July 21, 2020

"[Margaret] Sanger still has defenders who say the decision to repudiate her lacks historical nuance."

"Ellen Chesler, a senior fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, a think tank, and the author of a biography of Ms. Sanger and the birth control movement, said that while the country is undergoing vast social change and reconsidering prominent figures from the past, Ms. Sanger’s views have been misinterpreted. The eugenics movement had wide support at the time in both conservative and liberal circles, Ms. Chesler said, and Ms. Sanger was squarely in the latter camp. She rejected some eugenicists’ belief that white middle-class families should have more children than others, Ms. Chesler said. Instead, Ms. Sanger believed that the quality of all children’s lives could be improved if their parents had smaller families, Ms. Chesler said, adding that Ms. Sanger believed Black people and immigrants had a right to that better life. 'Her motives were the opposite of racism,' Ms. Chesler said, citing Ms. Sanger’s relationships with prominent Black leaders like W.E.B. Du Bois, a founder of the N.A.A.C.P....  As the story goes, Ms. Sanger treated a woman named 'Sadie Sachs,' who had given herself an abortion. Sadie asked a doctor how she could avoid having another baby, and the doctor recommended abstinence. A few months later, Ms. Sanger was called to treat Sadie again after she had given herself another abortion, and she died in Ms. Sanger’s arms. Ms. Sanger went on to start clinics, including one in Harlem. She pushed for reproductive rights, even after she was arrested and sent to jail for opening her first clinic, in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn."

From "Planned Parenthood in N.Y. Disavows Margaret Sanger Over Eugenics/Ms. Sanger, a feminist icon and reproductive-rights pioneer, supported a discredited belief in improving the human race through selective breeding" (NYT).

63 comments:

Drago said...

The lies the lefties tell each other to get through the day and to protect their horrific heroes for as long as they can.

Mark said...

Ms. Sanger believed Black people and immigrants had a right to that better life. 'Her motives were the opposite of racism

The disinformation began early with this evil, racist, anti-woman woman.

Anthony said...

Nuance and context for me but not for thee.

Gahrie said...

Meanwhile 900 healthy Black babies are aborted every day, and more black babies are aborted in NYC than born alive.

Marc in Eugene said...

Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong still have their defenders, too; I suppose the difference is that they actually wielded state power, whereas the Sanger woman only wished she had it.

Geoff Matthews said...

'discredited'.

Discredited how?

rhhardin said...

Or an essayist can mention the public's lack of historical imagination - the morality of the past was as good as today's. It jsut had a different dogma.

There's no need to present her as woke for today.

Then argue about good character and statues. Differently put, people today can't recognize good character.

Shelby Foote on Lee's surrender:

Shelby Foote:

It was close to 4 o'clock by now, and all that protocol required had been performed. After nearly three hours in the McLean parlor — half of one spent waiting and the rest in what could scarcely be called negotiation, since his adversary had freely given all he asked and more than he had hoped for: including immunity, down the years, from prosecution on any charge whatever in connection with the war — Lee was free to go. He rose, shook hands with Grant again, bowed to the others, and passed from the room, followed by Marshall. Out on the porch, several blue-clad officers came to attention and saluted as he emerged. He put on his hat to return their salute, then crossed to the head of the steps leading down to the yard. There he drew on his gauntlets, distractedly striking the fist of one hand three times into the palm of the other as he looked out across the valley to where the men of his army were waiting to learn that they had been surrendered. "Orderly! Orderly!" he called hoarsely, not seeing Tucker close by with Traveller, whose bit had been slipped to let him graze. "Here, General, here," Tucker replied, and Lee came down the steps to stand by the horse's head while he was being bridled. A cavalry major, watching from the porch, noted that "as the orderly was buckling the throat latch, the general reached up and drew the forelock out from under the brow band, parted and smoothed it, and then gently patted the gray charger's forehead in an absent-minded way, as one who loves horses, but whose thoughts are far away, might unwittingly do." Mounted, Lee waited for Marshall and Tucker, then started at a walk across the yard. Grant had come out of the house and down the steps by then, also on his way to the gate where his own horse was tethered. Stopping, he removed his hat in salute, as did the staff men with him. Lee raised his own hat briefly in return, and passed out through the gate and up the road. Presently, northward beyond the dwindled, tree-lined Appomattox, listeners on the porch heard cheers, and then a poignant silence.

