This billboard ad is a black and white anti-abortion ad, claiming in large white and yellow lettering that “BLACK CHILDREN ARE AN ENDANGERED SPECIES” and at the bottom of the billboard (obscured here by a metal rail) it has a link to toomanyaborted.com which peddles anti-abortion and anti-planned parenthood agendas. On the right-hand side of the ad is a close-up image of a Black child’s face.

The issues with this billboard are complex, ranging from the subject matter itself, to the manner  with which it it communicated. First, anti-abortion beliefs and mobilization, including rallies and actionable legislation infringes upon a woman’s right to physical and emotional safety regarding her own body. It limits her right to healthcare services and her right to seek those services without molestation or harassment. Every woman making the choice about having an abortion or not has complex and potentially traumatic factors to consider when making her decision. Anti-abortion campaigns in general ignore or dismiss these factors. Additionally, calling Black children an endangered species raises a lot of red flags, as it others Black people as being biologically different from the rest of humanity, to the degree of being an entirely different species. This contributes to further discrimination and othering of Black people within our society. Framing Black children as a different species also invites damaging imagery of animalization, which serves to devalue Black thought and existence, as they are equated more closely with beasts rather than humans, a trope that has been used to oppress Black people for hundreds of years. This device may be intended to play upon people’s sympathies for endangered animals and their greater willingness to help animals than marginalized, often poor people. This ad not only pushes a damaging campaign which contributes to the oppression and regulation of women, but it does so in a manner which perpetuates harmful stereotypes about Black people.

I chose to culture jam this ad by maintaining that Black youths are at risk, however I changed the language from that which animalized and othered these children, to language which frames them as a section of society facing systematically driven hardship. I also took the question of abortion right off the billboard, because if you want to talk about what is killing Black children in America, it isn’t the right for women to abort a fetus. I added text which touches on some sources of violence against Black youth, including racial profiling and police brutality which is literally killing Black people in America (Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland) and leads to disproportionate representation of Black people in prison. Mass incarceration of Black people for petty crimes results in narrow job opportunity for these individuals which can push them back to petty crime like shoplifting or small-scale drug dealing in order to subsist, a vicious cycle which sees sections of society written off by the justice system. Systematic racism and racist hiring practices also lead to limited economic mobility for Black youths who may have difficulty obtaining higher paying, more prestigious jobs due to their educational background (majority Black communities often receive the least funding and resources from state governments), their skin colour, and the way they speak. This limits the ability of Black youths to advance into decision-making positions in the workplace. This prevents Black individuals from making higher wages, making decisions which would benefit themselves other minorities within the company, and from being healthy role models within the corporate world. I chose to be blunt about my culture jam. Personally, I get rather heated about the topics of women’s health and the systematic oppression which Black people and other minorities face in America. When I see images like this that tote the idea that abortion is to blame for the deaths of Black youths, I feel outraged.  I’m not interested in having a laugh about the fact that youths are dying at the hands of White police officers, I’m not interested in being satirical, I’m interested in straightforward language which puts a spotlight on the sources of trauma and oppression which these demographics face.