A rebuttal to Kanye West
Hip Hop artist recently spread debunked claim about Margaret Sanger
(A photo from Kanye West’s Twitter account)
An unaired clip from Kanye West’s interview on Tucker Carlson’s show has made the rounds on Twitter. In it, he spread a conspiracy theory that has a long history in the antiabortion movement.
“Planned Parenthood was made by Margaret Sanger, a known (eugenicist) with the KKK, to control the jew population,” West said before elaborating further. “When I say Jew, I mean the 12 lost tribes of Judah, the blood of Christ—who, the people known as the race Black really are. This is who are people are. The blood of Christ. This as a Christian is my belief.
Some antiabortion activists have argued that Planned Parenthood has committed genocide on black people throughout the movement’s history. George Grant–perhaps the most formidable antiabortion writer–wrote a book on Margaret Sanger and has consistently argued for that historical representation of her. The actual real story of Sanger herself is a lot more complicated.
Sanger’s history has been troubled by two criticisms–that she targeted disabled people and the black community. Prominent Black writer Angela Davis made the point in one of her early essays about how the failure to self-evaluate had led to distrust growing among suspicious black women who had heard about sterilization within hospitals they sought care in. Davis also criticized Margaret Sanger and the early birth control movement’s embrace of eugenics.
While Sanger was certainly guilty of ableism with her publication of The Pivot of Civilization, it is less clear that she had intolerant views of Black people. Much of her work has been misread, misrepresented and authors have cited one intolerance to indicate that she held another. Sanger opened birth control clinics in black neighborhoods, trained black doctors and wrote essays calling for the liberation of black people through family planning.
As for the Klan connection, Sanger wrote in her autobiography about her 1926 experience speaking to the women's branch of the organization. Sanger’s assistants accepted any invitation that she received during that time in her bid to promote birth control. Sanger said it was the strangest experience she ever had and that she feared for her life. Undoubtedly unbeknownst to the Klan, Sanger had begun a birth control clinic in Harlem where Black doctors trained before treating the Black community that had been denied care by White physicians. The Pittsburgh Courier, the leading Black newspaper at the time, said that Sanger was, “one of many white persons who have done much constructive work in New York’s celebrated Negro Sector.”
Sanger also had a good relationship with the black community. She worked closely with W.E.B. Du Bois. Martin Luther King Jr. connected the civil rights movement and the birth control efforts undertaken by Margaret Sanger. When King was in his first parish in Montgomery, Alabama, he joined a Planned Parenthood committee that distributed literature on unwanted pregnancies. He saw her as a model social reformer. When he spoke before the PPFA on May 5, 1966, King paid tribute to Sanger’s legacy.
“There is a striking kinship between our movement and Margaret Sanger’s early efforts,” King said. “She, like we, saw the horrifying conditions of ghetto life…Like we, she was a direct actionist–a nonviolent resister. She was willing to accept scorn and abuse until the truth she saw was revealed to millions.”
The other troubling part of West’s remark is the antisemitic undertones of it. I’ve seen that in several remarks on social media. Antisemitism in the Black community also has long been a historical problem. Langston Hughes wrote about it. The Nation of Islam was criticized for it. Part of combatting that misconception will also have to include details about Jewish people’s heavy involvement in the civil rights movement, including the murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner in the South during the 1960s. Schwerner and Goodman were Jewish and Chaney was a black man killed by Klansmen. That story and its aftermath are told in Mississippi Burning.
Taking proactive approaches to change the narrative about Margaret Sanger and Planned Parenthood will help alleviate some of these concerns. I’m a member of the Association for the Study of African-American Life and History. As part of my involvement, I’ve attended zoom presentations about Margaret Sanger, and during Q&A sessions I brought forth some of the details I provided here. More of that will be needed in a grassroots approach. We need to show to organization members like this the important role that Black women and men have played in the repro rights movement. Presentations about reproductive justice will help, as will any about significant black figures like Faye Wattleton.
Another thing that may help is some sweeping biopic about Margaret Sanger. The complicated portrait of her eugenics–which was the prevailing view of the time–and her support for the black community could change the narrative more than most things would. It would be easy to see someone like Scarlett Johansson or another major actress playing her as Ben Kingsley played Gandhi or Liam Neeson portrayed Michael Collins.
These are a few of my thoughts and a bit of my research. I write far more in-depth about Sanger in my forthcoming book.