“The Most Dangerous Place for An African American is in the Womb.” That statement alone, can be insulting to millions of African American mothers around the world. Combine it with a picture of a little Black girl and it is cause for controversy. It reinforces the stereotype that African American mothers are the worst mothers of all ethnicities. The words are followed by a picture of a small African American child. The company behind it is Heroic Media, a faith-based non-profit out of Austin Texas that promotes alternatives to abortion. The billboard was paid for by ticket sales from an event in Jacksonville, featuring Sarah Palin.
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The company says that the purpose behind the billboard it is to let people know, African American women in particular that there are other alternatives to unwanted pregnancies other than abortion. “While African Americans make up thirteen percent of the population in America, they represent 36 percent of the abortions in the United States,” says Marissa Gabrysch from Heroic Media. “In the African American community, twice as many deaths have occurred due to abortions than the combined totals of violent crime, cancer, heart disease and AIDS,” she continues.
While I respect Heroic Media’s license to free speech and their opinions about abortion, I do not appreciate their attempt at spreading their message at the expense of being disrespectful towards the African American women who are handling their business as mothers. Something about the ad seemed to be judgmental and stereotypical. The tone went beyond statistics and numbers and came off as an attempt to demoralize African American mothers overall. The use of outrageous propaganda made the ad appear cheap and emotionally manipulating while simultaneously taking a shot at African American women and mothers.
Reading that statement one could go beyond relating it to abortion only and take it as them implying that any child who is born to an African American mother better pray to the heavens because they have just been screwed royally. Heroic Media’s attempt at being inflammatory and controversial actually made them appear to be accusatory and even racist. This is where the ad went terribly wrong.
They left it too open for assumption by stating that an African American woman’s womb is dangerous. In this regard they transcended discussing abortions and African Americans. Instead they went straight into labeling African American women as “dangerous” mothers. The image of the child in combination of the statement sealed the stereotype and the crude message. Bottom line, the ad could have been done tastefully and still been striking for all those who saw it.
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I am exhausted with the media’s constant attacks on Black women. I think that they have been taking a lot of cheap shots at us lately. First we can’t find a man, then we are all lonely and no Black man wants us etc… Now we are also horrible mothers who should not be trusted with children. Again, this message may not have been Heroic Media’s intent but the tactic they chose reflects something deeper. It reflects a slew of dark portrayals that have been cast on the black woman by the media. I am all about self improvement but at what point does it cross the lines of meaningful criticism to outright disrespect?
With the unfavorable images that are already present in the media that frame African American women as bad mothers; do we really need a company that says they seek to assist African American women in the most crucial time of their life adding on to the already negative commentary?
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