Derbyshire

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

"Instead, Ms. Sanger believed that the quality of all children’s lives could be improved if their parents had smaller families..."

all children’s lives Really? All of them?
All children's lives could be improved by killing some of them?

All children could be well-nourished if we starve some of them

On March 27, 2009, Clinton received the Margaret Sanger Award from the Planned Parenthood Federation of America
Keep that 'Super-Predator' population down, eh?

GingerBeer said...

Rules and laws are for the little people. Nuance and context are for the Left.

PluralThumb said...

This is too heavy for me to comment on.
But I will say this:
Find a lamb that is willing to meet half way and will the a lamb or a wolf meet with a willing lamb. Dare to be a wolf, or else, maybe.
Connection is a very precise art, hense many artists are perished if not tilting a/the scale to favoyrtism. Of what party? I'm just shooting words from a park bench on my 4G LTE Samsung phone. My iPhone is down, so white privlage. Too proud to get a free government phone.
Only 40 and naieve enough like a child.
The world is too comlex, hense order?!
Unless I am selfish, who is not on a fight or flight spectrum as per science.
Protector to my family. Progression as any. Well being. To live amogst 9 billion + people, give or take. History is not important. Science is evil, yeah.

- Don't think twice, it's alright.

- Just say no. At least, learn to say no.
All I have in me.

madAsHell said...

Ms. Sanger’s views have been misinterpreted.

When do we start re-interpreting Obama's legacy? That will be fun.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

I’m agnostic on Sanger. Her legacy did greatly reduce violent crime and real poverty in America. How that happened is one of those cognitive dissonance jams that Progs can’t even begin to acknowledge. So her metaphorical statues are safe.

DavidUW said...

Ah yes. Attack the Left's demigods and find nuance.

Sanger was a racist. straight up.

She deserves erasure, as does Wilson, as does FDR, as does LBJ.

If Grant is getting the business, all of them deserve it good and hard.

rcocean said...

Historical nuance? LOL. I guess you could say that about Robert E. Lee, Grant, Lincoln, Jefferson, Washington and TR too.

Jupiter said...

It's pretty clear that if you are going to kill some babies, but not kill all the babies, you are going to need some criteria. Those criteria will reflect the values of whoever makes the decision. Abortion -> eugenics.

If a prenatal homosexuality test is developed, only Christians will have homosexual children.

Paul Zrimsek said...

Good thing we're not misinterpreting the views of any of the other prominent people from the past who are being reconsidered now!

BUMBLE BEE said...

I'm so old, I remember when they said "for victims of rape and incest". Had some friends who are pro abortion, (Catholics Too), who didn't have enough courage to see the film Gosnell. The most prolific murderer in American History. A lot like Vlad Tepes.

Rick said...

The eugenics movement had wide support at the time in both conservative and liberal circles, Ms. Chesler said, and Ms. Sanger was squarely in the latter camp.

It's revealing she's identified as a liberal as if that is enough to clear her.

Her motives were the opposite of racism,'

Funny we've been pretending this was about structural racism not motives. Or is it about structural racism only when convenient to slime anti-racist non-leftists?

Narr said...

Sanger was a big deal in my womens history courses in grad school--she and Red Emma Goldman of course.

Was she a racist prig? (Prigette?) Oh hell yes--most of the best people were, those days, to some degree or other.

On the subjects and substance of contraception and birth control per se, she was both ahead of her time and correct that women needed options other than lucky timing.

That she's getting kicked out of the sisterhood is amusingly ironic.

Narr
DuBois loved him some USSR

Narr said...

Sanger was a big deal in my womens history courses in grad school--she and Red Emma Goldman of course.

Was she a racist prig? (Prigette?) Oh hell yes--most of the best people were, those days, to some degree or other.

On the subjects and substance of contraception and birth control per se, she was both ahead of her time and correct that women needed options other than lucky timing.

That she's getting kicked out of the sisterhood is amusingly ironic.

