Ads Pulled from "Abortion Man" YouTube Page- Pregnant Black Women 11 Times More Likely to be Murdered

Wow, since we originally posted about the Abortion Man clip on Tuesday, This story got picked up by Racialicious, Jezebel, Stereohyped, Huffington Post, Salon.com, Michelle Malkin, Life News, and others. You should read some of the comments on these other blogs. Like the initial discussion here, people are debating what, if anything, to do about the clip, whether it is satire, whether it is condemning men who attack pregnant women, displaying Wayan's sick/lack of humor, or yet again making light of violence against women:

I want to make a video now called vasectomywoman. I'll star in it. A woman gets pregnant because her boyfriend refuses to use a condom, so she calls out the window for help. I'll fly up in a spandex suit with a pair of scissors on the front and say "this looks like a job for vasectomywoman!" Then I ambush him in a club and beat his balls with a baseball bat so they won't produce sperm anymore.

Cmon, violence against men and forceds sterilization of them is HILARIOUS! Don't you think? Feministing

It is being criticized and defended by both sides of the abortion debate, but while people are pondering, please use this as an opportunity to discuss the disproportionate rate of maternal homicide among Black women.

According to the CDC, black women have a maternal homicide risk about seven times that of white women. Black women ages 25-29 are about 11 times more likely as white women in that age group to be murdered while pregnant or in the year after childbirth. CBS News

Think about that. ELEVEN TIMES more likely to die while pregnant if you are 25 to 29.

YouTube Ads Gone...for now
YouTube appears to have removed the scrolling ads from Damon Wayan's "Abortion Man" clip page. However, the scrolling ads are still running on the pages containing other WAYOUTTV clips such as "The Black Hulk" and the expletive filled "hooked on Honest"- Best Western and Toyota ads are still running on those pages. So clearly someone at YouTube got a clue and figured out that Abortion Man was not the best platform to try to sell cars, cocoa and hotel rooms no matter how many people look at the clip.

Letter to Toyota
For an example of the letter that were sent to Toyota, you can read the letter DJ Black Adam sent to Mike Michels at Toyota. Beacuse Wayans may have the right to produce this foolishness, but consumers are not required to pay for it.

I need to give a hat tip to Yobachi over at Black Perspective for the link to the YouTube clip, he asked us about it in the Afrospear Google Group.
Continue the discussion.

Comments

[The Guy]

I wonder how many people here, your friends, and your family members, laughed hysterically at Damon Wayans' character of "Handiman" on "In Living Color?" HandiMan was the Superhero who was mentally retarded.

If you need a quick recap:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=oZdsObN7ef0

Also, go here to see how a website compares Abortion Man to a Planned Parenthood Cartoon featuring a black female superhero (oddly enough) attempting to "educate" anti-abortion advocates and politicians:

http://www.verumserum.com/?p=1858

[Hagar's Daughter]

After I saw the YouTube video I immediately called Toyota and was able to make my complaint (I was given a ref. number). I also followed it with a letter. I wrote to Footlocker as well. I then wrote a post with a link to your post. You keep us all on our toes.

That video was not funny at all.

[Nichelle]

@ The Guy

Everyone did not "laugh hysterically" at Handiman.

And, clearly blinded by your self-righteousness, you fail to note that "Abortion Man" did not "make fun" of anyone or try to educate them. He attacked a pregnant teen by punching her and stomping out her baby.

BIG difference.

If you are okay with black pregnant women or women of any color being attacked and stomped, then frankly F you...

[g-e-m2001]

I am trying to get back to my roots of keeping people up to date on what is going on out there. I always wanted to be a clearing house of information and not necessarily Joan of Arc. I think the amazing thing is that people now know the drill and they pick up the phone or email.

Its not a panacea, but it is progress. To get people from being consummate consumers to being conscious consumers.

[New Black Woman]

To The Guy:

I wasn't laughing at the Abortion Man clip and neither were the other respondents on here.

[Miriam]

***off topic**

Just noting I'm having trouble getting past 20 sec.into the most recent podcast.

[The Guy]

Nichelle...

I'm not self righteous nor blinded by anything and I think it's becoming increasingly disgusting that people cannot come here and have an intelligent disagreement without name calling and mud being thrown around the room.

I'm just someone who is willing to look at both sides of a given issue objectively. The black community has and still does embrace stereotypes of their own people. In Living Color did do a lot of interesting things with flipping race on its head. But the homeless character of Anton? Bunita Butrelle? Come on, don't tell me black men AND women weren't laughing hysterically at these stereotypical caricatures.

And explain to me what was so "educational" about sketches like Handiman? They were exploitative, plain and simple.

Does that mean that "Abortion Man" is acceptable? No, but I don't see much of a difference between that and other images in television and film that passes for entertainment. If you're going to be upset at this, be upset at Handiman because it insults someone like now 7 yr old Kai Leigh Harriott who is
paralyzed due to an errant bullet:

http://www.sheshallwalkagain.org/

Get upset about Bunita Butrelle. Get upset with Dave Chapelle and his beloved Comedy Central show. What about these black female comedians out here who are just as raunchy as the mainstream female rappers?

The truth is that something will always offend you. Always. Last year it was Don Imus. The year before it was Michael Richards. Recently it was Dog the Bounty Hunter or something D.L Hughley said.

While I don't think anyone should let these poor images exist without contention, I do think the arguement is misdirected. Again, you can't wipe out all disgusting images. Instead, there needs to be more demand for positive ones. White women have it good not because there aren't awful images out there of them. They are there. From court shows to Springer to VH1's Rock of Love and much more. But white women have the luxury of having so many positive images pumped into the mainstream, that it dilutes the bad ones. It creates balance. That's what black women need. You aren't going to be able to shut down videos like "Abortion Man" forever. If you do, another will pop up in 6 months. Or a year. Being offended is inevitable because the offensive is what sells. Instead of exerting so much energy in combatting people like Hughley and Wayans, I think the time would be better spent finding ways to get successful, educated, diverse fictional characters (and non-fictional) black women integrated into television and film.

