Black Family is Under Seige: 72% Illegimate Births

Dear Danny:

I am unfamiliar with the movie you cite but I am very familiar with the general topic of the modern black family and I disagree with your premise that the topic of unwed mothers in the black community will reinforce a false stereotype.

The fact of the matter is that the black family has been blown to smithereens by the social welfare state since the mid-1960s.

Rate of Black Unwed Mothers Soars to 72 Percent, by Jesse Washington

“Statistics show just what that fullness means. Children of unmarried mothers of any race are more likely to perform poorly in school, go to prison, use drugs, be poor as adults, and have their own children out of wedlock.

The black community's 72 percent rate eclipses that of most other groups: 17 percent of Asians, 29 percent of whites, 53 percent of Hispanics and 66 percent of Native Americans were born to unwed mothers in 2008, the most recent year for which government figures are available. The rate for the overall U.S. population was 41 percent.

Jesse Washington covers race and ethnicity for The Associated Press. He is reachable at jwashington@ap.org.

I do not doubt your sincerity for a moment but when 72% of black children are being raised in an environment without fathers, action is needed not excuses. I worked exclusively for six years in the Hartford Public Schools and I saw first hand the dislocation of the black family.  The number of pregnant high girls that I saw walking the halls was mindboggling. 

In fact during the president’s run for U.S. Senator in 2004, his wife introduced him to a rally as follows:

“Ladies and gentleman, it is my  privilege to introduce to you the next United States Senator from the State of Illinois, my husband, my honey, my man, my babies’ daddy, Barack Obama.”  This of course was in poor taste and was a bungling attempt to project street cred to her husband’s supporters.

So Danny if you’re trying to say the phrase is insulting, I agree, but if you’re trying to sweep a chronic problem under the rug in the name of political correctness, we must part company.  Word Count: 360

Best, Geoff Fisher