23:49.642
We\'re gonna put more of
these little Negro bastards

01:23:49.642 --> 01:23:53.726
on welfare rolls at $2,400.00 a family.

01:23:53.726 --> 01:23:55.601
I have the greatest affection for them,

01:23:55.601 --> 01:23:58.142
but I know they ain\'t gonna
make it for 500 years.

01:23:58.142 --> 01:23:59.142
They aren\'t.

01:24:01.183 --> 01:24:03.392
- As Daniel Moynihan put it,

01:24:03.392 --> 01:24:06.559
at the time that the Nixon
budget was being planned,

01:24:06.559 --> 01:24:09.892
the winds of Jensenism
were gusting through

01:24:09.892 --> 01:24:12.183
the White House with gale force.

01:24:12.183 --> 01:24:13.892
How convenient for the Nixon budget

01:24:13.892 --> 01:24:17.100
that just at the time that he
wanted to cut back on programs

01:24:17.100 --> 01:24:20.309
he could cite the scientists\' findings

01:24:21.684 --> 01:24:23.809
as a rational justification

01:24:23.809 --> 01:24:27.809
for what is truly based
on different motives.

01:24:27.809 --> 01:24:29.851
- We did wanna dismantle the OEO,

01:24:29.851 --> 01:24:31.809
but we knew that the
Congress wouldn\'t do it,

01:24:31.809 --> 01:24:34.018
so instead of just declaring one day

01:24:34.018 --> 01:24:35.684
that OEO was out of business,

01:24:35.684 --> 01:24:38.309
we resorted to all kinds
of trick and artifice

01:24:38.309 --> 01:24:39.767
to try and strangle it.

01:24:39.767 --> 01:24:41.350
(cheering)

01:24:41.350 --> 01:24:44.934
- I have no intention of sitting idly by

01:24:44.934 --> 01:24:48.642
and watching my husband\'s
dream turn into a nightmare.

01:24:48.642 --> 01:24:51.601
(cheering)

01:24:51.601 --> 01:24:53.267
- And so the forces appear to be joined.

01:24:53.267 --> 01:24:56.475
The poor people declaring
that they have declared war

01:24:56.475 --> 01:24:58.350
on the administration\'s efforts

01:24:58.350 --> 01:25:00.392
to cut off the War on Poverty.

01:25:00.392 --> 01:25:02.976
(cheering)

01:25:02.976 --> 01:25:04.601
- [Narrator] Despite the controversy,

01:25:04.601 --> 01:25:07.642
the administration was able
to move many War on Poverty

01:25:07.642 --> 01:25:10.642
programs out of the Office
of Economic Opportunity

01:25:10.642 --> 01:25:15.601
to other agencies and cut
funding by more than 50%.

01:25:15.601 --> 01:25:18.059
(tense music)

01:25:20.434 --> 01:25:22.851
However, Nixon did expand federal support

01:25:22.851 --> 01:25:27.225
for a War on Poverty program
he felt very strongly about,

01:25:27.225 --> 01:25:29.475
birth control for the poor.

01:25:30.767 --> 01:25:34.517
- [Richard] The people
in what we call our class

01:25:34.517 --> 01:25:36.475
control their populations.

01:25:36.475 --> 01:25:38.601
The people who don\'t
control their families

01:25:38.601 --> 01:25:41.892
are the people that shouldn\'t have kids.

01:25:43.726 --> 01:25:45.684
- [Narrator] As part of
its birth control effort,

01:25:45.684 --> 01:25:48.434
the administration
quietly distributed a memo

01:25:48.434 --> 01:25:50.809
to federal clinics across the country

01:25:50.809 --> 01:25:52.851
informing them that for the first time

01:25:52.851 --> 01:25:55.392
War on Poverty funds could be used

01:25:55.392 --> 01:25:58.475
to cover the costs of sterilizations.

01:26:00.642 --> 01:26:03.809
- It was program that became abused

01:26:03.809 --> 01:26:05.225
because the people at the top

01:26:05.225 --> 01:26:07.142
who were distributing the money

01:26:07.142 --> 01:26:11.726
never bothered to issue
the rules and regulations

01:26:11.726 --> 01:26:15.851
that would have made sure
that adult women and men

01:26:17.892 --> 01:26:21.309
who were interested in family planning

01:26:21.309 --> 01:26:24.142
and interested in contraception

01:26:24.142 --> 01:26:25.976
could get what they wanted,

01:26:25.976 --> 01:26:30.350
and instead, it became a
program that for many people

01:26:30.350 --> 01:26:33.559
resulted in forced sterilizations.

