The recently concluded trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, an African American abortionist who ran what some have referred to as a “house of horrors” out in West Philly, raises a whole host of very interesting and provocative questions for all sides in this year of the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. While some have seen it as a kind of cause celebre in making the case for safe (and free!) abortions available for all Women regardless of color or class, others have seen it as the inevitable logical conclusion that Abortion on Demand would ultimately lead to, which is a cheapening of human life itself. These and other lines of inquiry, though, have been raised and thoroughly debated already over the past few years that since the Gosnell case first broke and its conclusion last month with Gosnell himself opting for a life sentence in prison to avoid the very real possibility of the death penalty. Today, I want to introduce, and then examine, what I consider to be a new area of inquiry:

That of how and why, the recent Gosnell case raises some very ticklish, and downright uncomfortable questions, for those who consider themselves Black Feminists.

How so, you might ask?

No matter where you find yourself ultimately falling on the Gosnell case – whether you saw him as something of a local folk hero providing much needed medical and reproductive services to poor (and more often than not, Black) Women in need; or whether you saw him as the Devil Incarnate – one thing is certain:

Gosnell is a staunch supporter of the right of Women – in this case, Black Women – to have an abortion.

In this respect, Gosnell is much like our current President of the United States, Barack Obama himself, who has been an unabashed supporter of a (Black) Woman’s right to choose from day one.

In fact, when one really sits back and thinks about it, it’s hard to come up with many examples of Black Men, especially prominent ones, who are vociferous opponents of abortion – if anything, nine times out of ten, they are ardent supporters of it, or at the least, they are neutral on the matter. Sure, we can name Black Men who oppose abortion, like Michael Steele, or Clarence Thomas; but in doing so, we are also admitting just how rare they are among Black Men as a whole, to say nothing of their persona-non-grata status in Black America itself. No, the general consensus seems to be, that Black Men, by and large, either overtly support abortion, or at the very least they don’t try to get in the way of it. In this respect, it is hard to think up a Black Male analogue, to Todd Akin.

Which brings us back to our little conundrum for Black Feminists – how are they gonna make the case that Black Men are somehow inhibiting their reproductive rights, when, by all accounts, Black Men are more often than not, ardent supporters of them? Well, to ask the question, is to answer it – which explains why we haven’t heard so much as a mumbling word out of them on these and related questions, because the truth is as plain as the nose on one’s face: they can’t make any such case, beause no such case exists.

The Gosnell case shines a light on the pitiful fact that Black Feminists really don’t have a leg to stand on along these lines — lines that never existed to begin with. Black Men are hardly “holding the Sistahood down”, demonstrated not just by the fact that they avail themselves of abortions more than any other group of Women nationally, and have for years; we also see this borne out elsewhere in the recent findings that Black Women are now more likely to be in college than any other Americans. More than Asians, Whites or Hispanics – male or female – and of course, more than Black Men. This is an issue I’ve written about in the past, well before the Gosnell case or the Black Women on Campus findings even came along.

As the wise man Biz Markie once famously said, “Damn, it feels good to see people up on it”.

What might work well in the case of White upper middle class (UMC) Women along these lines – that the “Patriarchy” dominated their lives (and wombs) and that they had the right to fight against it – simply doesn’t add up when it comes to Black Women, since not only did Black Men have nowhere near the kind of influence that White Men did in the Western World, but on top of that Black Women had formidable influence and power back home in the Motherland, as Return of Kings columnist Athlone McGinnis makes clear:

“In Africa, women had long labored outside the home. Whereas European gender roles often restricted women from performing labor crucial to society’s sustenance (e.g., working in the fields), African women had long played a crucial role in their society’s economic sustainability, performing extensive fieldwork and other indelicate but necessary chores. This was true long before slavery, and is still true to this day. They, unlike European women, exerted direct influence on the production and transport of food and in other forms of labor. African women have long been expected by their men to have some sort of say outside of the domestic realm.”

[...]

“Many African women also lived in matrilineal societies. Whereas European women long existed in a society that saw their marriage to a man as essentially a forfeiture of their economic and social independence, African women could maintain much of this due to matrilineal organizations that gave them greater control over family life and their children’s future.”

[...]

“Black men, for example, haven’t had true dominion over their women for centuries. In Africa, the black man often had polygamy and certainly plenty of authority, but he also often dealt with matrilineal lines of social organization that limited his dominion and influence over his women and progeny…In the new world, the black man was essentially a pack horse for his first several centuries. He had no real power to keep his family together (it could be split apart at anytime should a slave owner choose, often deliberately), and he also had no power to guard the sexuality of his women. He had no status or influence relative to the white men who took near undisputed dominion over the sexual capacity of the black female.

White men kept black women as mistresses or concubines and quite frequently impregnated them with very little opposition from black males who, frankly, could do nothing about it. Black men had no real power to stop their wives, sisters or daughters from being used in this way or sold indiscriminately. They had no control over black female mobility or sexuality…Thus, when white women (over whose sexuality white men did maintain some control) come out and complain about freeing themselves from the “oppressive” control their men had over them, it becomes difficult for blacks to interpret things in the same way. Black men have not historically controlled black women in that way.

Black men also have not prevented black women from seeking roles outside the home in large part due to economic reality. Black males, unlike their white peers, didn’t have the money to fund the stay-at-home mom lifestyle so many white women felt “oppressed” by during the mid-century prior to the second wave feminist explosion in the sixties. While white women were reading “The Feminine Mystique” and ruminating about the “oppressive” nature of their role as pampered suburban housewives, black women were working in what were usually less than ideal conditions.

So how can black women adopt this white feminist narrative regarding the “patriarchy”? They can’t, really…That narrative comes from a (usually well-off) white woman’s perspective, and other groups simply haven’t had the same experiences.”

KA-BOOM.

Sure, Black Feminists (or as some like to refer to themselves, “Womanists”) can make a case for being mistreated at the hands of a Black Man or number of Black Men, but no reasonable person could argue that this in any way compares to the omnipresent, all-pervasive construct that is Patriarchy as White UMC Feminists have imagined it, for the simple reason that Black Men in the West simply have never had that kind of systemic power and influence over their Women, and, when they did get some measure of said power and influence, they used it in favor of things White UMC Feminists drool over - again, note that there are few, if any, Black Men who are preventing Black Women from going to college or getting abortions, and more often than not are helping them to do/get both! Moreover, on the off chance a Brotha does indeed do a Sista dirty, chances are very, very high, that said Brotha WILL be going to jail, and for a good long minute at that. So again, not seeing the case here, Sista Feminists/Womanists!

You really do need more people.

Now adjourn your arses…

The Obsidian