Billboards, Black Women, & Politics

The article, “Billboards, Black Women, & Politics” by Shaniqua Seth and Malika Redmond discusses a billboard campaign that targeted colored women in low-income parts of the country, focusing “on reducing access to abortion in the African American community”. The article talks about the number of African American abortions is skyrocketing, “conflated abortion with genocide”, and were obviously both racist and sexist against these women. The article also mentions how these same tactics were used to target Latina women and their rights to abortion. One of the main arguments supporting these theories is Latinas and Black women receive the most abortions, which is true, “the rates of abortions for African American women and Latinas are disproportionately higher than their white counterparts”. This is due to the low-income communities that are populated more with women of color, where there is less of a focus on safe sex, places where you can learn about reproductive health and get protected before an unwanted pregnancy occurs. Instead of taking this into consideration, the anti-choice billboard company manipulates this information and says that the amount of abortion is outrageous and on the verge of genocide; the problem is the freedom that women have, not the communities and government’s fault.

            In class we discussed the problems in today’s society where the government takes no blame in poverty stricken areas or underdeveloped cities and simply blames the individual. We discussed how welfare is drug testing so they can stop providing drug money to those on welfare, instead of investigating the surrounding circumstances and trying to figure out why some people in welfare turn to drug use. The same goes for this billboard ad, for instead of teaching the women about ways to prevent getting pregnant and alternative ways to abortion, the ad simply says that colored women are incapable of using abortion the proper way, so we must take that away from them.

            Another issue is that sometimes feminist movements forget about all races of women and focuses on white women solely. “The Development of Chicana Feminist Discourse” by Alma M. Garcia points out that “women of color, [are] affected by both race and class in their everyday lives.” Issues like the racist, sexist billboards targeting women of color are not only issues for colored women, but also issues for white women, for they are issues that affect women. It’s important to band together and fight for all women’s rights.