The sign that CBS Outdoor refused to put on one of its Flint billboards quotes [Planned Parenthood founder] Margaret Sanger saying, "We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population."
The group behind the sign, Flint Area Right to Life, says banning the billboard is keeping the truth about Sanger from getting out.
[Note: The full quote goes "[We propose to] hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. And we do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members."]
49 comments
Quote mining, a profitable and booming industry.
ETA: Beaten to it by nutbunny, sorta.
Fundies lying for Jesus by cherry-picking quotes? Surprise surprise surprise!
Edit: Damn, missed it by that much...
Isn't it awesome to be a fundamentalist Christian? You can lie, cheat, and steal to your heart's content and then be forgiven for it! In fact, if you're doing it in the name of Jesus then you don't even need forgiveness either!
Uh huh. And like people haven't used religion to try to "exteriminate" groups of other people... Oh wait.
The whole "abortion is about killing off black people" lie is just gross. The only reason black people and other minorities would have more abortions is because they're at a disadvantage when it comes to jobs, health care, education etc... If they on average had the same advantages as white people, they'd have the same percentage of abortions. Herp derp... Somehow that escapes these nut jobs. Or it's possible they just like omitting the truth to their advantage. Just a thought.
At first when I read the comments I couldn't see how this could be cherry-picking or quote-mining, but I looked her up and now I see how.
Firstly, Margaret Sanger is no longer ALIVE. Planned Parenthood's philosophy does not condone eugenics.
Secondly, the quote is taken out of context, which destroys one's ability to see that she was using the subjunctive mood. (This is why I wish English verbs had subjunctive conjugations, like French. It would clear up so much confusion.)
Thirdly, anyone who has even the most basic understanding of her philosophy (as I do now after looking at her Wikipedia page FOR THIRTY SECONDS. It's not that hard, people) will know that she would not want to exterminate the Negro population, because she did not believe in positive eugenics.
If you right-to-lifers had done even the slightest amount of research you would have known this. So either you're stupid, you're being willfully ignorant, or you're being deliberately dishonest. I imagine it's a combination of the three.
I am currently WTFing this because it appears that these guys are shamefully quote-mining Sanger to imply the opposite of what she actually said. The full quote seems like she wants to reassure black people that there is no sinister conspiracy to kill them all, so they can trust the folks at proto-Planned Parenthood. Assuming my analysis is correct, then these guys are reprehensible.
Yep, nothing like quote mining and taking those quotes out of context to make your enemy look bad. It's obvious when you read the entire quote she was saying, "We don't want anyone to wrongly think that we're trying to exterminate black people." The fact that they're deliberately taking it out of context means they're lying for Jesus again.
Meanwhile, we have thousands of actual quotes in context from fundies which show them to be a bunch of crazy loons which ought to be up on billboards across the country.
"The group behind the sign, Flint Area Right to Life, says banning the billboard is keeping the truth about Sanger from getting out."
Since it's a quote mine, they're covering their asses from a libel suit you jackass.
Yay quote mining!
With enough creativity, you can make anyone say anything. For example, I could quote Bush claiming he is homosexual. I am sure he said the words "I" "Am" "A" "Proud" "Homosexual" "And" "A" "Power" "Bottom" at some point or another...
@Brendan Rizzo
I agree that they are quote mining shamelessly, but the full quote leaves me a kind of bitter aftertaste.
Not being american, I'm not sure about this, but isn't the word "Negro" offensive?
Also the part about "The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal" sounds vaguely insulting to black people as well.
H - the quote is from a century ago, and reflects a time when that word was still in use, and education was not yet available to black people. So the churches would likely have been the best center for community/education outreach. Sanger was anti-poverty and feminist, and saw birth control as a way to help women and minorities - she was extremely progressive for her time.
@Brianisha
To be fair, she died in 1966. Not to say it's a free pass, and not to say it isn't still racist, but to me, it feels a lot more like just the language of the time.
There are bad atheists too, dont deny it.
