July 21st / 22nd, 2012

"Lawmakers Waiting for Sterilization Victims to Die"

Earlier this month, North Carolina’s Republican-controlled Senate knocked the wind out of hundreds of survivors who had once been sterilized against their will and were expecting compensation from the state. It was a blow from which they may never recover. Here’s why.

Back in January, after years of promises and political posturing, Gov. Perdue and her special task force finally recommended that the General Assembly award $50,000 to each surviving victim. GOP House Speaker Thom Tillis endorsed that recommendation and gave every indication that 2012 would be the year in which sterilization victims would, at last, be compensated for what the state had done to them. Sure enough, Tillis got the bill passed in the lower chamber. But then, Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger, who had already gone on record in support of compensation, double-crossed the victims, and the session ended with no monies being allocated — monies which could have helped bring much needed closure to the saddest chapter in our state’s history.

Rather than feigning disappointment, Berger crowed about his achievements, saying, “I’m confident that what we’ve done is what the voters asked us to do [when they elected us] in 2010.” That’s great Phil. I suppose if voters also asked you for separate drinking fountains, that would be okay too.

The Winston Salem Journal called the Senate’s inaction “a profile in cowardice, with Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger leading the pack.” I couldn’t agree more. Berger’s dastardly deed is particularly painful for victims because Republicans are poised to maintain control of both Houses this Fall, and take the governor’s office as well. That means monetary compensation for sterilization victims is unlikely in the foreseeable future. But let’s not place all of the blame on backward-thinking Republicans. When Bev Perdue was sworn in four years ago, she began her term with a Democrat-controlled legislature. But she and her party dropped the ball, and for two years did nothing but give lip service to victims.

Sadly, there are many politicians who believe we bear no obligation to compensate sterilization victims, and they bolster their argument by saying that state coffers are bare. They also see no reason to pay reparations for something that happened in the past.

First of all, the atrocities that our state sponsored and implemented against some 8,000 young people are not ancient history. In fact, here in North Carolina, we were still sterilizing innocent people against their will as late as 1974. Second, the state does have an obligation to compensate living victims. As an example, back in 1967, Elaine Riddick was sterilized at age 13 because the State Eugenics Board ruled that she was promiscuous. In truth, Elaine had become pregnant as a result of being raped. Riddick told me, “Your tax money DID pay for victims to be sterilized, whether you know it or not.” She’s right.

In my Jan. 29 column of this year, I examined how much the 8,000 forced sterilizations cost North Carolina taxpayers in the 1950s and ’60s. Then, using data from sources like Pacific Business News, which reported on the average cost of a modern-day hospital stay following surgery, I calculated that North Carolinians paid out the equivalent of about $240 million for our ethnic cleansing efforts.

For the record let me say that even if the Senate had agreed to pay $50,000 to each of the 200 surviving victims thus far identified, it’s an arbitrary amount that is more an insult than an olive branch. And it’s a moot point because not a penny was allocated. But if the state has the money, and has a moral obligation to pay it, why, then, have elected officials from both parties failed to act? Riddick gave me her take, saying, “State lawmakers are just waiting for surviving sterilization victims to die out.”

During my lengthy television interview with her back in January, she talked to me about how she had been raped twice in her life. Once by a man who attacked her, and once by the state of North Carolina who sterilized her against her will. I asked her which rape was worse and without hesitation she said, “The second rape was the worst.” Now, Riddick has been raped for a third time, and once again it’s by the state, who held out a carrot of compensation, then cruelly jerked it away.

Of the 33 states who once openly practiced social engineering, North Carolina was the last to halt the atrocities. And so it stands to reason that we should have been the first state to make amends for our crimes. We didn’t, and instead offered only apologies. But contrition without compensation is a hollow gesture. The rape continues.