Narr
DuBois loved him some USSR

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

“The removal of Margaret Sanger’s name from our building is both a necessary and overdue step to reckon with our legacy and acknowledge Planned Parenthood’s contributions to historical reproductive harm within communities of color,” Karen Seltzer, chair of the board at Planned Parenthood of Greater New York, said in a statement. “Margaret Sanger’s concerns and advocacy for reproductive health have been clearly documented, but so too has her racist legacy.”

There's no whitewashing (swidt) the fact Sanger was racist. We need to rip out this white supremacist organization by the roots.

Defund Planned Parenthood!

traditionalguy said...

Get real. Sanger was an actual Nazi dedicated totally to racial extermination of non-whites. I have read their books.They were all quite proud of themselves. Today's dedicated Extermination Elites are slightly different. They want to kill all of the races.

n.n said...

Planned Parenthood, Progressive Church, Pro-Choice religion, selective-child a.k.a. reproductive rites for social progress, clinical cannibalism a.k.a. "reduce, reuse, recycle" a.k.a. redistributive parts for medical progress, and eugenics, too. Nice.

Ken B said...

A dishonest headline from the NYT. Her belief isn’t “discredited”, it’s her intent and motives which are at issue, and they were shot through with anti black racism.

gilbar said...

Ms. Sanger’s views have been misinterpreted. The eugenics movement had wide support at the time

the quality of all children’s lives could be improved if their parents had smaller families. 'Her motives were the opposite of racism'


hmmm
Robt E Lee's views have been misinterpreted. The negros are animals movement had wide support at the time

the quality of all negro lives could be improved if they were cared for like farm animals. 'His motives were the opposite of racism'

That WAS fun!! send me another!

bagoh20 said...

I finally got around to watching "The Hunt" last night. I read that it was a leftist fantasy about hunting down deplorables, and was offensive to the Right. Not at all. Lefties do kidnap and then hunt down deplorables, but the left is definitely the bad guys, and it's satire with some truely funny parts. Over the top on everything, gory, and kind of fun. Not at all what I was led to believe it was. Sometimes the Right can be full of shit too.

Sebastian said...

"the quality of all children’s lives could be improved if their parents had smaller families"

The quality of their lives could be improved by improving the quality of the children. That's eugenics.

eddie willers said...

DuBois loved him some USSR

One of the most tragic movements in US history is that DuBois and Garvey won over Booker T. Washington and GW Carver.

Temujin said...

Now we're going to bring up historical nuance?

stevew said...

Ah, nuance. It's almost as if these historical figures have some breadth and depth about them and their lives that defies simple categorization. Not to mention historical context.

mockturtle said...

In the near future virtually everyone will be cancelled. In fact, getting cancelled might become quite the 'in' thing, like getting coronavirus or #Metoo.

Narayanan said...

eddie willers said...
DuBois loved him some USSR

One of the most tragic movements in US history is that DuBois and Garvey won over Booker T. Washington and GW Carver.
---------=============

I did not know that. where can I find out more?

mockturtle said...

"Instead, Ms. Sanger believed that the quality of all children’s lives could be improved if their parents had smaller families..."

She was flat out wrong about this and everything else. But why dredge up the evils of history? Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. And the context of time does make a difference.

Wince said...

"The eugenics movement had wide support at the time in both conservative and liberal circles, Ms. Chesler said, and Ms. Sanger was squarely in the latter camp."

Well, alrighty then.

Big Mike said...

We’re supposed to apply “historical nuance” to Sanger, but to lefties the only thing notable about Tom Jefferson and George Washington is that they were slaveholders. Okaaaaay.

Rusty said...

OOoooh! Do Himmler next!

Susan said...

We had a science teacher at our high school who told everyone and anyone that the only legitimate family size was one child. There was no disagreement with her whatsoever. She had one child and so should everyone else, end of story. Her son was a classmate of my son's and she was a devoted fan of Margaret Sanger.

Her one child was an absolute hellion. He's in prison now for felony murder and drug dealing.

Very sad. She will probably never have a single grandchild.

Not that she knows of anyway.

I lost track of her after she left the state to teach elsewhere. I have wondered since her boy was sentenced if she ever thought about how Sanger proposed people like her son should be cleansed out of the gene-pool for the good of humanity.