I have young, intelligent, college educated black female friends who may hate BET, but love the "Flavor of Love" and the "I Love New York" shows. Is that because they enjoy the shows? Sure, some if it is silly entertainment that they enjoy. I think some of it, too, is that there aren't many other venues on the far too large television landscape to find black women in abundance.

Lastly, I don't really care much about Damon Wayans or this Abortion sketch. I'm much more concerned about what this sketch was attempting to show--that black teenagers and young adults are engaging in sex without thinking about the consequences, thus elevating the chance of STD transmission and unwanted pregnancies.

But I forgot..."I'm self-righteous."

[Yobachi]

I'm glad it got taken down.

I guess I should just keep passing information on to you when I come across it.

[g-e-m2001]

So we are back to the "You Can Only Do One Thing at a Time" argument.

Why is the assumption that if people are using their First Amendment right to say that they are offended by the exercise of that right by another, then that must mean that the only thing people are doing is complaining. I know Hagar's Daughter has a mentoring program. I personally am working on producing competing content. Who knows what other people are doing.

And yes, you sound self righeous if you come in here and say "Y'all are wrong, what you should be doing is X,Y,Z instead" I have never met a group of people that is so obsessed with how Black women expend their time, yet the only time they seem to express interest in our time management skills is when we are standing up to say NO to something.

Then all of a sudden they have side projects we ought to be working one. Better uses for our time. As far as the Message from abortion man, you can go read wayan's description for yourself. He describes this as the SOLUTION for every man's worst nightmare. So I think you give him far too much credit.
As far as WHAT ABOUT EVERYBODY ELSE... well give us time. I love this standard that if you can't cure everybody of cancer instantanously, then no patients sohuld undergo chemo. If you can't rid the world of all raunch in one fell swoop, then you should just accept it and move on.

We're just a blog. A place to express our ideas. It isn't the beginning or the ending of anyone's activism nor will Damon Wayan's be the last person we criticize.

And to everybody coming up with all these other things Black women have to complete before we can so much at utter a contrary thought about anybody or anything, there is nothing stopping YOU from doing all the tasks you have come up with us to complete.

I mean have you ever known a group of people that has so many barriers to entry. In order to be considered a victim of a violent crime, we have to be pure as the driven snow. If not, we somehow deserved it. In order to be able to speak our minds and say "Hey that offends me", first we have to rid the world of every other offensive image retroactively. IN addition, we have to hunt down every Black woman to ever take a comedy stage and yank the mic out of her hands. We aren't talking about all that. We are talking about this specific clip and your attempts to distract attention from this specific clip is an obfuscation and redirection technique.

Whatever! Somebody add another nickel to the "What Y'all Should be doing is this" tip jar.

Why not accept that people have a number of options to react to this. In fact I have deliberately not given anyone instructions on what they should or should not do. People, by their own initiative have engaged in their own brand of activism. All I did was share the information.

[cinco]

Even when this forum is used to increase awareness of the derogatory images of Black women; or as an attempt to share the numerous crimes of violence against Black woman; or when used as a tool to enlighten and/or educate others - there is always someone sitting back who decries how dare we not take it anymore! A constant reminder that there are some real ignorant people in the world!

[DJ Black Adam]

@The Guy:

Well, I NEVER thought the Wayans were funny with their insipid and inane attempts at humor, and I think most of the post Richard Pryor so-called Black Humor is reprehensible.

Personally I think Damon needs a mud hole stomped in him “Black Adam” style, but I’ll settle for his advertising sponsors to pull their ads.

[N. Mahana]

I'm glad they took the ads down but the video should be removed altogether. I mean if Beyonce can get her tumble down the stairs taken down from every website it was posted, then we can get abortion man taken down.

There is no humor in the clip and I really can't see why any rational (thinking) person would find any in this vile garbage.

[blackwomenblowthetrumpet.blogs]

@ N. Mahana
I agree!

@Cinco
You said:
"there is always someone sitting back who decries how dare we not take it anymore!"

The slave mind is still fully operative in the black masses.

@ Guy
You said:
"Come on, don't tell me black men AND women weren't laughing hysterically at these stereotypical caricatures."

No black men AND women were not laughing. Some were laughing. I won't even go as far to say that the MAJORITY were laughing. The show is off the air so if the amount of black viewership was spectacular then the level of ad revenue would have kept the show on the air longer.

I am not saying that In Living Color was an atrocity for black people. I am just saying that it seems you are assuming that was a HIT with black people and it was NOT a hit.

Some black people find that humor funny.

I am not mudslinging. I am just saying.

@ G-E-M2001
Thank you. Thank you.

Peace, blessings and DUNAMIS!
Lisa

http://blackwomenblowthetrumpet.blogspot.com

[Shai]

That video was beyond tasteless and disrespectful. Has anyone contacted the network or the Wayans?

[Kitty Glendower]

Gina, Bill O'Reilly just called Damon Wayans out over the abortion video.

[Angela francke]

Damon Wayans has done it again..caused alot of people to start talking and discussing abortion,black women ,stats and so forth.If I remember correctly he very much supported his son and daughter in law whom decided not to abort but to have child and then unfortuntely had a miscarriage.Damon wants people to stand up and take notice...when he tried to trademark the "N" word ..same thing tongues were wagging...and people having discussions..opening their eyes...the man has hidden meaning behind his "rather bizarre humour"...from what I see here it has worked...hats off to you Damon..luv Angie