by PLAYER57832 on Tue Sep 18, 2012 7:24 am
I know you will never go back and read the earlier bits about this, so here, again:
tzor wrote: Woodruff wrote:Words have meaning. Using them improperly simply to get an emotional reaction is a dishonest argument.
Words do have meanings. So given that, yield the floor to someone who says what they mean and means what they say:
The Truth About MARGRET SANGERAt a March 1925 international birth control gathering in New York City, a speaker warned of the menace posed by the "black" and "yellow" peril. The man was not a Nazi or Klansman; he was Dr. S. Adolphus Knopf, a member of Margaret Sanger's American Birth Control League (ABCL), which along with other groups eventually became known as Planned Parenthood.
Sanger's other colleagues included avowed and sophisticated racists. One, Lothrop Stoddard, was a Harvard graduate and the author of The Rising Tide of Color against White Supremacy. Stoddard was something of a Nazi enthusiast who described the eugenic practices of the Third Reich as "scientific" and "humanitarian." And Dr. Harry Laughlin, another Sanger associate and board member for her group, spoke of purifying America's human "breeding stock" and purging America's "bad strains." These "strains" included the "shiftless, ignorant, and worthless class of antisocial whites of the South."
Not to be outdone by her followers, Margaret Sanger spoke of sterilizing those she designated as "unfit," a plan she said would be the "salvation of American civilization.: And she also spike of those who were "irresponsible and reckless," among whom she included those " whose religious scruples prevent their exercising control over their numbers." She further contended that "there is no doubt in the minds of all thinking people that the procreation of this group should be stopped." That many Americans of African origin constituted a segment of Sanger considered "unfit" cannot be easily refuted.
So quit with the touchy feely shit Woodruff and stick to logic and facts. Margaret Sanger was a eugenist, one who wanted the unfit races EXTERMINATED. Unlike Hitler, she didn't have an army, so she worked towards that goal indirectly.
I see, so she associated with 2 avowed racists, at a time when you still had KKK members on the Supreme court, when Jews were not allowed to enter fancy clubs and the like... and blacks, well, many people did consider them inferior... and you consider that to mean she wants the extermination of all non-whites? (or at least blacks and asians?).
Some leap there...
The TRUTH is that at the time, women having too many babies was a major factor in keeping families in poverty. And, women had very litte say in the matter. They only real choice they had was to get married or not, and even that was not much of a choice in many cases.
So, yes, she said and has been quoted as saying that birth control would save America, and poor people in general. (not specifically blacks, though, of course, blacks were largely poor back then, since they were not paid what whites were).
tzor wrote:Birth control was presented both as an economic betterment vehicle and as a health measure that could lower the incidence of infant mortality. At the 1942 BCFA annual meeting, BCFA Negro Council board member Dr. Dorothy B. Ferebee–a cum laude graduate of Tufts and also president of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the nation's largest black sorority–addressed the delegates regarding Planned Parenthood's minority outreach efforts : With the Negro group some of the most difficult obstacles . . . to overcome are: (1) the concept that when birth control is proposed to them, it is motivated by a clever bit of machination to persuade them to commit race suicide; (2) the so-called "husband rejection" . . . (3) the fact that birth control is confused with abortion, and (4) the belief that is inherently immoral. However, as formidable as these objections may seem, when thrown against the total picture of the awareness on the part of the Negro leaders of the improved condition under Planned Parenthood, or the genuine interest and eagerness of the families themselves to secure the services which will give them a fair chance for health and happiness, the obstacles to the program are greatly outweighed.
What is described there is not what was being promoted, its the distorted beliefs that kept people from using the planning services. In other words, many blacks DID believe that birth control was a means of getting them to eliminate their race. And, I am sure you will find a few leaders who actually espoused that view.. before they were ousted. You have jerks in every group. That doesn't mean it really was the motivation of most people or any real basis for the actions.
tzor wrote:In a 1921 article in the Birth Control Review, Sanger wrote, "The most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective." Reviewers of one of her 1919 articles interpreted her objectives as "More children from the fit, less from the unfit." Again, the question of who decides fitness is important, and it was an issue that Sanger only partly addressed. "The undeniably feebleminded should indeed, not only be discouraged but prevented from propagating their kind," she wrote.
Ah yes... and yet, this was a prevalent view of the day. In fact, although Hitler showed us the very bad side of that type of idea, the idea of eugenics when it came to mentally deficient or certain other abnormalities was well accepted. She was a woman of her time. If you had a magic bullet to eliminate all mental retardation... might you consider it? The issue, today is that A. we know there is no such thing, because the causes are complicated. B. we have "room" for people with varied abilities in our current society. Being mentally retarded doesn't mean a life in a box-institution. C. Most of these issue are not genetically based anyway.
BUT... the idea of eugenics, very, very carefully considered is re-entering the field. Some people are choosing voluntary sterilization or to just not have kids. Of coruse, voluntary is the key, there. BUT science is now reaching the point when we can make these decisions, long before abortion becomes and issue.
tzor wrote:Many African American women have been subject to nonconsensual forced sterilization. Some did not even know that they were sterilized until they tried, unsuccessfully, to have children. In 1973, Essence Magazine published an expose of forced sterilization practices in the rural South, where racist physicians felt they were performing a service by sterilizing black women without telling them. While one cannot blame Margaret Sanger for the actions of these physician, one can certainly see why Sanger's words are especially repugnant in a racial context.
The key there is "one cannot blame Sanger"
... and this was the south. Because some racist idiots decide to use her words in ways that are repugnant does not mean she is guilty of those same thoughts or of the actions they took.
tzor wrote:The Planned Parenthood Federation of America has been protective of Margaret Sanger's reputation and defensive of allegations that she was a racist.
Correct, and rightfully. She was not a racist, not in the context of her time.
tzor wrote:They correctly point out that many of the attacks on Sanger come from anti-choice activists who have an interest in distorting both Sanger's work and that of Planned Parenthood. While it is understandable that Planned Parenthood would be protective of their founder's reputation, it cannot ignore the fact that Sanger edited the Birth Control review from its inception until 1929. Under her leadership, the magazine featured articles that embraced the eugenicist position. If Sanger were as anti-eugenics as Planned Parenthood says she was, she would not have printed as many articles sympathetic to eugenics as she did.
Being pro eugenics in the 1920's in no way, shape or form means she was a racist. It means she saw the potential for using genes and planning to enhance the human race. This was before a lot of knowledge we have today about genes, before even the idea of women being true thinking human beings capable of things like higher mathematics, was widely accepted. In fact, a lot of the attack on her was notably to declare her an aberration as a woman.. precisely because she could think and did come out against powerful men.
AND... its all pretty besides the point, anyway. Claiming that Margaret Sanger's thinking contis the "end all" of thinking TODAY on birth control and its use makes as much sense as claiming that because Darwin got some facts wrong, the whole idea of evolution is wrong.
Once someone creates and idea, spread it, it instantly changes. Everyone hearing alters the basic idea, builds upon it, to make something else out of it.
And yes.. seems the same people believe both ideas are fully logical!