01:26:33.559 --> 01:26:36.142
(somber music)

01:26:38.059 --> 01:26:39.851
- [Narrator] Joseph Levin filed a lawsuit

01:26:39.851 --> 01:26:42.559
against the Nixon administration
after he discovered

01:26:42.559 --> 01:26:45.934
that two young girls, Minnie Relf, age 14

01:26:45.934 --> 01:26:49.767
and Mary Alice Relf,
age 12 were sterilized

01:26:49.767 --> 01:26:53.392
at a clinic in Montgomery, Alabama.

01:26:53.392 --> 01:26:55.559
- At no time prior to the surgery

01:26:55.559 --> 01:26:58.809
did any physician discuss with
the girls or their parents

01:26:58.809 --> 01:27:01.100
the nature or consequences of the surgery

01:27:01.100 --> 01:27:04.142
to which Minnie and Mary Alice
were about to be subjected.

01:27:04.142 --> 01:27:04.976
The girls were--

01:27:04.976 --> 01:27:05.809
- [Narrator] The girls\' mother

01:27:05.809 --> 01:27:08.475
was given a consent form by the doctor.

01:27:08.475 --> 01:27:10.392
He knew she couldn\'t read.

01:27:10.392 --> 01:27:13.726
And clinic workers pressured
Minnie to sign a consent form

01:27:13.726 --> 01:27:15.934
falsely stating she was 21.

01:27:18.601 --> 01:27:21.309
- Dr. Warren Hern, working
at the War on Poverty,

01:27:21.309 --> 01:27:23.142
develops these guidelines,

01:27:23.142 --> 01:27:25.392
and these guidelines say
that no one can be sterilized

01:27:25.392 --> 01:27:28.225
without informed consent and
there can be no coercion.

01:27:28.225 --> 01:27:30.142
So, these guidelines
actually would\'ve prevented

01:27:30.142 --> 01:27:32.892
the sterilization of the Relf sisters.

01:27:32.892 --> 01:27:33.726
- [Narrator] But his guidelines

01:27:33.726 --> 01:27:35.892
were never delivered to the clinics.

01:27:35.892 --> 01:27:38.684
They were being held
up at the White House.

01:27:38.684 --> 01:27:40.309
- I got a call from Dr. Cooper telling me

01:27:40.309 --> 01:27:44.851
that I must refrain from any
contact with White House or OMB

01:27:44.851 --> 01:27:46.851
and I said I was just trying to do my job

01:27:46.851 --> 01:27:49.726
and find out where the guidelines were.

01:27:49.726 --> 01:27:51.767
My attempts to find out about
them were met with hostility,

01:27:51.767 --> 01:27:54.142
harassment, and attempts at intimidation,

01:27:54.142 --> 01:27:56.684
and pointed invitations to resign.

01:27:56.684 --> 01:27:59.392
- Finally, he realized they
weren\'t gonna distribute them

01:27:59.392 --> 01:28:00.642
and so he quit.

01:28:01.726 --> 01:28:04.309
(sullen music)

01:28:06.892 --> 01:28:10.642
- So these guidelines were
never distributed to clinics.

01:28:10.642 --> 01:28:13.309
Even the 200 copies that
Dr. Hern had himself

01:28:13.309 --> 01:28:16.309
were taken out of his office
and put in a safe place,

01:28:16.309 --> 01:28:17.684
and in the following investigation

01:28:17.684 --> 01:28:19.601
about what happened to these guidelines,

01:28:19.601 --> 01:28:22.059
the White House responds
to the questions by saying,

01:28:22.059 --> 01:28:23.976
it suited our purposes.

01:28:25.434 --> 01:28:30.434
It suited our purposes to
suppress these guidelines.

01:28:30.434 --> 01:28:33.767
- We came to learn that maybe
there were as many as 500

01:28:33.767 --> 01:28:37.059
of these clinics functioning
throughout the United States,

01:28:37.059 --> 01:28:40.018
and it was sort of up to
the nurses and the doctors

01:28:40.018 --> 01:28:43.225
as to who got what, and
they made their judgment

01:28:43.225 --> 01:28:46.434
about who was worthy and who wasn\'t.

01:28:46.934 --> 01:28:49.934
(sullen music)

01:28:49.934 --> 01:28:53.559
- We are suing HEW for
non-enforcement, non-monitoring

01:28:53.559 --> 01:28:56.309
of the sterilization regulations.

