" 

  
 ==Coinage== 
 Does anyone know when this phrase was coined?   

 ===I know this=== 
 The term is related to the improvements made to automobiles.  Those improvements made driving an automobile simpler and easier.  The automatic transmission is the most important of them. Driving an automobile became simpler when the manual foot-operated clutch was eliminated.  The term appeared around 1955 to 1960.   

 By the way, let me say this: in the 1940s few women drove automobiles.  Some automobiles required the use of a hand crank to start the engine.  Only strong men could start a car that used a hand crank.  Today, electric starters allow anyone to start an automobile. 

 I had wished to answer the question at the top of this page in 2006, but I kept on putting it off.  

 Early automobiles required the driver to manually control ignition timing and operate a hand fuel pump, changing gear often required the use of pre-selectors or ""double de-clutching"" techniques.  The elimination of the clutch with auto boxes has never been universally adopted so can't be the ""most important"". Besides it hasn't benn ""eliminated""; I've never owned a car with automatic transmission.   

 ==The connection to American slavery==   
 This page is one of the best pages in the Wikipedia.  I located it less than an hour ago.   

 The practice of keeping Negroes in a mentally inferior position was a practice which ensured that peaceful slaves would form the bulk of their group.   

 At times, the leader of a group of slaves would be killed to remove the most capable person from the group.  Wiki Apalachee reveals that Spanish missionaries were slain in order to weaken a group of Indians.  Dumbing down of slaves is an old practice.  It has resurged in the United States since 1950.  The appearance of new laws such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 produced hostility amidst the more numerous white people.  Negroes have undergone a dumbing down in the USA since 1950.  There are fewer educated Negroes today, particularly doctors (including dentists) and nurses.  Modern people claim that Negroes are too dumb to be dentists, despite the fact that Negro doctors and nurses were commonly-seen components of the United States before 1970.   

 Even very simple tasks such as driving a truck are now viewed as being things that Negroes are too dumb to accomplish.  Slaves had cooked food for their masters, but modern Negroes are regarded as being too dumb to learn how to prepare food.  The dumbing down of Negroes is an industry in the USA.        

 :Under the older way of life called ""racial segregation'"" colored people in the United States were forced to produce their own doctors, dentists, nurses, restaurateurs, nightclub owners, taxi-cab company owners, and other people because that was their only way to receive various common services. (Taxi-cab companies would not ride Negroes).  After the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957, ""racial integration"" appeared.  Under the new ""racial integration"" way of life, it is theoretically possible for a colored physician to treat white patients in a medical facility.  The way to keep that scenario from becoming a reality is to keep the colored people too dumb to become skilled medical practitioners.  Ergo, dumbing down is rampant, pernicious, and ubiquitous, now.  There used to be a need for colored doctors, dentists, nurses, etc., but ""racial integration"" has replaced them with people of other racial types.    
 ::That made no sense as it had no context.-''''''   ''''   ''''''  

 What a bizarre pair of posts, a series of racist generalizations with absolutely no supporting evidence, using obsolete terms (""Negroes"", ""coloreds""), all in support of the idea that civil rights gains have led to the ""dumbing down"" of a race. And these gems of quotes: 

 Under the new ""racial integration"" way of life, it is theoretically possible for a colored physician to treat white patients in a medical facility.   

 Slaves had cooked food for their masters, but modern Negroes are regarded as being too dumb to learn how to prepare food. 

 Maybe it's better not to call out absurd, lying bullshit like this because it only gives the bullshitter attention and wastes time on