Pro-Life African-American Leaders Upset by Harry Reid’s "Negro" Comment
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
January 11, 2010
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Two of the leading American-American pro-life leaders are upset by revelations that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid used the term "Negro," which is causing the top Democrat a huge dustup. They say the comment devalues black Americans in the same way abortion devalues unborn children.
A new book reveals Reid called then-presidential candidate Barack Obama “light skinned with no Negro dialect unless he wanted to have one" in comments making him appear to believe Obama is not an authentic black American.
Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and a prominent pro-life advocate, says she is livid about both Reid’s comment and the response from the black community.
“This type of thinking by Senator Reid and others is sadly outrageous, no matter what the ethnic or political viewpoint happens to be. We are one human race, and polarizing people because of skin color is horrendous," she told LifeNews.com.
King said if any conservative, pro-life advocate had made the same remark, "the remarks would be labeled racist and plastered over every available news outlet," but she noted Reid’s comment is not getting the same media-obsessed attention.
“As it stands, only a few brave souls are publicizing the comments while there is a massive push at damage control from those who wish to bury the elitist pattern that is prevalent in our government today," King continued.
King said Reid’s comment devalues the black community in the same way as abortion because a disproportionate percentage of abortions are done on black women and children.
“Senator Reid’s apology is a good place to start, but what Congress must do next is to rectify such eugenics and genocidal behavior, backed by rich and powerful organizations like Planned Parenthood, and eliminate government funding of abortion from healthcare legislation," she told LifeNews.com.
Day Gardner, president of the National Black Pro-Life Union, also chimed in on the Reid comment.
She tells LifeNews.com she wonders "what exactly is Negro dialect" and "Did Harry Reid think Barack Obama’s uncanny ability to turn on and off the so-called ‘Negro dialect’ like a water faucet — a good thing? Wouldn’t that make Obama a bit of a fake…a phony in every sense of the word?"
"And was Mr. Reid insinuating that if Barack Obama’s skin had been a shade or two darker he might have been less supporting?" she wondered.
Gardner said the main reason black Americans dispensed with the word Negro is because that word, which is Spanish for black, gave rise to a term with more serious racist connotations.
Ultimately, she said Reid’s comments sadly hearken back to "a time in American history where the shade of a black man’s skin determined whether he was" a slave who worked in the House or in the fields.
"Either way, to the slave owner he was still just a slave; a sub-human to be owned and controlled," she said.
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