A Must Read for Every African-American: A TBI Special Report
on August 20th, 2004 at 9:13 amIf your have not noticed so far, I love history and research. This posting will tie both of those fields together. I will include a few excerpts of the 1st article; however, I strongly encourage read the full version of the article: Multiple Claims Alleging Racism Filed Against Planned Parenthood
LOS ANGELES, August 19, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles is the subject of multiple complaints of racism filed with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The formal complaints were filed by Afro-American and Latino employees. Specifically, several male employees have officially filed claims, or sworn affidavits, with the EEOC and California Fair Employment & Housing Administration. They allege that Planned Parenthood is controlled by white women who have created a hostile environment for male and minority employees.
According to one affidavit, a management employee of Planned Parenthood “used the word nigger directed to me. I am African and was shocked by her cultural insensitivity. I immediately placed my concerns in writing and requested disciplinary action with the human resources department at PPLA. Nothing ever happened to my complaint. In fact, I was later put on probation by a female supervisor and then terminated. . . . there appeared to be a damaging anti-male bias in the organization.”
…[Planned Parenthood] posters showing males as irresponsible are prominently displayed throughout headquarters, one shows an African American leaving his child abandoned in the middle of an apartment…
Let me remind you that this took place in Los Angeles; however, the only news service that reported this story that I could find was located in Canada!
This accusation of racism is nothing new to the Planned Parenthood. There is a whole history behind the relationship between this organization and the African-American community. The following is an overview of how this relationship was forged. Below is a portion of another article that tells the history of Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood. Just like the previous article, I highly encourage you to read this entire article.
A quick brief on Margaret Sanger - Sanger believed on eugenics (The study of hereditary improvement of the human race by controlled selective breeding.) This was something that Adolf Hitler practiced in Germany. It was this same belief system that led Sanger to create the ABCL (American Birth Control League). This organization later evolved into what we know as Planned Parenthood. Sanger considered various people groups to be “bad strains” on American society including African-Americans whom she referred to as being “unfit”.
The following is a more detailed account of how the message of population control was propagated through the African-American community:
It was in 1939 that Sanger’s larger vision for dealing with the reproductive practices of black Americans emerged. After the January 1939 merger of her Clinical Research Bureau and the ABCL to form the Birth Control Federation of America, Dr. Clarence J. Gamble was selected to become the BCFA regional director for the South. Dr. Gamble, of the soap-manufacturing Procter and Gamble company, was no newcomer to Sanger’s organization. He had previously served as director at large to the predecessor ABCL.
Gamble lost no time and drew up a memorandum in November 1939 entitled “Suggestion for Negro Project.” Acknowledging that black leaders might regard birth control as an extermination plot, he suggested that black leaders be place in positions where it would appear that they were in charge as it was at an Atlanta conference.b>
It is evident from the rest of the memo that Gamble conceived the project almost as a traveling road show. A charismatic black minister was to start a revival, with “contributions” to come from other local cooperating ministers. A “colored nurse” would follow, supported by a subsidized “colored doctor.” Gamble even suggested that music might be a useful lure to bring the prospects to a meeting.
Sanger answered Gamble on Dec. 10. 1939, agreeing with the assessment. She wrote: “We do not want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten that idea out if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.” money for two “Negro Project” demonstration programs in southern states was donated by advertising magnate Albert D. Lasker and his wife, Mary.
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 orothy 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.
Birth control as an economic improvement measure had some appeal to those lowest on the income ladder. In the black Chicago Defender for Jan. 10, 1942, a long three-column women’s interest article discussed the endorsement of the Sanger program by prominent black women. There were at lease six express references, such as the following example, to birth control as a remedy for economic woes:” . . . it raises the standard of living by enabling parents to adjust the family size to the family income.” Readers were also told that birth control” . . . is no operation. It is no abortion. Abortion kills life after it has begun. . . Birth Control is neither harmful nor immoral.”
But the moral stumbling block could only be surmounted by Afro-American religious leaders, so black ministers were solicited. Florence Rose, long-time Sanger secretary, prepared an activities report during March 1942 detailing the progress of the “Negro Project.” She recounted a recent meeting with a Planned Parenthood Negro Division board member, Bishop David H. Sims (African Methodist Episcopal Church), who appreciated Planned Parenthood’s recognition of the extent of black opposition to birth control and its efforts to build up support among black leaders. He offered whatever assistance he could give.
Bishop Sims offered to begin the “softening process” among the representatives of different Negro denominations attending the monthly meetings of the Federal Council of Churches and its Division of Race Relations.
These and other efforts paid off handsomely after World War II. By 1949, virtually the entire black leadership network of religious, social, professional, and academic organizations had endorsed Planned Parenthood’s program.
Conclusion: What I have done here was to present to you the other side of this hot issue. Sadly, many African-Americans have never heard of Margaret Sanger, but without hesitation align themselves with this organization oblivious to its main objectives. I have personally gone beyond the information presented in this article regarding Sanger (I also encourage you to do the same), and I can tell you that I found very little, if any inconsistencies .
If you read this entire posting, then I wish to congratulate you because you represent a rare breed of individual that is willing to go the extra mile to hear another side of the issue.
(first appeared in the January 20, 1992 edition of Citizen magazine. It is now posted at blackgenocide.org)
All emphasis in this posting are mine.
More From theblkinformant
Sphere: Related Content
