Letters to the Editor: Eugenics won’t go away on its own, so we must constantly fight it

To the editor: So the eugenics controvery has re-arisen.

As the unearthed writings on the discredited and racist theory by a Cal State East Bay professor shows, the belief in it will not go away merely because someone is punished or prevented from stating it. It merely goes underground and festers until an opportunity arises for it to resurface.

Eugenics requires strenuous, continuing refutation. That means not just screaming when someone’s writings promoting it are rediscovered, but a consistent teaching of the truth.

As we discovered in the last four years, restating the truth will not convince those who believe fervently in a lie, but it can influence those who haven’t yet fallen under its spell.

John Snyder, Newbury Park

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To the editor: Professor Gregory Christainsen’s evident belief that his university’s Black and brown students are genetically inferior in terms of intelligence is a betrayal of the trust between a teacher and a student.

As a fellow professor at Cal State East Bay who is also Chinese American, I strongly believe in the potential for intellectual and personal growth in every one of my students.

If some of our underrepresented minority students struggle to complete their degrees, perhaps it is because they are more likely to be first-generation college students or low-income, and to face the discouraging prospect of being taught by professors who deny their humanity and see them as lower on a racial hierarchy.

Christina Chin-Newman, Hayward, Calif.