A DANGEROUS IDEA VIEWING KIT

1.) DISCUSSION GUIDE

Download the printable Faith and Community Viewing Guide for A Dangerous Idea. The guide includes 5-easy steps for using the entire film, or sections of it, for your virtual viewing and post-viewing discussions on Zoom or in person. Simply follow the five steps in the guide to have a successful screening, discussions, and engaging activities!

2.) FULL FILM

Click here to stream the full-length, 108-minute version of A Dangerous Idea. This film brings to light how false scientific claims have rolled back long fought for gains in equality, and how powerful interests are poised once again to use the gene myth to unravel the American Dream.

3.) SHORTER VERSIONS

Click here to stream or share the shorter, 42-minute short version of the film if you prefer. This covers most of the major themes in the films and the discussion questions in the guide will work equally well. This version is designed for compressed viewing and discussion.

If you only have around 30-minutes for viewing and discussion, your group can also utilize the 13-minute snippet which you can access by clicking on the link.

4.) PROMO MATERIALS

We’ve put together a few things to help you promote your screening of the film with your group:

A. Share the film’s 3-minute trailer to get your group enthused about your virtual or in-person screening and discussion.

B. Download, customize, and print an event flyer.

C. Download promotional photos for use on social media, print, web and email communications.

D. Utilize any or all of the film’s promo copy below for your group emails and communications.

There is a dangerous idea that has threatened the American Dream from the very beginning. It is a strong current of biological determinism which views some groups, races and individuals as inherently superior to others and more deserving of fundamental rights. Despite the founders’ assertion that “all are created equal,” this idea was used to justify disenfranchising women, blacks and Native Americans from the earliest days of the Republic.

The hidden history of eugenics in the United States has been getting attention in a number of books and films. They recount how in the first half of the 20th century, available records show that 80,000 immigrants and people living in poverty were sterilized against their will. Scientists at the time claimed that certain people had “genes” making them prone to criminality, poverty, and other social ills. They said the only way to stop these social ills would be to stop those genes from reproducing in the population.

Their efforts were based on white supremacy as they targeted immigrants, particularly Southern and Eastern Europeans, and Jewish people, claiming they were inferior, separate biological “races”. The Supreme Court held up the policy of forced sterilization and the hideous eugenics campaign provided the Nazis a pseudo-scientific rationale for their own policies and, ultimately, the holocaust. 

Among historians, the general assumption has been that the U.S. eugenics policies came to a close after the horrors of World War II were known. But A Dangerous Idea reveals that not only did eugenic efforts continue in the U.S. after the war, a second wave resulted in the sterilization of nearly half a million Black American women and other people of color. The vast majority of those crimes took place during the Nixon years and the backlash to advances in civil rights and the War on Poverty.

5.) ACCESS RESOURCES

Click here for faith-based resources  or click here for general resources that community groups can use to create meaningful action after watching A Dangerous Idea or shorter versions. Specialized guides, sermons, books, racial equity tools, and articles are included.