this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2023
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Margaret Sanger, founder of planned parent hood, was a racists and huge supporter of eugenics, she even spoke at Klan meetings. In 1939 she started "The Negro Project", a plan to target black communities. Here are some of her quotes.
We don’t want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population..." -- Letter to Dr. Clarence J. Gamble, December 10, 1939, p. 2
“Apply a stern and rigid policy of sterilization and segregation to that grade of population whose progeny is tainted, or whose inheritance is such that objectionable traits may be transmitted to offspring.”- from “My Way to Peace,” Jan. 17, 1932. Margaret Sanger Papers, Library of Congress 130:198.
"Permits for parenthood shall be issued upon application by city, county, or state authorities to married couples, providing they are financially able to support the expected child, have the qualifications needed for proper rearing of the child, have no transmissible diseases, and, on the woman’s part, no medical indication that maternity is likely to result in death or permanent injury to health." -- Margaret Sanger, "America Needs a Code for Babies," Article 5, March 27, 1934.
“Birth control itself, often denounced as a violation of natural law, is nothing more or less than the facilitation of the process of weeding out the unfit, of preventing the birth of defectives or of those who will become defectives… If we are to make racial progress, this development of womanhood must precede motherhood in every individual woman.” — “Woman and the New Race,” 1920
I don't think many people aware of the history of Planned Parenthood would argue Margaret Sanger didn't advocate eugenics, including Planned Parenthood
https://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/who-we-are/our-history
"Margaret Sanger’s racism and belief in eugenics are in direct opposition to Planned Parenthood’s mission. Planned Parenthood denounces Margaret Sanger’s belief in eugenics. Further, Planned Parenthood denounces the history and legacy of anti-Blackness in gynecology and the reproductive rights movement, and the mistreatment that continues against Black, Indigenous, and other people of color in this country."
Turns out that an organization can engage in self reflection and change beliefs over a century
Don't you dare say something like that, don't you know that once you espouse a certain way of life it's impossible to change yourself or your world view?
That's how republicans work, so everything in the world must work this way as well!!
/s
PP denied and justified Sanger's ideas up until 3 years ago before that she was just allaying with the eugenics movement to further her goals.
Convincing undesirables that they shouldn't have children sure seems to align with PP's values. It seems PP just broadened their views to the "poors" and not just raced based.
Do you have a source for this?
PP finally removed Sanger's name from Manhattan Health Center in 2020.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/22/us/margaret-sanger-planned-parenthood-trnd/index.html
That's doesn't exactly support your claim, or at least not very well. That article is light on the details, but from the sound of it, Sanger's name was on a plaque of some sort, and her name isn't exactly super well known, nor is her racist history, so it's sounds like it was more or less forgotten. Second, a plaque within a single building doesn't automatically reflect the values of an entire organization.
There are still confederate statues around, does that reflect the values of all american cities? No, of course not.
There are Carnegie libraries all over my city. Do those libraries hold the values that Carnegie did? Not really.
It just doesn't make sense to label an entire organization as racist, let alone jump to the claim that "eugenics is still very popular" based off of one plaque on one building of one organization.
She was their founder and it took until 2020 for them to renounce her.
Repeating your argument doesn't make it any more valid.
It wasn't just a plaque on some wall they were removing, 2020 is when they finally denounced her.
Ok, that still doesn't address the root of my argument, so I will ask it in a different way.
Can you prove that planned parenthood was explicitly embracing Sanger for her eugenics beliefs, instead of her beliefs about the importance of reproductive rights?
For example, people in this country openly embrace George Washington. Yet he was a slaver. He had slaves. But the people who see George Washington as a source of good for our country typically don't include the slavery part as the good part.
Would you consider organizations that honor George Washington to be racist?
Your George Washington straw man misses the mark, he didn't fight for slaves. It's more like beatifying General Lee, slave owner and general for the confederacy. I would say people that support General Lee are racists.
I don't have to prove PP publicly approved of Sanger's eugenics. They knew about her past, celebrated her and tried to down play her racists ramblings up until 3 years ago. Their current statement on her should have happened 40 years ago.
That's not the basis for my comparison, and therefore not relevant. The basis for comparison was that he, just like Sanger, is a historical figure that did a lot of good, while also doing a lot of bad.
"I don’t have to prove republicans publicly approved of Washington's slavery and slaughter of the natives. They know about his past, celebrate him, and continue to this day to try to down play his racist actions."
Do you still not see the problem here?
Would you consider organizations that honor George Washington to be racist?
Washington did not fight for slavery, did not advicate for it, and infact freed all the slaves he owned. He was not a champion of slavery. Sanger viewed abortion and birth control as a means to stop the undesirables from reproducing. She championed eugenics, PP was just a side effect of her goals.
You still haven't answered my question.
Would you consider organizations that honor George Washington to be racist?
No because Washington didn't use the revolutionary war to enact slavery.
He had slaves. And that was racist regardless of his opinion on the matter. He explicitly called for the genocide of natives.
You are definitely going to need a source for that claim.
Cultural genocide:
Land theft:
The natives quite literally called him "Town Destroyer" because he burned their homes, land, crops, and kidnapped any native around:
I must have missed where in all those sources Washington "explicitly called for the genocide of natives."
Try reading some of these things then.
What things? None of your references have Washington explicitly calling for genocide. The only ones that do mention the word genocide are opinion pieces and don't have any references of Washington calling for genocide.
Sure.
But Planned Parenthood neither is nor prescribes a "stern rigid policy of sterilization and segregation" to anybody. And on that endeavor, it's clear she failed spectacularly.
Furthermore, modern Planned Parenthood espouses feminist values, which are in direct opposition to the ideals of eugenics and segregation.
I don't think Sanger's original mission is even remotely applicable to the modern organization. So, I can't really see how it is currently racist, even if that's how it started.
Not really relevant but modern femist values are agnostic to racial segregation.
Sanger's style of eugenics is compatible with PP's modern values, convincing the undesirables the best option for them is not to reproduce. Forced eugenics was not Sanger's style she was a coerced eugenics kind of gal.
Up until 3 or 4 years ago Sanger was still beatified inside PP. Her actions and message was downplayed and justified.
Maybe modern white feminist values are, like more women in the boardrooms. The rest of it is diametrically opposed to racial segregation.
Feminists may be opposed to racial segregation, like most people, but it's not a value of feminism. Equality of the sexes has nothing to do with race.
It absolutely does. Women of color as significantly worse off in a multitude of ways than white women. There is absolutely an effect of race on the treatment of women. So equality of sex is absolutely related to race.
On top of that, it is strategically better to ally yourself with people who you share common cause, which in this case is equality.