01:28:57.226 --> 01:29:01.850
We are also seeking concent
forms in Spanish and--

01:29:01.850 --> 01:29:04.850
- I\'m talking about the
deprivation and the genocide

01:29:04.850 --> 01:29:06.142
of American Indian people.

01:29:06.142 --> 01:29:10.683
I\'m talkin\' about our women,
42% who were sterilized

01:29:10.683 --> 01:29:12.392
from 1971 to 1975,

01:29:12.392 --> 01:29:16.559
and not a whimper of
indignation from this country.

01:29:17.683 --> 01:29:19.226
- [Narrator] The U.S. district court judge

01:29:19.226 --> 01:29:21.226
who resided over the Relf case

01:29:21.226 --> 01:29:23.683
found that during the
Nixon administration,

01:29:23.683 --> 01:29:26.892
nearly 400,000 poor people were sterilized

01:29:26.892 --> 01:29:29.683
without being fully informed.

01:29:29.683 --> 01:29:31.267
There was evidence, the judge said,

01:29:31.267 --> 01:29:35.309
that an indefinite number had
been coerced into operations

01:29:35.309 --> 01:29:39.101
under the threat of
losing federal assistance.

01:29:39.101 --> 01:29:43.767
Many other were sterilized
without their knowledge.

01:29:43.767 --> 01:29:45.226
- It almost sounded as if

01:29:45.226 --> 01:29:48.642
we were talking about some Nazi-era plan.

01:29:49.642 --> 01:29:51.767
It really was a practice of eugenics

01:29:51.767 --> 01:29:55.559
because these clinics
didn\'t see anything wrong

01:29:55.559 --> 01:29:59.476
with controlling the birthrate of people

01:29:59.476 --> 01:30:02.226
who they viewed as a burden on society.

01:30:02.226 --> 01:30:03.518
It\'s that simple.

01:30:03.518 --> 01:30:05.267
- The hospital after three days.

01:30:05.267 --> 01:30:08.767
- The Relf lawsuit resulted
in Judge Gerhard Gesell

01:30:08.767 --> 01:30:10.392
requiring the federal government

01:30:10.392 --> 01:30:13.309
to issue stringent
guidelines on sterilization

01:30:13.309 --> 01:30:15.184
and that included a ban

01:30:15.184 --> 01:30:19.518
on the sterilization on
any minor, anyone under 18.

01:30:19.518 --> 01:30:22.642
So what we have here is a real
triumph for the Relf family.

01:30:22.642 --> 01:30:23.892
They take this case all the way

01:30:23.892 --> 01:30:26.267
to federal court in
Washington D.C. and they say,

01:30:26.267 --> 01:30:28.476
you know what, this
happened to our daughters,

01:30:28.476 --> 01:30:29.642
but we\'re not gonna let it happen

01:30:29.642 --> 01:30:32.683
to anybody else\'s daughter ever again.

01:30:32.683 --> 01:30:34.850
And after this litigation, they win,

01:30:34.850 --> 01:30:36.850
and this stops the entire second wave

01:30:36.850 --> 01:30:40.059
of sterilizations in the United States.

01:30:42.392 --> 01:30:43.642
- [Narrator] After the Relf case,

01:30:43.642 --> 01:30:46.434
there were few open
calls for sterilization

01:30:46.434 --> 01:30:49.683
or other extreme eugenic proposals,

01:30:49.683 --> 01:30:52.850
and the fight for equality continued.

01:30:52.850 --> 01:30:54.934
- [Cesar] That we were
fighting for our dignity.

01:30:54.934 --> 01:30:58.518
We\'re empowering the
least educated among us,

01:30:58.518 --> 01:31:00.184
the poorest among us.

01:31:00.184 --> 01:31:02.309
(cheering)

01:31:02.309 --> 01:31:04.725
- [Reporter] Five to 600
people in wheelchairs,

01:31:04.725 --> 01:31:06.892
with walking canes, and hearing aids

01:31:06.892 --> 01:31:10.351
to stop discrimination
against the disabled.

01:31:10.351 --> 01:31:12.392
- [Narrator] At the same time
that rights have expanded

01:31:12.392 --> 01:31:14.975
for some people over the last 40 years,

01:31:14.975 --> 01:31:18.767
we\'ve also seen increasing
inequality for others,

01:31:18.767 --> 01:31:21.434
as well as the reemergence
of eugenic ideas

01:31:21.434 --> 01:31:25.101
that were prominent in
the first Gilded Age.

