Readers Diana Philip and Spencer Hall were right to call out City Councilman Carl Stokes for his characterization of teen access to contraceptives as "a racist policy targeting African-American youth" ("Teens have a right to birth control," June 11).
We heard the same from black leaders 40 years ago. It was phrased differently but the meaning was the same.
The battle cry back then was that "birth control in the inner city is the white man's genocide" — the idea being that whites encouraged African-Americans to use contraceptives because they wanted fewer black people around to contend with.
It's disheartening to see a black politician in 2015 basically saying the same thing — that birth control is somehow discriminatory against blacks.
We've had nearly 50 years of increasing rates of black babies born to single mothers with no job skills nor means of financial or emotional support. The results are in, and the cycle of poverty they have generated is tragic.
Mr. Stokes' statement may get him re-elected but in the end his ideas will only serve to keep blacks down. Of course, that is what white people want anyway, right?
Ken Hines, Towson