And it was never real science. It was racism, ableism and classism dressed up and lab coats and law books sterilized children jailed, the disabled, banned people from being seen in public just for having looked. That's not dystopian fiction. That was real life in America. They called it science. They called it public decency. Eugenics and ugly laws weren't just policies. They were tools of eraser in the same beliefs behind them. They show up today and our politics and our public spaces. And yes, even in your tiktok feed. Let's break down how these systems worked and why we have to keep talking about them At it's core, Eugenics is the idea that we can improve humanity by controlling who gets to have children. It started in the eighteen hundreds when Francis Galton, inspired by his cousin Charles Darwin, decided some people were more fit than others in the US. Charles Davenport took this even further. He created the Eugenics Record Office, where scientists tr like people they labeled feeble minded, immoral or unfit. And it takes an even darker turn. Over sixty thousand people, often poor, disabled, black, indigenous, or immigrants, were forcibly sterilized, often without even knowing. Elaine Riddick, a black woman from North Carolina, was sterilized at just fourteen years old after she had been assaulted. She found out years later She had been permanently prevented from having children without consent. She's not alone. Thousands of stories like hers exist, all in the name of improving society. And while eugenics worked through surgeries and laws, ugly laws controlled public space Stars In the late eighteen hundreds, cities like Chicago, Denver and San Francisco passed ugly laws, making it ie, legal for people with visible disabilities to appear in public. If you had missing limbs, facial differences, or other physical disabilities, you could be fined, arrested, or harassed simply for being seen. So while eugenic starch that would raise people from future generations, ugly loss charging erase him from public view, both systems were built on the same fear that disability, difference and poverty made society weaker or impure. Both targeted the same groups, disabled people, poor people, people of color. Fast forward to today. These ideas haven't disappeared On social media. People casually toss around the word eugenics. Some think it's just a thing. Others confuse genetic research with eugenics entirely. Bottom line, eugenics and ugly laws were about erasing people who didn't fit a neural motor perfection. One sterilized them, the other hid them there. Legacy still affects how we treat disability, poverty and race today, From public policy to online discourse, share, believe, inspire blacks, be.