I'm probably just being mean and bitter because she publicly shamed my son in class several times for being the youngest of 6. As if it was his fault where he came in the birth order.

But, I've felt bad for her ever since her son's trial was splashed all over the front page.

wildswan said...

Here's what Margaret Sanger said in The Pivot of Civilization. It shows that she saw birth control as a way of ridding society of "biological mistakes" whose expensive care in asylums and prisons was dragging down civilization.

"The tendency of the human elements, under present conditions, is constantly downward.

Turn to Robert M. Yerkes's "Psychological Examining in the United States Army"(1) in which we are informed that the psychological examination of the drafted men indicated that nearly half—47.3 per cent.—of the population had the mentality of twelve-year-old children or less—in other words that they are morons. Professor Conklin, in his recently published volume "The Direction of Human Evolution"(2) is led, on the findings of Mr. Yerkes's report, to assert: "Assuming that these drafted men are a fair sample of the entire population of approximately 100,000,000, this means that 45,000,000 or nearly one-half the entire population, will never develop mental capacity beyond the stage represented by a normal twelve-year-old child, and that only 13,500,000 will ever show superior intelligence."

Making all due allowances for the errors and discrepancies of the psychological examination, we are nevertheless face to face with a serious and destructive practice. Our "overhead" expense in segregating the delinquent, the defective and the dependent, in prisons, asylums and permanent homes, our failure to segregate morons who are increasing and multiplying—I have sufficiently indicated, though in truth I have merely scratched the surface of this international menace—demonstrate our foolhardy and extravagant sentimentalism. ... Every single case of inherited defect, every malformed child, every congenitally tainted human being brought into this world is of infinite importance to that poor individual; but it is of scarcely less importance to the rest of us and to all of our children who must pay in one way or another for these biological and racial mistakes."

In short, she thought that most of the poor were defective which caused their poverty and that they should never have been born. And she wished to help them by making sure that they were not. At present inside Planned Parenthood abortion clinics (most located in black communities or on their geographical edge) 36% of abortions are performed on members of the black community though the blacks are 13% of the population. Thus Planned Parenthood carries on with Sanger's eugenics but now the main target is reducing the strength of the black community. And this is resulting in a decrease in the black population both relatively and absolutely. The blacks would still be America's largest minority if it were not for the high abortion rate.

Paddy O said...

There's no more oppressive act than to convince people to choose their own destruction while claiming you are on their side. That is something the worst tyrants are very good at. Devilish really. Eat the fruit, it'll be good for you, the serpent always says, I want the best for you, and God is trying to keep the best from you, so go, eat.

Birkel said...

One Margaret Sanger defender has pancreatic and liver cancer and sits on the Supreme Courf.

Rob said...

Sanger's biggest sin wasn't eugenics, it was that she called Blacks "Negroes."

Unknown said...

Ain't this boogie a mess? This blog attracts people living all over the world. Buwaya and John Henry or Dr K. weigh in. I think there's an Aussie. More. Ann Althouse opens a portal and lets it all hang out. She absorbed the slings and arrows of Shouting Thomas who has mellowed as Jesus smooths his rough edges. I think Ann needed to take those attacks, to make Shouting Thomas a better man. I think this girl, Ann Althouse is a very patient woman. I envy Meade.

BTW..I don't really like Ann's posts. Feminist, blah, blah, blah. Always dig Meade's posts. Too few. That's just me. Ann lives in a city where the windows are boarded up. Ann's city was receptive to BLM. It's a Yin/Yang kinda thang. Too much Yin, not enough Yang.

My town had BLM protests. The good men of the town, the sheepdogs, met BLM. No windows broken, no looting, no arson. We even had a coupla black guys among us. That's required, right? BLM went off to find an easier target.

When the Yin increases, and the Yang decreases, you get Madison, WI. Boarded up store fronts is not NORMAL. Don't let it become normal.

Gahrie said...

There's no more oppressive act than to convince people to choose their own destruction while claiming you are on their side.

If the KKK was secretly in control of the Democratic Party... what would they be doing differently?

richlb said...

