Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Objective statements vs. racist statements

I'm wondering if some of my blogging amigos and brothers in Christ think the following is a racist statement:

"But I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce abortion, you could — if that were your sole purpose — you could kill every black woman aged 15 years of age thru 45 years of age in this country, and your abortion rate would go down. That would be an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your abortion rate would go down. So these far-out, these far-reaching, you know, extensive extrapolations are, I think, tricky."

Black women comprise around 12-13% of the female population aged 15-45 in the United States yet receive approximately 36% of U.S. abortions. If you killed every Black woman between the ages of 15-45 your abortion rate would go down, wouldn't it? That's an objective, fact-based verifiable statement, isn't it?

That doesn't mean that Black women are more likely to get abortion solely because of their skin color. It points out that in our current economic and familial climate, Black women are more likely to get abortion than white or Hispanic women.

Now let's say that Black women comprised the same percentage of the female population yet received only 5% of U.S. abortions. Would the above statement then be racist or would it be factually incorrect?

I'm truly interested in your thoughts.

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