“Are you askin’ me to be a bridesmaid n****?!…a BRIDESMAID?!!!” My favorite comedian, Cedric the Entertainer, joked at the state of affairs concerning social issues that affect us all. He laughed, explaining that we all know that issues such as gay rights are very present and very real, but sometimes we are forced to have an opinion about those issues when we really would rather not represent an opinion either way or we have not yet decided which opinion we would like to endorse. This joke was referring to a gay cousin of his who had asked him to participate in his wedding ceremony.
I found out I was pregnant just as I was making plans to move to a new city and start a new life, as a professional model, officially with no strings attached to anything else irrelevant. One conversation that stuck out and continues to come to the forefront of my values, even as I am currently the mother of a beautiful 3 month old daughter, is my “choice.” Throughout my pregnancy, I made a ritual of researching new topics for the purpose of getting informed and knowledgeable about things that will affect my life and my child’s life later.
Planned Parenthood of America was founded by Margaret Sanger (1879-1966), and originally known as the American Birth Control League (ABCL). Sanger’s followers and advocates included those who also supported the Malthusian Eugenics movement. This part of history is rarely spoken of, or even taught, in present-day learning circles. Eugenics was the movement whose philosophy was based on racial cleansing of the “unfit,” namely inclusive of people of African origin, further endorsed by Thomas Robert Malthus, British scholar of political economy and demography. Of course today, Planned Parenthood is the place to go to for birth control education and options, including abortions. Now this is not to write off Mrs. Sanger as a bad person in history; her career began as one who spoke and sought to educate women about their options for birth control.
Sanger’s “Negro Project” was created to restrict the black population through racial purification, essentially eliminating people of African descent. Today, the relevant social issues are pro-life and pro-choice. And we as Americans are supposed to choose an opinion. Well, until I was pregnant with my own choice did I realize that the choice had already been made for me. It was just a matter of entertaining the opinions of those who deemed it necessary to entertain. None short of being a church girl, I cannot specifically validate my decision based on my upbringing. But I have come to realize that the argument was not mine to have. My issue of unplanned pregnancy is not to be mistakenly aligned with abort or not abort. My more dominant conflict was the antagonism of those who’s opinion on right to life, really meant to scrutinize me for simply giving life and mistaking that natural ability with choosing life. If my daughter was to be born, she would be without my assistance to eliminate her life.
The statistics on Black baby abortions tend to lean toward a disproportionate number when compared to other races of people. Now, of course, we all know that Black anything is always disproportionate according to statistics, but when it comes to procreation and the lack of education regarding the history of race purification, it makes me wonder how dead Margaret Sanger and Thomas Robert Malthus really are.
“Woe this crazy circumstance; I knew [her] life deserved a chance; But everybody told me do be smart; Look at your career they say; [JC] baby use your head; But instead I chose to use my heart…” (To Zion, Lauryn Hill).
The late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was awarded the Margaret Sanger award on May 5, 1966.
(The Negro Project: Margaret Sanger’s EUGENIC Plan for Black Americans, http://www.blackgenocide.org/negro.html)
its quite paradoxical that the women’s rights movement hinges, ever so delicately, on the “right” to adopt, generally speaking, masculine behaviors and lifestyle; as if we need more folk who have no respect for the variety of life (emotions, spirituality, differing viewpoints and the occasional unexpected pregnancy.) and we see those as being the male perspective because our economy, government and most leadership positions are and have been dominated by men for millenia.
the false sense of power warranted by the women’s rights movement is another emanation of the patriarchal, yang dominated value system of western/american culture. i don’t buy it for one nanosecond! true empowerment comes in recognizing the balance of life, that masculine and feminine are necessary. and it is important for one to turn inward to discover what that means.
dayna lynn,
I think I will adopt your phraseology “variety of life.” This delicate balance is so essential to life that the absence thereof causes, for example, the waging of wars in the name of “God,” due to the patriarchal notion that “my swagger [must be] on top” and the constant grappling of yin and yang instead of a peaceable agreement that we all need each other (male and female) and every variety of life, in order to truly co-exist.