In February, a pro-life group, Life Always, displayed a huge billboard [see below] in the SoHo section of New York City that shows a picture of a young black girl with the inscription, “The most dangerous place for an African American is in the womb.” The billboard, which created a firestorm in the city, was eventually taken down by the billboard company.
The organization responsible for the billboard had the backing of prominent African Americans; they chose to display their message during Black History Month. Rev. Stephen Broden, an African American who heads Life Always, said he wanted to protest abortion as black genocide.
Life Always said it wanted to raise public awareness of Planned Parenthood’s war on black people. Margaret Sanger, who founded the organization, made no secret of her racist agenda to wipe out the “weeds” in the African American community. To this day, a disproportionate number of Planned Parenthood’s abortion clinics are located in minority neighborhoods, their biggest cheerleaders being affluent white liberals who perversely boast of championing the cause of the black poor.
Nationally, blacks, who make up 13 percent of the population, account for over one-third of all the abortions. In New York City, where over four out of ten children are killed before birth, the rate of abortion among black women is 60 percent. But killing six in ten black babies isn’t enough to satisfy some affluent white liberals—they want more.
New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn doesn’t find black genocide offensive but found the billboard offensive. Worse was Bill de Blasio, who as New York’s Public Advocate, advocated that the billboard be taken down. He said, “The billboard simply doesn’t belong in our city. The ad violates the values of New Yorkers.” The values he is so proud of include the devaluing of innocent human life, making New York City the abortion capital of the nation.
After the outcry reached a fever pitch, the billboard company ordered that it be taken down.
It was a perfect exercise in urban fascism: calls for censoring the free speech of a private company were issued by agents of the state; waiters and waitresses who work in a restaurant in the building where the billboard was posted were harassed; and concerns that violence might ensue—as admitted by an official for the ad company—forced the decision to take down the billboard.
It wasn’t long ago that the Catholic League protested a vile video that was part of an art exhibition at the Smithsonian that showed large ants running all over Jesus on the Cross. Because the Smithsonian receives 70 percent of its funding from the public, and Christians comprise 80 percent of the population, we asked Congress to reconsider the propriety of underwriting this institution. We never called for censoring the video, we never sponsored harassment of Smithsonian employees (there was none anyway), and we never threatened violence. Yet we were the subject of endless condemnation by the liberal-left.
Now, when real calls for censorship take place, along with real acts of harassment, and real concerns over violence, no one is castigated by our critics. It is evident who the real fascists are.
