Lives Matter

Today I discovered something shocking to me.

I was raised in Detroit, in a working class neighborhood. I went to school with whites and blacks. In the summers during high school, I worked downtown at the Wayne County Road Commission, earning money for college, in primarily black neighborhoods. I learned to love the heart-centered nature of African American culture. I grew to love jazz and soul music. I lived in cities until 1991, when I moved out to the country to avoid high property taxes I couldn’t afford to pay.

Now I’m an old fogey who lives in a white neighborhood next to a big farm. I chose the area primarily because it is beautiful, and quiet. I live on a dirt road in a little one-story ranch house with an acre of land. I do a lot of writing so I like the quiet. I love to go for walks in the neighborhood. I still listen to jazz and soul music (mostly James Brown) but I’ve been involved in metaphysical pursuits for the past twenty years. I don’t think about race because I grew up in, and lived a lot of my adult life in, multicultural areas.

But today I read an article on a website called Blackgenocide.org, a site I came across while doing research. I want to show you what it says.

Minority women constitute only about 13% of the female population (age 15-44) in the United States, but they underwent approximately 36% of the abortions.

According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, black women are more than 5 times as likely as white women to have an abortion.

BlackAbortionGraph.jpg

On average, 1,876 black babies are aborted every day in the United States.

This incidence of abortion has resulted in a tremendous loss of life. It has been estimated that since 1973 Black women have had about 16 million abortions. Michael Novak had calculated ‘Since the number of current living Blacks (in the U.S.) is 36 million, the missing 16 million represents an enormous loss, for without abortion, America's Black community would now number 52 million persons. It would be 36 percent larger than it is. Abortion has swept through the Black community like a scythe, cutting down every fourth member.’

A highly significant 1993 Howard University study showed that African American women over age 50 were 4.7 times more likely to get breast cancer if they had had any abortions compared to women who had not had any abortions.”

http://www.blackgenocide.org/black.html

The birth rate for the African American population is now less than two per 1,000. This is below the replacement rate.

Is it an exaggeration to claim that "the black man is near extinction"? Yeah, but this is a serious situation.

In 2018, the Wall Street Journal reported on this issue in an article titled, “Let’s Talk About the Black Abortion Rate.” The sub-title of the article is, “In New York City, thousands more black babies are aborted each year than born alive.” https://www.wsj.com/articles/lets-talk-about-the-black-abortion-rate-1531263697

Wow. Why haven’t we heard more about this? Why are most abortion clinics in neighborhoods where people of color live? Your guess is as good as mine.

I’m cognizant that I’m an old white guy and should leave this subject to those better qualified to speak on it. My wife tells me that it’s a woman’s issue and I don’t understand it, and I should just shut up. That’s probably true. But...every time I listen to John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins and Robert Glasper and Sean Jones and Joshua Redman I wonder how many other great musicians (and people) we’ve lost.

I saw this tweet last year. It visually expresses the thought I had about this after I read the article I quoted above.

BlackAbortion.png

Re my last blog post: Is Stacy Washington just another right-wing conspiracy theorist? Maybe. But I wonder.