I see that @RealCandaceO is circulating this snippet of a Margaret Sanger letter.
Let's talk about that.
Let's talk about that.
I should explain that I had to use a screenshot of that tweet because Owens blocked me the *last* time I fact-checked her, when she posted on her Blexit site a completely fabricated quote she attributed to Sanger:
Unlike the last one, this Sanger quote isn't a complete fake but is instead a line from a longer letter that's been taken out of context.
And that's usually a tell with these things. If people don't offer their sources, take their claims with a giant grain of salt.
Right, Abe?
And that's usually a tell with these things. If people don't offer their sources, take their claims with a giant grain of salt.
Right, Abe?
So Owens doesn't give the source, but I will.
Here it is from the @smithcollege archives, where they have helpfully digitized it and put a version online.
libex.smith.edu/omeka/items/sh…
Here it is from the @smithcollege archives, where they have helpfully digitized it and put a version online.
libex.smith.edu/omeka/items/sh…
Reading the full source provides context that Sanger wasn't plotting the extermination of the black race but rather seeking to dispel rumors to that end.
You can get additional context from this nice piece by Imani Gandy (@AngryBlackLady): rewire.news/article/2015/0…
You can get additional context from this nice piece by Imani Gandy (@AngryBlackLady): rewire.news/article/2015/0…
As Gandy notes, Sanger aimed to provide birth control to southern blacks who lacked it in a segregated health care system.
Many black leaders backed the cause but some were suspicious. Hence the need to dispel rumors that they sought "the extermination of the Negro population."
Many black leaders backed the cause but some were suspicious. Hence the need to dispel rumors that they sought "the extermination of the Negro population."
As she notes, Gandy drew considerably from the book Killing the Black Body, by Dorothy Roberts at Penn.
As Roberts wrote, the effort was complicated given Sanger's ties to eugenicists and the movement's general paternalism to blacks.
books.google.com/books?id=nhfSA…
As Roberts wrote, the effort was complicated given Sanger's ties to eugenicists and the movement's general paternalism to blacks.
books.google.com/books?id=nhfSA…
It's an important book on a complicated issue, and a reminder that history is ultimately messy and complicated.
Anyone telling you otherwise is selling something.
Anyone telling you otherwise is selling something.
As you can see -- from the original letter, Gandy's article and Roberts' book -- Sanger *wasn't* secretly plotting to "exterminate the Negro population" but was instead working with prominent African Americans for what they thought would help blacks.
Context matters, folks.
Context matters, folks.
