Recently a series of billboards like the one above have been put up in Georgia to promote an anti-abortion campaign. More information can be found from this article.
This ad certainly grabs one's attention, but many feel that it is an absolutely inappropriate to target the African-American community in this way.
How do you feel about this ad? Is it fair to target a certain group like this ad does?
That's sort of a bizarre advertisement. First, referring to blacks as a separate species is weird-- particularly one that is about to die out, which doesn't really make sense. It would be more accurate to say that black youth tend to be more 'in danger' of one thing or another, rather than that they risk extinction itself. Although the word endangered means the same as 'in danger,' saying they're an 'endangered species' carries entirely different connotations.
ReplyDeleteAlso it links negative emotions associated with racial prejudice directly to abortion, which I think is ridiculous. It makes it seem as if what is putting black children in danger is abortion itself, which, again, doesn't make sense, because there are definitely bigger problems in American society facing African Americans than a declining population size (considering their population is increasing rather than decreasing, if Wikipedia isn't misleading me).
So... this ad can't possibly mean that abortion is causing African American children to become an endangered species, because African Americans' population sizes are increasing over time. So it must mean, more literally, that abortion is putting African American children in danger, while linking to population extinction, which is a rather scary and just-plain-wrong comparison.
However, it is true that African Americans often have more abortions than other ethnic groups in the US, and they have been targeted more for it than other ethnic groups, sometimes for clearly racist reasons (making sure a certain part of the population can't reproduce). Planned Parenthood locations are apparently more often located in cities where there are more African Americans. But I get the feeling there's a more appropriate way of making an ad raising awareness for African Americans. I think while it claims to have the aims of fighting racism, the ads are a lot more about pro-life arguments, and as far as those go, the pro life arguments they make on their web site are, in my opinion, full of holes.