Day Gardner, National Black Pro-Life Union
by Staff
May 6, 2008
(christiansunite.com) -- Some have said the You Tube Abortion Man video produced by Damon Wayans was done as a joke. Unfortunately, it is a misguided attempt at being funny.Let's think about the story line here -- a young woman is happily looking forward to becoming a mother when she is unexpectedly attacked, brutally beaten, punched in the abdomen and then stomped on until her crying baby is aborted.
The truth is the You Tube video depicts the growing number of violent attacks on pregnant women and their unborn children. The video is not only insensitive and demeaning but also down right stupid.
In the Wayans video the father of the child is a video game playing, couch potato, "nigga" (as they refer to each other). It brings to mind the early days of Hollywood when the only roles offered to blacks were roles of simple minded, lazy, no account, watermelon- lovin' darkies.
I remember laughing nervously at Steppin Fetchet's bulging eyes and the way he walked slumped over, mispronouncing the most basic words as he spoke. Even as a young girl something seemed wrong to me. I remember feeling uncomfortable and saddened by the portrayal. In those movies black women were always maids who cared for, weaned and raised white children yet were rarely seen nurturing their own.
Those negative roles were created by whites to sustain the popular belief at the time that "coloreds" were small minded and ignorant. Talented black actors were degraded and treated with the utmost disrespect.
The Abortion Man video reminded me of those old studio days with the greatest difference being that today the stereotypical stigma is not coming from the old studio system-it doesn't have to-because today we are more than happy and go to great lengths to degrade and disrespect ourselves.
It seems no matter how far we've come-no matter how educated we are - no matter how talented and successful black "Hollywood" families have become, shamefully, some of us still don't get it.
The truth is we are better than that.
The National Black Pro-Life Union is an organization founded to serve as a clearing house to coordinate the flow of communications among all African American pro-life organizations and individuals in order to better network and combine resources.
