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| Maafa 21 | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Mark Crutcher |
| Produced by | Life Dynamics |
| Release date | June 15, 2009 |
| Running time | approx. 137 mins |
| Country | United States |
Maafa 21: Black Genocide in 21st Century America is an anti-abortion documentary film made in 2009 by pro-life activist Mark Crutcher. The film argues that the modern-day prevalence of abortion among African Americans is rooted in an attempted genocide or maafa of black people. It claims that the eugenics movements that targeted African Americans in the 19th and 20th centuries formed the basis for the abortion-rights movements of the 20th and 21st centuries. The film has been enthusiastically received by anti-abortion activists, but has been criticized as deceptive by others including Margaret Sanger Papers Project director Esther Katz.
Synopsis
The title comes from the Swahili term "maafa", which means tragedy or disaster and is used to describe the centuries of global oppression of African people during slavery, apartheid and colonial rule, while the number "21" refers to an alleged maafa in the 21st century (though beginning in the 19th), which the film says is the abortion of the unborn among African Americans. The film states that abortion has reduced the Black population in the United States by 25 percent. It discusses some of Planned Parenthood's origins (formerly the American Birth Control League), attributing to it a "150-year-old goal of exterminating the black population." It attacks Margaret Sanger, along with other birth control advocates, as a racist eugenicist. The film features Dr. Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King, Jr., who claims that Sanger targeted black people.
Release and screenings
The film was released on June 15, 2009, and the premiere screening was held on June 18, 2009, on the eve of Juneteenth, at the United States Capitol Visitor Center.
Reception
Reviewers of the film have generally criticized its attribution of racist views to family planning activists, as well as the other claims it makes to tie genocide to family planning. Critics note that the film blames the high abortion rate among black women on a conspiracy rather than on unequal socioeconomic conditions.
Pro-life activists in Knoxville, Tennessee praised the film as a "valuable tool for discourse" against abortion. MovieGuide, a film rating website that judges films based on how well they promote conservative Christian values, gave the film an "Excellent" rating. It describes the film as a "very carefully reasoned, well-produced exposé of the abortion industry, racism and eugenics." MovieGuide found the conclusions of the film to be "irrefutable", though it criticized the film for employing class warfare.
Esther Katz, editor and director of the Margaret Sanger Papers Project at New York University, questions the scholarship behind Maafa 21's portrayal of Sanger and her racial views, calling the film "propaganda". She said quotes attributed to Sanger are taken out of context. While criticizing the film's depiction of Sanger as a genocidal eugenicist, Katz concedes that "Sanger made mistakes" and "was very naïve" in her campaign to legalize contraception.
Loretta J. Ross, author of "African-American Women and Abortion: A Neglected History", and co-founder of SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective, wrote that Maafa 21 was a "pseudo-documentary" produced by a "white Texan" (Crutcher) "who has made a career of attacking Planned Parenthood." According to Ross the premise of the film was wrong in that black slave women brought to America the knowledge of birth control and abortion, and worked to reduce their collective birthrate after the American Civil War as a way to raise themselves up, not as a form of race genocide. Ross wrote that African-American leaders worked with Sanger to establish family planning clinics in black neighborhoods as part of a "racial uplift strategy", not racial suicide. The Liberator Magazine gave the film a mixed review. The reviewer said that the film "does a good job of placing the Eugenics movement into a larger historical context," but that "one gets the impression that the point isn't so much about saving black people, but furthering a political agenda" against abortion, using emotional manipulation to do so.
Marcy Darnovsky, associate executive director of the Center for Genetics and Society, wrote that the film is a "shockumentary" used to support the activities of the black pro-life movement.
See also
References
- Dewan, Shaila (February 26, 2010). "To Court Blacks, Foes of Abortion Make Racial Case". NYTimes.com. Manhattan, NY: The New York Times Company.
- ^ Holloway, Lynette (March 15, 2010). "Some Black Pro-Lifers Say Abortion Is Genocide". TheRoot.com. online magazine: The Washington Post Company.
- ^ "Smear-n-Fear". Margaret Sanger Papers Project. 2010. Retrieved November 23, 2011.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ Carlson, Frank N. (June 2, 2010). "Anti-abortionists Accuse Knoxville Planned Parenthood of 'Black Genocide'". MetroPulse.
- "Klan Parenthood", an interview of Mark Crutcher (7/22/2009)
- Rev. LeFlore III, Ceasar I. (January 10, 2010). "An Interview with Mark Crutcher". Freedom's Journal Magazine (FreedomsJournal.net). Matteson, IL: Wallace Multimedia Group LLC.
- Interview of Dr. Alveda King
- https://www.movieguide.org/reviews/movie/maafa-21-black-genocide-in-21st-century-america.html
- Carlson, Frank N. (June 2, 2010). "Sidebar: Meet Mark Crutcher, the Man Behind Maafa 21". MetroPulse.
- Ross, Loretta J. (1992). "African-American Women and Abortion: A Neglected History" (PDF). Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved. 3 (2). The Johns Hopkins University Press: 274–284. ISSN 1049-2089.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ Ross, Loretta J. (2011). "Fighting the Black Anti-Abortion Campaign: Trusting Black Women". On The Issues.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ Black Yoda (2010). "Maafa 21: black genocide in America (film review)". The Liberator Magazine. Retrieved November 23, 2011.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - Darnovsky, Marcy (April 7, 2011). "Behind the New Arizona Abortion Ban". Biopolitical Times. Retrieved November 16, 2011.