As I was looking through the articles that Mr. Kramer asked us to read, this one caught my eye.
Blacks better off during slavery?
Rep. Trent Franks, a Republican from Arizona, told video blogger Mike Stark of StarkReports.com on Friday that blacks are “more devastated” today than when they were enslaved because of the high rate of abortion among some blacks.
Franks said slavery “is a crushing mark on America's soul, yet today half of all black children are aborted. Half of all black children are aborted. Far more black children, far more of the African American community is being devastated by the policies of today than were being devastated by the policies of slavery."
(According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, black women get almost 40 percent of the country’s abortions, even though blacks make up only 13 percent of the population.)
Said Mike Stark: “To be fair, Congressman Franks is as sincere as he is conservative.
The issue of life never falls out of first place in his legislative priority list. I don’t believe for one second that he intends to insult anyone; I don’t think he sees the racism (or paternalism) in what he’s saying. Still… This is pretty bad.”
I was astonished that Representative Franks would say that. How could someone believe that Blacks were better off during times of slavery? Blacks were forced to work without pay, they were brutally beaten, and they were sold like animals. They had no freedom, education, or opportunity. In 2012 blacks share the same rights as whites, even though they are still faced with prejudice and racial bias. One cannot assume that a large group of people is more devastated based simply on abortion statistics. Many other factors such as socio-economic status fall into place in a statistic like the one that is used in this article. Perhaps more black people cannot afford to have a child or they aren’t ready. Also if black people are living in areas of higher crime rates, these abortions could be the result of rape. Abortion is a choice; these people are not being forced to abort their child, or to give birth to them. The choice to get an abortion is the result of many factors such as socio-economic status, culture, family history, and health background. It is simply not fair, and untrue to assume that blacks were better off as slaves, than they are as free people.
