Abby Johnson has made a name for herself in the forced-birther movement as a former director at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Bryan, Texas, who left her post to fight against pro-choice rights. Since that time, Johnson has become one of the white Christian conservative women the right loves to put up in some attempt at dampening down the generally sexist and misogynistic policies of the Republican Party. She is slated to speak on Tuesday night as one of the many talking (mostly) white faces at the RNC lies and terror extravaganza.
In the wake of the George Floyd killing by Minnesota police, thousands of protests kicked off across the country. At the very top of the list of issues Black people face when interacting with law enforcement in our country, it’s the police’s disproportionately aggressive response. Johnson decided to go to her YouTube account and post a video to explain her feelings, as a white lady, with four white male children and one Black child she and her husband adopted. In the video, Johnson—wearing a T-shirt with a quote from the famously problematic Vanilla Ice rap song, “Ice Ice Baby”—takes a few dramatic sighing breaths and begins.
“I haven’t known if I should talk about this or not.” She explains, that as the viewer can see, Johnson is “very white.” Second, as “a white, conservative, ‘non-woke’ person, when I speak on racial issues, ah, my voice isn’t wanted.” In this case, Johnson seems to have nailed the general sentiment about … Abby Johnson. Unfortunately, staying silent when talking about shit she doesn’t know about, and more importantly, about controlling other people’s bodies based on her personal feelings is the Abby Johnson brand.
This video was made private by Abby Johnson, but Vice News got their hands on the video and reposted it so everyone could get Johnson’s pro-life stance on Black Lives Mattering … a little differently than white lives. Johnson first explains that “she doesn’t know what to say.” This, of course, does not stop her from continuing forward into a riff on how she has “many Black friends who love Candace Owens, and I have just as many Black friends that hate her.”
I’m going to say, if this is a true statement, Johnson may know two Black adults she calls “friends,” one of whom might not know Abby’s name. Then Abby moves on to discuss her biracial son, Jude. “In my opinion he is just the most adorable little brown boy you will ever see in your life. He looks like he has a perpetual tan. He has the most gorgeous hair on the planet, and he love, love, loves his brown skin. He talks about it all the time.”
That’s fantastic. Abby Johnson then goes on to explain that she has five boys, four of which are white. And she says she “realizes” that she will have to have a “different conversation with Jude,” than with the white children. Let’s be honest, only Jude will get to “have” a “conversation” about race and law enforcement with Johnson. In the conservative mind, law enforcement works just fine for white folks, it’s people of color that don’t know how to act around law enforcement, making police shoot them and beat them up.
What’s the conversation Johnson needs to have? “Right now, Jude is an adorable, perpetually tan-looking little brown boy. But one day, he’s going to grow up and he’s going to be a tall, probably sort of large, intimidating-looking-maybe brown man. And my other boys are probably gonna look like nerdy white guys.” But this weird racist reality doesn’t make Johnson angry. “Because I look at statistics over emotion.” (This is me staring into the middle-distance.)
She then explains that Black men are in prison at higher rates and have higher rates of violent crime convictions. That’s what she explains. Her “adorable” son will grow up to be more likely to commit a crime. “So statistically, when a police officer sees a brown man like my Jude walking down the road—as opposed to my white nerdy kids, my white nerdy men walking down the road—because of the statistics that he knows in his head, that these police officers know in their head, they’re going to know that statistically my brown son is more likely to commit a violent offense over my white sons.”
“White nerdy” guy who murdered people and practiced cannibalism.
Forget about the fact that “white nerdy” men seem to make up the number one profile descriptor of serial killers like Harold Shipman, Ed Gein, Joseph DeAngelo, and Jeffrey Dahmer. The disproportionate number of Black men in prison is an issue of systemic racism, not because Black men are statistically more likely to commit violent crimes. Little Jude might just grow up to be a violent criminal. That’s just statistics. Don’t give me any of your liberal emotions!
Also, listen, Johnson doesn’t want a cop to beat up her adorable, theoretically intimidating grown-up Black son. But she knows only smart police officers target Black kids. “If he’s on more high alert with my brown son than he is with my white son, that doesn’t make me angry, because that’s just smart, because of statistics, okay? Now if he acts in an unjust manner toward my brown son than my white son, that makes me angry. But statistically if he’s on more high alert, I’m not angry about that.”
She then goes on to explain that the conversation she will have with her “brown son” will be one where she tells him how to “behave” around law enforcement and maybe be extra careful not to spook them. First part of that conversation might be something about how while Johnson likes to more accurately portray her son as “brown,” law enforcement will likely just see him as an intimidating “Black” man.
Johnson proceeds to explain that the real problem is that “70 percent” of Black men “are walking out on their babies.” She doubles and then triples down on this completely not true statistic.
Data from a 2013 CDC report also challenges Johnson’s claim that Black men aren’t parenting their kids. Black men who live with their children were found to be deeply involved in their lives: 70% of those fathers, for example, had “bathed, dressed, diapered, or helped their children use the toilet every day,” compared to 60% of white fathers. Josh Levs, author of the book “All In,” has also found that CDC data reveals most Black fathers live with their children.
But, according to Johnson, the reason that cops have to be on “high alert,” around Black men is because of “bad dads.” And so Johnson’s theoretical conversation with her brown son will include things about bad Black men not being fathers and in so doing, making law enforcement more likely to harass, terrorize, hurt, and kill little Jude when he gets older. Now say your prayers and go to bed!
The fact that Johnson’s completely racist, uninformed, and ultimately hypocritical stance on Black Lives Mattering is based in the abject lie that she believes in “statistics over emotion” is just the Trumponian icing on the cake. A woman who has dedicated her bank account to the the forced-birther movement over the last decade, telling people about statistics, isn’t simply laughable, it almost feels criminal. One of the great tragedies of the forced-birther movement is that if they really wanted to rid the world of abortion, they would actually look at statistics and analyze what exactly leads people to choose abortions less than other options.
As investigative reporter Nate Blakeslee found, in a piece about Johnson from 2010, her conversion story, away from Planned Parenthood and into the controlling arms of the forced-birther movement, is … sketchy. As Blakeslee discovered, the big conversion story that viewers will hear tonight has really evolved over time, and grown in graphic nature. Johnson herself has said and written tons of conflicting things during her celebrity tour over the past 10 years. More recently, Johnson’s story was turned into a relatively successful movie Unplanned, that has done well in the Christian market. Blakeslee did follow up his report on Johnson that calls into question whether or not the abortion she says she experienced even happened in the first place.
She will fit right into this parade of lies the RNC is promoting this week. Sadly, when little Jude grows up he might not fit as well into his mother’s belief system. Listen, don’t get emotional, it’s just statistics.
