MSNBC Panel Suggests Racist Motivation by Pro-lifers, Goal of 'Reproducing Whiteness'
On Saturday's Melissa Harris-Perry on MSNBC, substitute anchor Ari Melber hosted a panel of liberals fretting over Republican efforts to restrict abortion, with one guest even theorizing that Republicans are motivated by a racist desire to prevent white women from having abortions as a way of "reproducing whiteness, white supremacy, white privilege."
Melber seemed quite accepting of University of Pennsylvania Assistant Professor Salamisha Tillet's preposterous idea of pro-lifers being motivated by racism as he responded:
And you're talking not only then about a potentially religious view about life, you're talking about social control. I mean, that goes to some of these programs that are different than just necessarily a position that people disagree with. They also say, no, we need to go into the doctor's room, we need to tell women under threat of, as I mentioned, criminalization of their doctor's conduct or as a prerequisite to doing anything, how they should analyze their medical care, whether to have an ultrasound. Do you think that is a piece of it, too, the social control, Raul?
Without noting that a disproportionately large percentage of women who have abortions are minorities, Assistant Professor Tillet theorized that Republicans are in a "panic" because of the growing number of minorities and characterized "women of color" as being "caught in the fray" when Republicans try to restrict abortion. Tillet:
Well, I think, the Census just released data, so part of it is the changing racial demographics in the United States. For the first time in American history, children born under the age of five are racial, the majority of them are racial and ethnic minorities in the U.S.
So I think that there's a kind of moral panic, a fear of the end of whiteness that we've been seeing a long time in that I think, you know, Obama's ascension as President kind of symbolizes to a certain degree. And so I think this is one response to that sense that there's a decreasing white majority in the country and that women's bodies and white women's bodies in particular are obviously a crucial way of reproducing whiteness, white supremacy, white privilege. And so I think it's just a kind of clamping down on women's bodies, in particular white women's bodies, even though women of color are really caught in the fray.
As the group discussed the issue, there notably was an image of a giant uterus with the GOP elephant symbol inside it displayed on screen behind them.
Earlier in the show, Melber used the kind of rhetoric that would make regular host Melissa Harris-Perry proud as he teased the show charging that there is a "Republican obsession with controlling your uterus."
He later plugged the segment:
Coming up next, gird your loins. Republican lawmakers are coming, and they're coming for reproductive rights fast and furious.
After recounting efforts to restrict abortion in several states, Melber continued:
So don't let the talk of a more women-friendly party fool you, and don't believe them when they say that jobs and the economy are clearly the main thing they're focused on. This is the mainstream Republican mission now, with the backing of the House Speaker and a slew of governors who could be serious presidential candidates in 2016. So, as we said, make no mistake and gird your loins, this is what Republicans are about.
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Saturday, June 15, Melissa Harris-Perry show on MSNBC:
ARI MELBER: This morning, my question: would a linebacker by any other name smell as sweaty? Plus, the Republican obsession with controlling your uterus. And New York's billionaire mayor -- an ally or fair weather friend? But first, President Obama stares down the haters to get a big win.
(...)
MELBER: All right, coming up next, gird your loins. Republican lawmakers are coming, and they're coming for reproductive rights fast and furious. And we're going to talk to Michael Bloomberg's deputy mayor about the billionaire's big plan to make money talk and the guy safety battle. More Nerdland at the top of the hour.
(...)
MELBER, AT 11:00 A.M.: House Republicans have begun a plan to limit and potentially ban types of abortions after the first 20 weeks of pregnancy. This nationwide ban is scheduled to get a vote next week. Now the House has the votes to pass it, of course. The Senate will not have those votes. And even if it did, this is still a Republican dream bill because our President, President Obama, would veto it.
(...)
So don't let the talk of a more women-friendly party fool you, and don't believe them when they say that jobs and the economy are clearly the main thing they're focused on. This is the mainstream Republican mission now, with the backing of the House Speaker and a slew of governors who could be serious presidential candidates in 2016. So, as we said, make no mistake and gird your loins, this is what Republicans are about.
MELBER: And to pick up on Salamishah's point, I want to put up a pretty striking image on the screen here that goes to the idea that, yes, in many ways, choice keeps winning in federal elections, at least with President Obama being re-elected, and yet, when you look at the numbers, here's this chart, you have abortion laws spiking in 2011 and 2012. There it is. You see just a huge increase. Cristina, why is that happening even as the national political discourse is clearly favoring the President's approach?
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CRISTINA BELTRAN, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY: Right, right. I mean, I think it's a fascinating issue. I think about sort of what you're talking about in terms of the idea of a kind of hysteria and a kind of a magical thinking like that, like that logic is sort of interesting. Like are they so feeling disempowered in some critical ways that this is one way for them to go after something where they feel like they have critical agency in doing this stuff.
MELBER: What do you, you mean the Republicans losing at the political level generally makes them want to act out?
BELTRAN: Yeah, really want to try to enact a vision of the world in which women's bodies, you know, are treated this way. Like I think that's part of it. But I think the other part I was thinking about that I'm continually interested in is that, politically, it's horrible for working class women, women in rural areas. I mean, but what it also does is it produces a collective sense of women having a collective sense of threat, right?
MELBER: Sure.
BELTRAN: Which is really interesting when you think about the deep diversity of women in this country, the fact that these kinds of laws create a sense that women are kind of a bloc is really interesting politically for Democrats. I mean, I think every time they do this, Hillary Clinton should send them a gift basket because it's incredibly good for-
MELBER: Which is a weird cycle of backlash. What do you think, though, of that theory?
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR SALAMISHA TILLET, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA AFRICANA STUDIES: Well, I think, the Census just released data, so part of it is the changing racial demographics in the United States. For the first time in American history, children born under the age of five are racial, the majority of them are racial and ethnic minorities in the U.S.
So I think that there's a kind of moral panic, a fear of the end of whiteness that we've been seeing a long time in that I think, you know, Obama's ascension as President kind of symbolizes to a certain degree. And so I think this is one response to that sense that there's a decreasing white majority in the country and that women's bodies and white women's bodies in particular are obviously a crucial way of reproducing whiteness, white supremacy, white privilege. And so I think it's just a kind of clamping down on women's bodies, in particular white women's bodies, even though women of color are really caught in the fray.
MELBER: And you're talking not only then about a potentially religious view about life, you're talking about social control. I mean, that goes to some of these programs that are different than just necessarily a position that people disagree with. They also say, no, we need to go into the doctor's room, we need to tell women under threat of, as I mentioned, criminalization of their doctor's conduct or as a prerequisite to doing anything, how they should analyze their medical care, whether to have an ultrasound. Do you think that is a piece of it, too, the social control, Raul?
-- Brad Wilmouth is a news analyst at the Media Research Center