@bagoh20

"Not at all what I was led to believe it was. Sometimes the Right can be full of shit too."

Don't quote me but I seem to recall they did reshoots to change the deplorables/liberals dynamic somewhat. I'm not sure if it was after the controversy or maybe during some test screenings.

The Godfather said...

I remember well when Roe v. Wade was decided, my "political moderate" friends saying, quietly and in private, that this ruling was a good thing because most of the abortees would be Negroes, and this would slow or even prevent the Negro race from outnumbering the White race.

And if you believe in "systemic racism", how could it be otherwise? If you give the people with power the right to decide what children are born and what children are killed, how can you doubt that they will kill mostly "Negro" children?

Churchy LaFemme: said...

As the story goes, Ms. Sanger treated a woman named 'Sadie Sachs,' who had given herself an abortion.

Wait a minute. "Sad Sack"? Sounds like someone was putting someone on and it got written down as canon.

Fernandinande said...

"dicredited belief in improving the human race through selective breeding"

That idea has never been discredited, and people demonstrate that they believe it when they choose their mates non-randomly.

The nyt has a bad case of Lysenkoism.

Tinderbox said...

Disavowal! Great!
Does this mean that now they're going to stop murdering black babies?

Or would that hurt the bottom line too much..

Jeff Weimer said...

Oh, *NOW* they give a shit about "historical nuance."

Michael said...

Planned parenthood by people like us.
Planned non-parenthood by everybody else.

n.n said...

There's no more oppressive act than to convince people to choose their own destruction while claiming you are on their side.

This is why selective-child (normalization) is a greater crime against the individual and society than one-child.

n.n said...

Ms. Sanger believed Black people and immigrants had a right to that better life. 'Her motives were the opposite of racism

Debasing human life one baby, one mother, one father, at a time. Diversitists are blind to their own ambition. Or, you could normalize personal responsibility, self-moderation, individual dignity, intrinsic value, and... you know, treat people like they were human, capable of moral choices. There has been so much progress: one step forward, two steps backward.

n.n said...

I think that they know what they have to do. Close the abortion chambers, shutter the Mengele clinics, and tear down the walls. Here's to progress... again, and again, and again with nuanced presentation and realization.

n.n said...

900 healthy Black babies are aborted every day

Yeah, a "burden" by choice. They tried to normalize systemic rape... rape-rape culture in order to cow religious (i.e. moral) people. They called them bigots. Deja vu.

That said, Fetal-Americans. It aids and abets social distancing.

n.n said...

Keep the Sanger, the Cecile, the Obama, the Feminist statues. We should know progressive policies.

PhilD said...

Planned Parenthood NY rejects the 'bad' in Sanger but obviously accepts the 'good' (otherwise the abortionists wouldn't call themselves 'Planned Parenthood').

Now why can't they do the same with Columbus, Jefferson, Washington ... ?

Michael S. Kochin said...

I just said to my wife last night that the eugenic defense of abortion is much stronger than the rights defense of abortion. They have breached their own fortress.

wendybar said...

Murder is murder...no matter the age of the human you are killing.

Static Ping said...

There's no nuance. Margaret wanted to get rid of everyone who wasn't white, and, furthermore, there were quite a few white people - hello, Jews! - who needed to be eliminated as well. Pretty much the only difference between her and Hitler is Hitler was in a hurry. Margaret was satisfied as long as they didn't breed.

Bilwick said...

When "liberals" talk about "nuance," stand at the ready with shovels.

n.n said...

Murder is murder...no matter the age of the human you are killing.

Not the first, second, third, or fourth choice, but Pro-Choice/abortion the wicked solution. Reproductive rites are a progressive mode of "life deemed unworthy of life", a cruel artifact of an older age and the primary cause of anthropogenic excess mortality. One-child or selective-child, and clinical cannibalism under the Planned Parenthood umbrella corporation.

GingerBeer said...

And what becomes of the "Margaret Sanger Award?" It hasn't been awarded since 2015, but I can't find any indication online that it has been "canceled." Previous winners include HRC and Nancy Pelosi. Will they now renounce and return their awards? Just kidding, of course not.

ken in tx said...

Real eugenics has never been tried.