Diary of a Black Pro-Lifer: Pacific Northwest

by Jacqueline Hawkins

Something that was rather bothersome about the Pacific Northwest tour was the common occurrence of white people telling me how bad I had it as a black person.  It was a mixture of white guilt, virtue signaling, and racism.

“Oh, the poor stupid black animals can’t take care of themselves so we’ll sit in our little classes and talk about how bad off they are and how vital killing their children is and pat ourselves on the back for having such righteous thoughts.”

Little did they know, when it came to me, they were talking to a victor, not a victim.  That left them scrambling to save face again and again.  Check out this conversation had at Salt Lake Community College that epitomizes the conversations I ran into time and time again.

Student:  “I’m sure you know how hard it is to vote as a black person.  African Americans live in such a way and I’m sure you’ve been through this in your life.  There is a level of discrimination in how the voting process works.”

Me:  “I’ve never had issues with voting.”

Student:  “Oh, I mean as a woman or as a person. We all go through it.  African Americans and Latinos go through it the worst because they on average live in higher crime or lower income areas.  “Right now, they are the least voting people because of systemic racism.  The system puts them down so they can’t vote.”

Me:  “So, they can’t vote at all?”

Student:  “It’s harder to vote. If you don’t have the money to buy ID then how can you go vote?”

Me:  “See all my family is black and we don’t have issues with voting.  O r buying IDs.  IDs are cheap.”

Student (dismissively):  “Oh, Utah’s better than some places.”

Me:  “I’m from Virginia. And my family in Georgia, Florida and DC have not had issues either.  A lot of the time white people think black people are a certain way and can’t take care of themselves but then you ask a bunch of black people and they say they have no issues.”

Student:  “That’s not what I meant.”

Me:  “You said that black people are just so bad off.”

Student:  “That’s not what I said. That’s out of context.”

At The Evergreen State College, a student told Joanna that she had never taken anyone white to have an abortion, but she did take three black friends to have abortions.  According to her, they had no hope because they were black.  White people had lots of hope and therefore didn’t need abortions unless there was something wrong with the baby.  But black people?  Well they had no hope of a decent future so it was best to cull them.

While the young woman had the best intentions at heart, like the young woman in Utah, the mentality that black people are stupid, down-trodden, animals in need of the great white hope is the same in both cases.

Even more tragically, their “help” often takes the form of the grim reaper.