01:31:27.226 --> 01:31:28.975
- You have a kind of prevailing belief

01:31:28.975 --> 01:31:32.725
amongst the ruling elite
in Social Darwinism,

01:31:32.725 --> 01:31:35.267
and it\'s a closet, it\'s kinda
come in through the back door.

01:31:35.267 --> 01:31:37.476
Very few people are prepared
to actually come out with it

01:31:37.476 --> 01:31:40.600
and say, I think women are
born different from men,

01:31:40.600 --> 01:31:42.975
I think the poor are born inferior,

01:31:42.975 --> 01:31:47.434
but that actually is what they
believe if you talk to them.

01:31:47.434 --> 01:31:50.059
They don\'t really believe
in the redemptive power

01:31:50.059 --> 01:31:54.226
of society to change
the conditions of people

01:31:54.226 --> 01:31:57.476
to create much more equality.

01:31:57.476 --> 01:31:59.059
- [Narrator] We\'ve also seen a resurgence

01:31:59.059 --> 01:32:01.309
of the laissez faire ideology

01:32:01.309 --> 01:32:05.767
that dominated the early years
of industrial capitalism.

01:32:05.767 --> 01:32:10.518
- Their view is, harking back
to survival of the fittest,

01:32:10.518 --> 01:32:12.725
the market should determine

01:32:12.725 --> 01:32:17.142
whether or not people,
for example, survived.

01:32:17.142 --> 01:32:19.142
The government should play no role,

01:32:19.142 --> 01:32:23.267
and so the last 30 years have
been saturated with the idea

01:32:23.267 --> 01:32:27.600
that the social change we
saw in the \'60s and the \'70s,

01:32:27.600 --> 01:32:30.725
uh, that was a blip on
the screen, unfortunate.

01:32:30.725 --> 01:32:34.892
What\'s really important,
everybody for themselves.

01:32:36.351 --> 01:32:38.184
- [Narrator] Ronald
Reagan finished the job

01:32:38.184 --> 01:32:39.975
that Nixon started.

01:32:39.975 --> 01:32:42.142
As someone who had
opposed every major piece

01:32:42.142 --> 01:32:45.642
of Civil Rights legislation
and Great Society programs,

01:32:45.642 --> 01:32:49.934
Reagan rolled back major
gains made by social movements

01:32:49.934 --> 01:32:53.351
and like Nixon, he used
language coded with racial

01:32:53.351 --> 01:32:58.267
and class prejudices that
appealed to many white voters.

01:32:58.267 --> 01:33:00.600
- Reagan has the image of social welfare

01:33:00.600 --> 01:33:02.559
as being undeserved.

01:33:02.559 --> 01:33:04.309
It is the undeserving poor.

01:33:04.309 --> 01:33:06.642
There are people on welfare
who are driving Cadillacs,

01:33:06.642 --> 01:33:09.767
and that\'s one of the mantras he\'s using.

01:33:09.767 --> 01:33:12.101
- [Narrator] This strategy
was described by Reagan\'s aide

01:33:12.101 --> 01:33:16.392
and campaign political
director, Lee Atwater.

01:33:16.392 --> 01:33:18.518
- [Lee] You start oud in 1954 by saying,

01:33:18.518 --> 01:33:20.184
nigger, nigger, nigger.

01:33:20.184 --> 01:33:22.226
By 1968, you can\'t say, nigger,

01:33:22.226 --> 01:33:23.518
that hurts you, it backfires,

01:33:23.518 --> 01:33:26.518
so you say stuff like forced busing,

01:33:26.518 --> 01:33:28.642
states\' rights, and all that stuff.

01:33:28.642 --> 01:33:31.101
Now, you\'re talking about cutting taxes

01:33:31.101 --> 01:33:33.017
and all of these things
you\'re talking about

01:33:33.017 --> 01:33:36.476
are totally economic things
and the byproduct of them is,

01:33:36.476 --> 01:33:39.309
blacks get hurt worse than whites.

01:33:40.559 --> 01:33:41.683
- I raised some of the questions

01:33:41.683 --> 01:33:44.975
discussed by the scholarly
work of Charles Murray

01:33:44.975 --> 01:33:47.309
in the public interest.

01:33:47.309 --> 01:33:49.392
At the time, this wasn\'t
exactly fashionable,

01:33:49.392 --> 01:33:52.309
but since then, things have been changing.

