Abby Johnson, an anti-abortion activist who addressed the nation at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday night, has come under fire after a video of the conservative crusader justifying racial profiling surfaced online. In the video originally posted to YouTube in June, Johnson says police officers would be “smart” to racially profile her adopted Black son because Black men are statistically more likely to commit a crime.
Johnson opens the video obtained by Vice News by introducing herself as a “white, conservative, non-woke person,” before describing her son Jude as “the most adorable little brown boy you will ever see in your life.” Johnson and her husband, parents to eight children in total, adopted Jude upon his birth in 2015.
Johnson says that because she “looks at statistics over emotion,” she’s not upset by the fact that she’ll have to have different conversations about race and policing with Jude then she will with his white siblings.
“Statistically, there is a disproportionate number of African-American males in our prison population for crimes, particularly violent crimes. 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 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,” Johnson says.
She then adds that acting in this discriminatory fashion would make the police officer “smart,” before acknowledging the fact that she’ll have to talk to Jude about how to “behave” and be “extra cautious,” if he gets pulled over. “But that doesn’t make me angry,” she says.
Johnson then alludes to the idea that “fatherlessness” is to blame for the disparate incarceration statistics, saying: “Fathers have not stood up and they have not taken their place in the home, particularly in Black homes.”
On social media, people responded critically to the 15 minute video that captures Johnson’s comments about her son.
Johnson, who spent eight years working for Planned Parenthood before becoming an anti-abortion activist after claiming she witnessing an abortion at 13 weeks, spoke at the Republican National Convention Tuesday about supporting Donald Trump because of her pro-life views. She has also identified herself as an advocate of head-of-household voting, a practice that could effectively negate a woman’s right to cast a vote of her choice.
