Circumcision was considered a cure for blindness, deafness, dumbness and so forth because it was believed that those ailments were caused by masturbation and it was believed that circumcision would stop masturbation in all but the most hard-core evil boys.

As for the black men raping white women … well, that’s just pure ignorant bigotry. There is a cure for that, but it involves cutting off the big head, not the little one.

A history of “reasons” for circumcision throughout history:
http://www.icgi.org/2007/04/medicalization-of-circumcision-an-online-slide-show/

“Circumcision once considered a cure for blindness, deafness, dumbness.” Most shockingly: “Circumcision once considered a way to prevent Black men from raping White women.”

40,000 nerve endings in my foreskin, the natural protection of my glans and the ability for my foreskin to glide back and forth during sexual intercourse means I’m at my default level of maximum sexual sensitivity.

http://www.sexasnatureintendedit.com/
“Top Ten (10) Ways Circumcised Male Sex Hurts Women!”

Firstly, my husband is 29 years old and is an intact male. Not once in his life has he ever had any sort of penile infection. His comment was “It is not hard for a parent to teach their son the proper way to clean themselves.”
Boys, and girls (as some have said), are not ignorant and can fully grasp the importance of cleaning their bodies to prevent illnesses and complications. It is the parent’s role to impart this hygiene onto their child as much as washing their hands after going to the bathroom and brushing their teeth to prevent dental problems.

On a side note, to #48 PolkaDotMommy, I am not happy that my mother chose to pierce my ears as a baby. No, I do not remember the pain. However, as I grew up both holes are now noticeably uneven. I also suffered from earlobe infections as a child because of a sensitivity to not only metals but plastics. I wish she had waited for me to decide for myself.

Circumcision persists because of its powerful psychosexual effect on both men and women. It’s a cycle of sexual abuse and violence that is passed from one generation to the next under the cover of culture, religion, or medicine . Understandably, many parents who make the decision to cut sexual tissue from their children, male or female, have to justify what they did using whatever reasons are given to them by their society and their doctors, even when those reasons are absurd, e.g. cleanliness, fear of cancer, fear of masturbation, “infections”, etc. Would you cut the skin from around your daughter’s clitoris? After all, it would have exactly the same potential future benefits: vulvar cancer is just as common as penile, and just count the number of “feminine hygiene” products in your grocery store or pharmacy.

We did not cut off part of our son’s penis. May the genital mutilation end with my generation.