01:33:52.309 --> 01:33:54.059
(tense music)

01:33:54.059 --> 01:33:55.850
- [Narrator] The Reagan
administration found

01:33:55.850 --> 01:33:58.725
a convenient justification
for cutting social programs

01:33:58.725 --> 01:34:02.850
in social scientist Charles
Murray\'s early writings.

01:34:03.850 --> 01:34:06.226
- You called for scrapping
the entire federal welfare

01:34:06.526 --> 01:34:09.234
and income support structure,
Medicaid, food stamps,

01:34:09.234 --> 01:34:11.192
unemployment, workers\' compensation,

01:34:11.192 --> 01:34:12.275
subsidized housing, the whole thing.

01:34:12.275 --> 01:34:13.150
- The whole thing.

01:34:13.150 --> 01:34:14.150
- [Interviewer] And
such a step would leave

01:34:14.150 --> 01:34:16.859
working class person with
no recourse whatsoever

01:34:16.859 --> 01:34:19.067
except the job market,
family members, friends,

01:34:19.067 --> 01:34:22.776
and public and private
locally-funded services.

01:34:22.776 --> 01:34:25.818
(sullen music)

01:34:25.818 --> 01:34:29.651
- The implication was, why
should we provide welfare

01:34:29.651 --> 01:34:33.067
and other public benefits to these people.

01:34:33.067 --> 01:34:36.609
We don\'t want them to
take over our society.

01:34:36.609 --> 01:34:40.776
The society, in order to be
fit, needs to have, in fact,

01:34:41.609 --> 01:34:43.651
again, not stated explicitly,

01:34:43.651 --> 01:34:47.734
but this was the implicit
message, fewer of them.

01:34:48.983 --> 01:34:50.942
- We see a lowering taxes on the rich.

01:34:50.942 --> 01:34:52.900
We see a shredding of the safety net.

01:34:52.900 --> 01:34:55.567
We see an attack on unions.

01:34:55.567 --> 01:34:58.025
We see a million kids
taken off school lunches.

01:34:58.025 --> 01:35:00.234
We see a million elderly people

01:35:00.234 --> 01:35:02.359
and disabled knocked off Medicaid.

01:35:02.359 --> 01:35:05.192
We see half a million
people taken off welfare.

01:35:05.192 --> 01:35:08.025
So, this was an enormous
change in American policy

01:35:08.025 --> 01:35:09.942
from the Great Society.

01:35:12.983 --> 01:35:15.067
- Well, let me say, I
read Charles Murray\'s

01:35:15.067 --> 01:35:17.275
latest article on this,

01:35:17.275 --> 01:35:19.317
and I think he did the
country a great service.

01:35:19.317 --> 01:35:20.526
I mean, he and I often have disagreed,

01:35:20.526 --> 01:35:22.609
but I think his analysis
is essentially right.

01:35:22.609 --> 01:35:24.818
Now, whether his prescription
is right, I question,

01:35:24.818 --> 01:35:26.818
and let me say why,

01:35:26.818 --> 01:35:28.734
there is no question that we need to,

01:35:28.734 --> 01:35:33.567
that if we reduced aid to
families with dependent children,

01:35:33.567 --> 01:35:34.401
it would be some incentive for people

01:35:34.401 --> 01:35:37.776
not to have dependent
children out of wedlock.

01:35:37.776 --> 01:35:40.109
I think we oughta ask
ourselves whether it is right,

01:35:40.109 --> 01:35:41.776
is it morally right?

01:35:41.776 --> 01:35:44.442
If it is right, we oughta do it.

01:35:46.150 --> 01:35:48.526
- [Narrator] Ultimately, Bill
Clinton worked with Congress

01:35:48.526 --> 01:35:51.109
to propose legislation with draconian cuts

01:35:51.109 --> 01:35:53.359
to social programs.

01:35:53.359 --> 01:35:56.900
Many Democrats spoke out against the bill.

01:35:56.900 --> 01:35:59.526
- America is not about bashing children

01:35:59.526 --> 01:36:01.609
because they\'re born out of wedlock.

01:36:01.609 --> 01:36:06.526
It is not about bashing women
as illicit and unfit mothers.

01:36:06.526 --> 01:36:08.818
- Just how many millions of infants

01:36:08.818 --> 01:36:11.900
will be put to the sword is not yet clear.

01:36:11.900 --> 01:36:16.067
Those involved will take this
disgrace to their graves.

