Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 26, 2015)
Opinion Attacks on Planned Parenthood “Challenging People to Shape a Better Future Now” B ernie F oster Founder/Publisher B oBBie D ore F oster Executive Editor J erry F oster Advertising Manager C hristen M C C urDy News Editor P atriCia i rvin Graphic Designer a rashi y oung D onovan M. s Mith Reporters M oniCa J. F oster Seattle Office Coordinator J ulie K eeFe s usan F rieD Photographers 2015 MERIT AWARDS WINNER The Skanner has received 20 NNPA awards since 1998 The Skanner Newspaper, es- tablished in October 1975, is a weekly publication, published each Wednesday by IMM Publications Inc. 415 N. Killingsworth St. P.O. Box 5455 Portland, OR 97228 Telephone (503) 285-5555 Fax: (503) 285-2900 C onservatives are attacking Planned Parenthood so vi- ciously that you would be forgiven if you thought that the organization was running for pres- ident as a Democrat. It is often said, “The first casualty when war comes is truth.” Actually, the first casualty of politics is truth. That’s particularly true when it comes to the orchestrated attacks on Planned Parenthood. The an- ti-choice Center for Medical Prog- ress (CMP) has released seven vid- eos that seek to discredit Planned Parenthood. Media Matters said, “The latest video again relies on footage already debunked as high- ly edited, features conversations with third-party providers who acted as the middlemen between researchers and clinics, and relies heavily on the account of a techni- cian who did not work for Planned Parenthood…” Dr. Ben Carson, a retired neuro- surgeon, has also launched a major attack against Planned Parenthood and he should know better. In an interview with Fox News on Aug. 12, Carson said that Planned Parenthood erects most of its clinics in Black neighborhoods as a “way to control that popula- tion.” However, ABC’s Martha Radd- atz reported, “Planned Parenthood estimates that fewer than five percent of its health centers are located in areas where more than one-third of the population is Afri- can-American.” In a detailed rebuttal, the Wash- ington Post awarded Carson “Four Pinocchios,” indicating a “whop- per” of a lie, the highest level of falsehoods. “A 2011 report by Life Dy- George E. Curry NNPA Columnist namics, which opposes abortion, used Census data to determine the African-American and His- panic population of each zip code where Planned Parenthood has an office,” the newspaper recalled. “The report was intended to show statistics did not change when the numbers were adjusted for nearly 600 providers that conduct more than 400 abortions a year.” Referring to the founder of Planned Parenthood, Carson said: “I know who Margaret Sanger is and I know that she believed in eugenics and that she was not particularly enamored with Black people.” He is correct in saying that Mar- garet Sanger believed in eugenics, the idea that the human race can be improved by encouraging or discouraging reproduction based on genetic traits. Even so, Carson Fewer than one in 10 abortion providers are located in neighborhoods where more than half of the residents are Black that the abortion clinics are placed mostly in areas where Black res- idents exceed the average Black population of the state. “But when you look closely at the data, it turns out that there are only about 110 locations (out of about 800) where the Black pop- ulation exceeds 25 percent of the overall population. That certainly does not support the claim that “most” clinics are in ‘Black neigh- borhoods.’ “Separately, in 2011, the Gut- tmacher Institute surveyed all abortion providers (about 1,700), including Planned Parenthood, and found that 60 percent are in majority-white neighborhoods — and that fewer than one in ten abortion providers are located in neighborhoods where more than half of the residents are Black. The tells only half of the story – the half favorable to his point of view. “…I think people should go back and read about Margaret Sanger, who founded this place – a woman who Hillary Clinton, by the way, says she admires,” Carson said in the Fox interview. “Look and see what many people in Nazi Germa- ny thought about her.” The Washington Post did just that. “Starting in 1916, Sanger’s clinics at first were aimed mainly at poor immigrant women. The first clinic was in a neighborhood ‘populated largely by Italians and Eastern European Jews,’ accord- ing to the 2010 book “Birth Con- trol on Main Street,” by Cathy Moran Hajo. Sanger did not open a Harlem clinic until the 1930s, even though infant mortality rates there were similar. “Hajo found that in the 1916- 1939 period, white activists were more likely to exclude African Americans from clinics, rather than include them. There were some half-hearted efforts to cre- ate African American clinics, but white activists actually gave little or no assistance. ‘Whatever the activists’ personal beliefs about race may have been, there was no grand program to exterminate nonwhites or the poor,’ Hajo con- cluded.” The Post also noted, “Sanger in 1938 appeared to speak positively about the German program under- taken by the Nazis. ‘Reports in medical journals state that the in- dications laid down in the German law are being carefully observed. These are congenital feeble-mind- edness; schizophrenia, circular insanity; heredity epilepsy; he- reditary chorea (Huntington’s); hereditary blindness or deafness; grave hereditary bodily deformity and chronic alcoholism,” she said. “The rights of the individual could be equally well safeguarded here, but in no case should the rights of society, or which he or she is a member, be disregarded.’ “Yet in 1939, she wrote that be- fore Hitler came to power, ‘I was one of the few Americans who joined the Anti-Nazi Committee and gave money, my name and any influence I had with writers and others, to combat Hitler’s rise to power in Germany.’ She added that ‘my three books were destroyed [burned] and have not been allowed to circulate in Ger- many.’” It would be great if we could get these orchestrated lies about abor- tion out of circulation. E-mail: info@theskanner.com www.TheSkanner.com The Skanner is a member of the National Newspaper Pub lishers Association and West Coast Black Pub lishers Association. All photos submitted become the property of The Skanner. We are not re spon sible for lost or damaged photos either solicited or unsolicit- ed. © 2015 The Skanner. ALL RIGHTS RE- SERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION PROHIBITED. To view The Skanner website on your mobile device, scan this QR code • Local news • Opinions • Jobs, Bids • Sports • Entertainment • Music reviews • Bulletin board • RSS feeds Are You Having Fun with Today’s Politics? “I ’ll see your two Blacks and raise you two more.” The vast majority of the news is centered on politics, specifically, the 2016 presidential race, which is 14 months away. Talking heads on news shows are so giddy about the political possibilities, and it is obvious that they see the upcoming election as simply “fun,” as one commentator said. Is it fun for Black people? Are you having fun yet? I doubt it. You’re too busy trying to make ends meet — that is, if you even have any ends in the first place. Folks are making millions of dollars on political hype, hysteria, and histrionics, while most Black folks are falling deeper into the abyss of economic despair and desperation. Just think about it: all the cable news shows are replete with political claptrap – morning, noon, and night. They never highlight economic solutions for Black people, never feature conscious Black people as guests on a regular basis, and nev- er move beyond the mundane dis- cussions and point-counterpoint, arguing that takes place between and among so-called experts and intellectuals. Of course, no problems get solved in that process. Page 2 August 26, 2015 The Portland and Seattle Skanner James Clingman NNPA Columnist While political discourse is dominating the news, real issues that connect to Black economic growth and power are given very short shrift. Each news channel has its own Black faces, none of whom is able to go “off the plantation” to speak directly to the important issues rel- will solve our problems. Black Lives Matter (BLM) is certainly disrupting the political business-as-usual process these days, but they are waiting for the candidates to give them a plan through which Black lives will in- deed matter. The candidates give them scripted rhetoric, but no spe- cific public commitment regarding real change. Asking politicians to do the right thing will only keep us waiting for another 50 years; we must demand what we want, very specifically, and get an oral and written commitment from them before we give them our votes. Politicians will say whatev- er makes us feel good; they will Folks are making millions of dollars on political hype, hysteria, and histrionics, while most Black folks are falling deeper into the abyss of economic despair evant to Black people. They con- sume hours of airtime doing their best imitation of Pavlov’s dog, sal- ivating over their preferred candi- date and offering milquetoast as- sessments to Black issues, mainly through a political lens, as if that dodge our issues or simply ignore us; or they will do what Hillary did when the brother in BLM “asked” what she would do to help. She turned the question back on him, saying, “You tell me what you want.” Presently, politicians control the game. We must start and control our own game. Where is their indignation about what happened to Sandra Bland and more recently Charnesia Cor- ley, who was humiliated by police officers who forced a cavity search on her in a gas station parking lot in Harris County, Texas, in plain sight of passersby? Most politicians only value Black folks when it’s time to vote. Ann Coulter said, “Our Blacks are so much better than their Blacks,” in her defense and support of Her- man Cain. We are just pawns on their chessboard, chips in a high- stakes poker game. I recently posed two questions to a Black Republican who recruits Black voters: What will Black folks get if we all vote for the Republican candidate? What will Black folks lose if we do not vote at all? He could not answer those questions. The same questions apply to the Democrats, but more importantly they apply to us. More specifically, we must stop “ask- ing” and start demanding – with the collective power to reward and punish. We can win this fight. We simply have to use the right weapon. You cannot properly defend yourself in a gunfight if your weapon of choice is a switchblade.
