54% of Black households are led by single women compared with 30% for white women.
My sincere wish for the New Year is for those Black men who continually spread their reproductive seeds for no good reason to stop the habit.
It seems to me that it is perhaps the way that they define manhood, or maybe it is for bragging rights as to how many baby mamas they could have. But for sure it serves no useful purpose.
Already we are an impoverished community and these Black men do not have the right to further dis-empower us in such a way. It is so easy for Black men to impregnate our young women and walk away. And sometimes it is not unusual for these men to have more than one woman pregnant at the same time.
Not to mention the young women who allow themselves to be impregnated and, in the process, invite all kinds of sexually transmitted diseases by having unprotected sex. And it is always the Black women who are left to bear the burden of raising these children with little or no resources. U.S. studies have indicated that 54% of Black households are led by single women compared with 30% for white women.
American studies have also shown that the average annual income for single parent families is $24,000 compared to $80,000 for married couples. And that is the average, because I am sure that the actual figure is often far less than that for Black families. It particularly breaks my heart when I see young women in their twenties with two, three, four or more children tagging along and looking weary.
As well, there is the social-psychological damage done to children when they are raised in a single parent household. It is not by guess that the creator arranged to have two parents for procreation.
Multiple studies have shown that children with involved fathers do better across every measure of child well-being than their peers in father-absent homes. And the damage is just as bad for girls as it is for boys because it is the first male role model that she knows.
When fathers are absent, girls are more likely to have unplanned pregnancies, low self-esteem, and are more likely to drop out of school. As adults, they are more likely to experience poverty, divorce and promiscuous behaviour.
Boys from father-absent homes are also likely to be school dropouts, be addicted to drugs and alcohol, to exhibit aggressive behaviour, and to engage in criminal activity and be incarcerated. The United States Department of Justice statistics for 2009 indicated that 40% of all prison inmates were Black, while Black folks make up only 12-13% of the American population.
Sadly, it is not unusual to hear of young Black men who have six, fourteen, or (as I saw on one of those trashy television shows) one young Black man with 21 children by several baby mothers. And even when they claim to be ‘minding’ their children it usually means buying them a baby Nike or a nice outfit once in a while.
They seem to be oblivious to the time and the energy and the over $200,000 on average that it takes to raise a child until age 18, i.e. rent, milk, band aids, clothes, school books, lunches and outings, etc.
In spite of the fact that some children in these single parent situations defy all odds and succeed, it is absolutely clear to me that our community is in crisis and we simply cannot afford any more of this irresponsible behaviour. It is not the way for us to build a strong and viable community.