01:36:17.317 --> 01:36:18.983
- [Narrator] The final welfare reform law

01:36:18.983 --> 01:36:21.776
that Congress approved
not only ended federal aid

01:36:21.776 --> 01:36:23.734
to families with dependent children,

01:36:23.734 --> 01:36:25.942
it also deprived hundreds of thousands

01:36:25.942 --> 01:36:28.109
of documented immigrants\' access

01:36:28.109 --> 01:36:30.692
to basic government aid like disability

01:36:30.692 --> 01:36:34.025
and slashed child nutrition programs.

01:36:34.025 --> 01:36:35.609
Analysts predicted the bill would push

01:36:35.609 --> 01:36:38.859
more than a million children into poverty.

01:36:38.859 --> 01:36:41.734
President Clinton signed it anyway.

01:36:44.109 --> 01:36:47.067
20 years later, studies
show the welfare legislation

01:36:47.067 --> 01:36:50.025
actually led to more than
three million children

01:36:50.025 --> 01:36:53.317
living on less than $2.00 a day.

01:36:53.317 --> 01:36:55.526
- There is no more food at this time.

01:36:55.526 --> 01:36:58.109
You can come back next
Monday at two o\'clock.

01:36:58.109 --> 01:36:59.526
(speaking in foreign language)

01:36:59.526 --> 01:37:00.859
That\'s it, mommy, that\'s it.

01:37:00.859 --> 01:37:03.067
No sir, I\'m sorry, no more.

01:37:03.067 --> 01:37:05.651
(sullen music)

01:37:07.067 --> 01:37:07.942
- [Man] Please raise your hand

01:37:07.942 --> 01:37:10.109
if you\'re here to see the dentist.

01:37:10.109 --> 01:37:11.526
- [Man With Megaphone] A lot
of other good doctors here,

01:37:11.526 --> 01:37:15.734
cancer doctors, bone
doctors, heart doctors.

01:37:15.734 --> 01:37:17.942
- We got children and
diabetics and stuff out here

01:37:17.942 --> 01:37:21.734
that can\'t, they can\'t sit
here till three in morning.

01:37:21.734 --> 01:37:25.317
- The reason why so
many people are in need

01:37:26.609 --> 01:37:30.317
is not because they are inherently unable

01:37:30.317 --> 01:37:32.526
to make something of themselves.

01:37:32.526 --> 01:37:36.692
It\'s because we\'ve had a
catastrophic economic situation

01:37:37.526 --> 01:37:40.651
that began when Wall Street blew up,

01:37:40.651 --> 01:37:43.401
nearly taking the rest
of the economy with it.

01:37:43.401 --> 01:37:45.900
Americans have struggled
and many of those Americans

01:37:45.900 --> 01:37:50.067
desperately need the safety
nets in order to survive.

01:37:51.818 --> 01:37:54.317
- And if you tell the truth about it,

01:37:54.317 --> 01:37:56.900
it\'s a complex set of problems,

01:37:56.900 --> 01:37:58.818
you need a complex set of solutions

01:37:58.818 --> 01:38:01.526
that will include inevitably government.

01:38:01.526 --> 01:38:03.359
If you don\'t like government,

01:38:03.359 --> 01:38:05.818
you can\'t even tell the
truth about the problem.

01:38:05.818 --> 01:38:07.401
You make up the reason.

01:38:07.401 --> 01:38:10.567
The reason is you just got
some people are just born dumb.

01:38:10.567 --> 01:38:11.776
Well, that\'s a good simple reason

01:38:11.776 --> 01:38:13.401
and then you got a good simple solution.

01:38:13.401 --> 01:38:17.192
Don\'t do anything, but you
get a terrible outcome,

01:38:17.192 --> 01:38:21.192
and that\'s the great danger of
this Social Darwinist fantasy

01:38:21.192 --> 01:38:23.234
taking over bigger and bigger parts

01:38:23.234 --> 01:38:25.359
of the American imagination.

01:38:25.359 --> 01:38:28.109
(sirens wailing)

01:38:28.109 --> 01:38:30.734
- [Narrator] Continuing cuts
in critical social services

01:38:30.734 --> 01:38:33.526
are resulting in millions
of premature deaths,

01:38:33.526 --> 01:38:36.234
especially for people of color.

01:38:36.234 --> 01:38:37.359
Poor children in this country

01:38:37.359 --> 01:38:41.025
are now twice as likely to die
in their first year of life

01:38:41.025 --> 01:38:43.359
than if they were born wealthy,

01:38:43.359 --> 01:38:44.942
often because they\'re malnourished

01:38:44.942 --> 01:38:47.150
and their parents can\'t
afford the critical healthcare

01:38:47.150 --> 01:38:49.900
they need during that first year.

