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I want to talk about zip code, poverty, abortion access, and the sterilization of black and indigenous women.
So we all know that throughout the 20th century, neighborhoods were segregated. But how does zip code intertwine with employment, poor credit scores, and lack of adequate housing to keep the cycle of poverty thriving today?
And how does that cycle of poverty make it easier to perpetuate racial genocide?
This thread was inspired by all of the wealthy and middle-class black folks looking down on poor people in the hood like they chose to be that way, but also inspired by liberals who think birth control is the key to ending poverty
First of all, quality employment matters. Conservatives have been boasting about low unemployment rates as of late... but of course, that's not the full truth
So you’re underpaid and you need credit. Did you know that 17% of blacks, compared to 5% of whites, use non traditional and high interest lending places, thanks to a history of discrimination by banks?
So if you're living in the hood and have poor employment opportunities and can barely cover the cost of living as it is, where do you live? Lets keep in mind that the Trump Administration is actively slashing public housing budgets
People often tell poor people in crime or poverty ridden neighborhoods with few resources and opportunities to “just move”, but it’s really not that simple
If we don't address stagnant wages in the job market, predatory banks and lending places, and the destruction of welfare programs, cycles of poverty will continue. Crime for survival will continue, inevitably feeding the prison industrial complex
We can't keep telling poor black people to work and save their way out of poverty, when the system is clearly designed to keep them in it.
Because so many black people continue to exist in a cycle of poverty and rely on welfare BECAUSE of the greedy and exploitative upper class, this makes them a very big target for arguments about "population control" and sterilization.
In the latter half of the 20th century, indigenous and black women were sterilized at high rates because they were seen as welfare burdens of the state. They were considered not worthy enough to bear children. #LetsTalkAboutSexHistory
As many as 100-150K poor women, mainly of color, were sterilized a year under federally funded healthcare. Reiterating @DorothyERoberts: "Sterilization was for decades the only publicly funded birth control method readily available to poor women of color."
A lot of liberals talk about reproductive rights but what we need is *Reproductive Justice*. Women, no matter the social or economic status, should have the right to contraceptives, comprehensive sex ed, and a quality environment to raise children in if they choose to procreate.
If reproductive justice is not achieved, sterilization and long term birth control will continue to be used to abuse poor women of color. Let's look back to the 90s to see how Norplant was abused #LetsTalkAboutSexHistory
You can watch the full 12-minute Zip Code, Race, and Class video for free on youtube:
You can watch #LetsTalkAboutSexHistory: Sterilization, Abuse, and Reproductive Justice on patreon (and all the other episodes in the series): http://patreon.com/intelexualmedia
You can watch #LetsTalkAboutSexHistory: Sterilization, Abuse, and Reproductive Justice on patreon (and all the other episodes in the series): http://patreon.com/intelexualmedia
Another important watch is episode two of #LetsTalkAboutSexHistory, where I tackle the history of consensual birth control and abortion. It's free on youtube.
And yes, it all goes hand in hand https://twitter.com/lexual__/status/1052022299992449024?s=21
