Filed under: News, President Obama, Race and Civil Rights
After Tricia Fraser took her daughter, Anissa (pictured above), to take modeling photos two years ago, she never expected to see the images again, especially not four stories high in the middle of New York's Soho District, but that's exactly what happened.
Now the Paterson, N.J., native wants an apology. Fraser tells NY Daily News that she was "outraged," when she saw the controversial billboard which read (pictured below):
"The most dangerous place for an African American is in the womb."
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And even though she was aware that her daughter's image could possibly be used for advertising purposes, she never expected anything so discriminatory.
When she finally spoke with representatives from Life Always, the Texas-based organization behind the billboard, Fraser claims that they not only refused to apologize but also failed to reassure her that Anissa's image would not be used again.
"I'm not happy," said Fraser. "I'm probably not going to get an apology."
Marissa Gabrysch, a spokeswoman for Life Always, confirmed that she spoke to Fraser last week:
"We certainly understand her concerns, and I was glad to speak to her about them," Gabrysch said. "Out of respect for her, we've decided to no longer use the image going forward."
How kind of them.
I'm going to go out on a limb, though, and say that Life Always owes Tricia Fraser absolutely nothing.
True, the billboard was incendiary and dishonest; however, Life Always didn't deceptively obtain the image of Anissa. They acquired it legally. Now, she expects an organization that doesn't hesitate to demonize the wombs of all African-American women to actually feel remorse?
Sifting through the anti-choice rhetoric that has inundated the media in response to the billboard's heavy criticism, there is one response that is regurgitated more than any other:
"The billboard wasn't an attack on black women, it was an attack on Planned Parenthood."
Conservatives would have us believe that they aren't trying to insinuate that the wombs of black women are poisonous, but that big, bad Planned Parenthood, with their sinister genocidal plot, has destroyed our maternal instincts.
How kind of them.
Now, let's look at the facts, shall we?
Eighty-three percent of Planned Parenthood's services are for the purposes of preventing pregnancies, helping to prevent more than 612,000 unintended pregnancies annually.
More than 1-million pap smears, 830,000 breast exams and nearly 4-million tests and treatments for sexually transmitted diseases account for their services in more than 800 health care centers across the United States.
The organization also provides information to more than five million women, men and adolescents worldwide each year.
Only three percent of all their services are abortions.
Anti-choice advocates are absolutely right: This is a battle against Planned Parenthood, but not because conservatives actually give a damn about the lives of little black children - but because they don't.
Through the government provision Title X Planned Parenthood receives about a quarter of its funding. Though conservatives would have us believe differently, none of these funds go toward abortion services, and probably never will, due to President's Barack Obama's signing of Executive Order 13535.
In spite of this fact, on February 18th, the House of Representatives voted 240-185 to stop funding for Planned Parenthood directly.
The timing of this vote speaks more loudly than any conservative-sponsored billboard: If the overwhelming majority of Planned Parenthood's services empower low-income, multi-cultural women with health care they would otherwise be unable to afford and education they otherwise wouldn't receive, why would the GOP not want to continue funding the organization?
Because the less money they have to spend actually helping impoverished women in this country, the more money they can spend on tax breaks for their friends and earmarks for their districts, while keeping their religious base happy, ensuring they get to do it all over again for another few years.
It comes as absolutely no surprise that the only time the GOP advocates on behalf of ethnic and/or impoverished communities is when it stands to benefit them.
They want to manipulate our emotions, objectify our bodies and subliminally attack, not only our wombs, but the children that come from them - all for the sake of political capital.
So, no, Ms. Fraser, Life Always doesn't owe you an apology. You freely signed away your rights to your daughter's image, and apparently without the stipulation that it not be used for controversial, racially motivated campaigns.
However, they do owe African-American women an apology:
They should say they're sorry for using our most sacred place as a marketing ploy.
They should say they're sorry for manipulating data in an attempt to control our perceptions of ourselves.
They should say they're sorry for using African-American spokespersons as tokens to make their message more "authentic."
They should say they're sorry for demonizing black women, not just in the eyes of the world, but most importantly, in the eyes of our children.
They should say they're sorry for all of these things, but that's where Ms. Fraser and I agree.
They probably won't.
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