01:38:52.317 --> 01:38:54.818
People are dying from
poverty and inequality

01:38:54.818 --> 01:38:59.651
at similar rates as other
leading causes of death,

01:38:59.651 --> 01:39:01.275
demonstrating that the United States

01:39:01.275 --> 01:39:03.484
has been implementing on a large scale

01:39:03.484 --> 01:39:07.651
what would otherwise be
considered a eugenic program.

01:39:11.818 --> 01:39:14.442
And there are troubling
signs that other cruel

01:39:14.442 --> 01:39:17.692
eugenic policies of the
past are reemerging.

01:39:17.692 --> 01:39:20.192
(crowd shouting)

01:39:20.192 --> 01:39:23.442
- We face a choice that
will echo through history.

01:39:23.442 --> 01:39:27.942
In 1924, a racist, xenophobic,
antisemitic congress

01:39:27.942 --> 01:39:31.109
passed legislation slamming the doors shut

01:39:31.109 --> 01:39:32.484
on Jewish and Italian and Greek

01:39:32.484 --> 01:39:34.942
and Eastern European immigrants.

01:39:34.942 --> 01:39:37.150
We must not do so again.

01:39:37.150 --> 01:39:38.859
To stop thousands of desperate people

01:39:38.859 --> 01:39:41.651
who are fleeing unspeakable
violence is unconscionable.

01:39:41.651 --> 01:39:45.067
We might as well take down
the Statue of Liberty.

01:39:45.067 --> 01:39:47.359
- When Mexico sends its people,

01:39:47.359 --> 01:39:49.484
they\'re not sending their best.

01:39:49.484 --> 01:39:51.234
They\'re bringing drugs,

01:39:51.234 --> 01:39:54.692
they\'re bringing crime, they\'re rapists.

01:39:54.692 --> 01:39:56.317
- You cannot rebuild your civilization

01:39:56.317 --> 01:39:58.317
with somebody else\'s babies.

01:39:58.317 --> 01:40:02.776
We\'ve essentially phased out
the promotion of assimilation

01:40:02.776 --> 01:40:05.818
and we promoted instead
multiculturalism and diversity

01:40:05.818 --> 01:40:08.067
as if it were our strength.

01:40:09.484 --> 01:40:11.275
- We have to be willing
to say to all those

01:40:11.275 --> 01:40:14.526
who are non-European, we wish you well,

01:40:14.526 --> 01:40:16.651
but this territory is for us.

01:40:16.651 --> 01:40:17.818
- So, you want me to leave?

01:40:17.818 --> 01:40:20.900
- Under certain circumstances,
yes, we would ask you to go.

01:40:20.900 --> 01:40:23.442
Unless whites are prepared
to exclude people,

01:40:23.442 --> 01:40:25.359
then they will be shoved aside.

01:40:25.659 --> 01:40:29.826
That is the fate which I will
fight until my last breath.

01:40:31.534 --> 01:40:34.450
- It\'s when people get a chance to see

01:40:34.450 --> 01:40:38.200
the actual outcome of these
ideas, they are repulsed.

01:40:38.200 --> 01:40:40.659
Not just Americans, people
all around the world.

01:40:40.659 --> 01:40:42.450
It is not who humans are.

01:40:42.450 --> 01:40:44.159
It\'s not who we are.

01:40:44.159 --> 01:40:46.118
We\'re not a sink or swim country.

01:40:46.118 --> 01:40:47.742
We\'re a better country than that.

01:40:47.742 --> 01:40:51.617
♪ Marching out to freedom land ♪

01:40:51.617 --> 01:40:54.200
(sullen music)

01:40:56.409 --> 01:40:57.784
- [Narrator] There is a growing awareness

01:40:57.784 --> 01:41:02.118
about what has been done
in the name of the gene.

01:41:02.118 --> 01:41:04.076
- My name is Willie C. Lynch.

01:41:04.076 --> 01:41:07.118
I\'m from Littleton, North
Carolina, 77 years old,

01:41:07.118 --> 01:41:11.283
and I was operated on in
1948 when I was 14 years old.

01:41:14.909 --> 01:41:16.325
- My name is Elaine Riddick.

01:41:16.325 --> 01:41:18.492
I am a victim of eugenics.

