Thursday, February 24, 2011

Racist?

022411abort.jpg

This ad went up about a half-mile from a Planned Parenthood facility on Bleecker Street, o the corner of Watts and 6th Avenue in NYC.

NYC City Council Member Letitia James says, "It is misguided to use Black History Month as a tool to promote this message. Every woman has the right to make personal choices in regards to her body, and I respect many different points of view, but to compare abortion to terrorism and genocide is highly offensive."

The billboard is sponsored by a group called Life Always. Their press release states, " There is a battle being waged in the United States that has taken more lives than any foreign war or act of terrorism. The enemy is abortion." Life Always board member Pastor Stephen Broden added, "During Black History Month, we celebrate our history, but our future is in jeopardy as a genocidal plot is carried out through abortion."

In response to the ad, a group called Trust Black Women posted this on Facebook: "Yesterday, racist billboards went up in Soho attacking black women and our human rights by claiming “the most dangerous place for an African American child is in the womb.” SisterSong, a coalition of 80 women of color and Indigenous women’s organizations, denounces this cynical attempt to use race during Black History Month as an excuse to assault women’s rights. Black women are not the pawns of these white people who erect such billboards. We find them offensive, racist, sexist and – most of all – disrespectful of our decision making, our 400-year history of raising and caring for black children, and our human right to make health care choices for ourselves."

Statistics from the NYC Health Department show that Blacks had the highest number of abortions in 2009, with 40,798. (Hispanics had the second highest at 28,364.) NYC's abortion rate was almost 40% that year, and the three Planned Parenthood facilities nearest the billboard reported nearly 17,000 abortions in 2010.

So...

I ask again, is the ad racist?

Well, it's definitely provocative, but racist? Not to me, but then again, I am one of those black people who don't see racism in every situation. To me, this ad shows the inflamed rhetoric on both sides that makes it nearly impossible to reach common ground.

Is any conversation on abortion about anything other than free and unfettered access an assault on women's rights? The author from SisterSong assumes the billboard's sponsors are white, when actually two are black. Is anything that paints black people or other minorities in a negative light racist, even if it is true?

On the flip side, do you know the agony that some women go through in making the decision to terminate the pregnancy? Do you have a plan to support those babies who come into the world either unwanted, or whose families cannot support them? Do you have any answers to abortion other than abstinence?

Lastly.

Black people, yes slavery was awful. I read the journals about the biggest bucks being forced to breed in order to insure a strong "crop" of new slaves. I read about women who were raped by their masters and then had their bellies cut open to kill the bastard child. I know we have a history of Jim Crow oppression and racisim and that serious inequities and worse still exist in this country,

BUT,

at what point are we, as a people responsible for our own choices. When is it no longer directly or indirectly, the fault of The Man?