@ Brianisha: The fact that "educational approach" and "Negro" (a.k.a. Black, African-American, Pick your own updated and soon to be identified as racist/separatist label) appear in the same sentence in 1939 should count for something.
Full attribution for this quote:
Margaret Sanger's December 19, 1939 letter to Dr. Clarence Gamble, 255 Adams Street, Milton, Massachusetts. Original source: Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, North Hampton, Massachusetts. Also described in Linda Gordon's Woman's Body, Woman's Right: A Social History of Birth Control in America. New York: Grossman Publishers, 1976.
So not only was this quote-mined, it comes from a private communication between Margaret Sanger and one other individual. One often is less careful choosing words that are not uttered publicly.
For a full dissertation on "Bad Words" see George Carlin.
Here is a more complete quote.
"It seems to me from my experience . . . in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Texas, that while the colored Negroes have great respect for white doctors, they can get closer to their own members and more or less lay their cards on the table. . . . They do not do this with the white people, and if we can train the Negro doctor at the clinic, he can go among them with enthusiasm and with knowledge, which, I believe, will have far-reaching results. . . . His work, in my opinion, should be entirely with the Negro profession and the nurses, hospital, social workers, as well as the County's white doctors. His success will depend upon his personality and his training by us. The minister's work is also important, and also he should be trained, perhaps by the Federation, as to our ideals and the goal that we hope to reach. We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs" (1939).
As can easily be seen from the context, Sanger is looking to head off precisely the sort of accusations being used by fundamentalists today that somehow abortion access is racist.
People that pull this kind of quote mining crap really are the scum of the earth.
Fundamentalists: taking quotes out of context since time immemorial.
If Sanger honestly wanted to exterminate the Negro population, she chose a piss-poor and circuitous way of doing it. "We will kill all the Negroes...by waiting for them to come to us and ask for a medical procedure, then giving them that exact procedure and letting them leave unharmed."
@1267074
This is taken out of context to serve an agenda.
But still I don't admire Sanger. It is a fact she supported eugenics and considered black people inferior. Racism of that degree is in my opinion simply inexcusable. The fact that it was popular back then is not an excuse either. If I had lived back then I would've found the vast majority of people to be in such high contempt I would probably have been a hermit. People are dumb enough now, but at least most of them are tolerable.
@H
"Negro" may be dated, but I don't think anyone would consider it offensive if you're referring to black people in general, or if you're using it as a more "technical" term. If you called someone a Negro to their face, though, they'd probably be turned off.
@TheReasonator
I don't think anyone would deny that Margaret Sanger was racist and was for eugenics. It's pretty clear from what I've read about her on Wikipedia. I don't admire her any more than you do.
"Racism of that degree is in my opinion simply inexcusable. The fact that it was popular back then is not an excuse either. If I had lived back then I would've found the vast majority of people to be in such high contempt I would probably have been a hermit."
Morality is partly a result of upbringing, experience, and knowledge, so there's no guarantee that you wouldn't have been as racist as Margaret if you had lived during that time. Don't get on your high horse and proclaim that you wouldn't have bought into it you might have if you had been raised by a plantation owner and been taught from birth that black people are inferior and exist to serve you. I consider myself to be pretty morally upright as far as prejudice/discrimination goes, but I would never presume to KNOW that I wouldn't have been racist and homophobic if I had been born in a different time or raised differently.
@NoriMori
I know I can't know 100% sure but I can still imagine myself with the same basic personality, demeanor, and intelligence back then and say I'm pretty sure I would not have been a racist at least by adulthood. There are things I fell for when I was a really young child that I am over now but that a great deal of people aren't.
@TheReasonator
Just because you can imagine yourself as being the same no matter how you were raised, doesn't mean that's how it would have happened. You could have ended up being one of those "great deal of people" who never get over the beliefs they were raised with. I'm just saying, it's pretty much touch-and-go. Also, even with basically the same personality, you could have ended up being racist. Being prejudiced against a group of people doesn't mean you're a mean person in general, so you could have been a good person aside from, say, racism. Kind of like a Punch Clock Villain (look it up on TVTropes.org)
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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