01:41:19.617 --> 01:41:21.242
- [Narrator] Sterilization survivors,

01:41:21.242 --> 01:41:23.242
such as Elaine Riddick Jessie,

01:41:23.242 --> 01:41:25.826
have become strong advocates for justice

01:41:25.826 --> 01:41:28.409
and have made eugenics a national issue,

01:41:28.409 --> 01:41:31.617
and some governors have made
formal apologies to victims

01:41:31.617 --> 01:41:33.701
and offered compensation.

01:41:35.159 --> 01:41:37.742
Significant gains are also being made

01:41:37.742 --> 01:41:39.826
against the gene defense.

01:41:39.826 --> 01:41:42.325
Fidelma Fitzpatrick and her legal team

01:41:42.325 --> 01:41:44.951
won a landmark judgment in California

01:41:44.951 --> 01:41:48.118
against the lead pigment industry.

01:41:48.118 --> 01:41:49.784
The money is funding a program

01:41:49.784 --> 01:41:52.283
to inspect tens of thousands of homes

01:41:52.283 --> 01:41:54.867
and to remove toxic lead paint.

01:41:57.534 --> 01:42:00.367
In the future, we\'ll look
back at the gene concept

01:42:00.367 --> 01:42:02.575
as pseudoscience in the same way

01:42:02.575 --> 01:42:05.909
we look back at royal blood, skull size,

01:42:05.909 --> 01:42:07.867
and other determinist theories

01:42:07.867 --> 01:42:11.242
that justified oppression and inequality.

01:42:12.159 --> 01:42:14.992
- Realizing the concept
of the gene is really

01:42:14.992 --> 01:42:18.534
just an empty word is an
incredibly liberating thing.

01:42:18.534 --> 01:42:20.742
You come to realize that yes,

01:42:20.742 --> 01:42:23.826
we are actually very dynamic organisms

01:42:23.826 --> 01:42:27.992
that are influenced and can
influence everything around us.

01:42:29.492 --> 01:42:30.951
- [Teacher] Add a little bit
of water, I can tell by your--

01:42:30.951 --> 01:42:32.742
- [Student] I know.

01:42:32.742 --> 01:42:35.325
(mellow music)

01:42:36.492 --> 01:42:40.701
- It\'s very freeing to dispose
of this genetic determinism.

01:42:40.701 --> 01:42:43.659
The real question is, do
we have the political will,

01:42:43.659 --> 01:42:46.742
at this time in history,
to make the changes

01:42:46.742 --> 01:42:50.118
that will allow us to fulfill
that American project.

01:42:50.118 --> 01:42:52.701
(gentle music)

01:43:02.575 --> 01:43:06.742
- I am extraordinarily
confident that we will continue

01:43:09.034 --> 01:43:12.701
with the project that
we set out on in 1776.

01:43:13.784 --> 01:43:16.367
(applauding)

01:43:16.367 --> 01:43:18.034
- [Announcer] Burma.

01:43:19.118 --> 01:43:19.951
Estonia.

01:43:21.492 --> 01:43:22.325
Ethiopia.

01:43:23.742 --> 01:43:25.575
- It\'s become really
fashionable to be cynical

01:43:25.575 --> 01:43:29.909
about the American Dream
in public discourse,

01:43:29.909 --> 01:43:33.450
but every single American
when they see a child,

01:43:33.450 --> 01:43:35.325
they believe in their heart that that kid

01:43:35.325 --> 01:43:39.283
should be able to make it, to
work hard and get somewhere.

01:43:39.283 --> 01:43:42.742
It is the defining quality
of being an American

01:43:42.742 --> 01:43:44.200
is that you believe that\'s true.

01:43:44.200 --> 01:43:46.575
Now, that doesn\'t mean
you believe it is true.

01:43:46.575 --> 01:43:49.867
It means that you believe
it should be true.

01:43:49.867 --> 01:43:51.951
That dream is a powerful dream.

01:43:51.951 --> 01:43:54.784
It is the magnet that
brought us all here together,

01:43:54.784 --> 01:43:56.200
and if you throw it away,

01:43:56.200 --> 01:43:58.992
that thing that helped us come together,

01:43:58.992 --> 01:44:01.575
if it\'s gone, we will come apart.

01:44:01.575 --> 01:44:02.909
We\'ll come apart as a country.

01:44:02.909 --> 01:44:04.492
We\'re either gonna turn to each other

01:44:04.492 --> 01:44:07.118
or on each other in this new century.

01:44:07.118 --> 01:44:09.867
(dramatic music)

01:44:20.534 --> 01:44:23.118
(gentle music)

01:46:48.575 --> 01:46:51.076
(tense music)