Bad Black Mothers

Bad black mothers are everywhere these days.

With Michelle Obama in the White House, consciously and conspicuously serving as mom-in-chief, I expected (even somewhat dreaded) a resurgence of Claire Huxtable images of black motherhood: effortless glamour, professional success, measured wit, firm guidance, loving partnership, and the calm reassurance that American women can, in fact, have it all.

Instead the news is currently dominated by horrifying images of African American mothers.

Most ubiquitous is the near universally celebrated performance of Mo'Nique in the new film Precious. Critically and popularly acclaimed Precious is the film adaption of the novel Push. It is the story of an illiterate, obese, dark-skinned, teenager who is pregnant, for the second time, with her rapist father's child. (Think The Color Purple in a 1980s inner-city rather than 1930s rural Georgia)

At the core of the film is Precious' unimaginably brutal mother. She is an unredeemed monster who brutalizes her daughter verbally, emotionally, physically and sexually. This mother pimps both her daughter and the government. Stealing her daughter's childhood and her welfare payments.

Just as Precious was opening to national audiences a real-life corollary emerged in the news cycle, when 5-year-old Shaniya Davis was found dead along a roadside in North Carolina. Her mother, a 25-year-old woman with a history of drug abuse, has been arrested on charges of child trafficking. The charges allege that this mother offered her 5-year-old daughter for sex with adult men.

Yet another black mother made headlines in the past week, when U.S. soldier, Alexis Hutchinson, refused to report for deployment to Afghanistan. Hutchinson is a single mother of an infant, and was unable to find suitable care for her son before she was deployed. She had initially turned to her own mother who found it impossible to care for the child because of prior caregiver commitments. Stuck without reasonable accommodations, Hutchinson chose not to deploy. Hutchinson's son was temporally placed in foster care. She faces charges and possible jail time.

These stories are a reminder, that for African American women, reproduction has never been an entirely private matter.

Nobel Laureate, Toni Morrison, chose the stories of enslaved black mothers to depict the most horrifying effects of American slavery. In her novel, Beloved, Morrison reveals the unimaginable pain some black mothers experienced because their children were profitable for their enslavers. Enslaved black women did not birth children; they produced units for sale, measurable in labor contributions. Despite the patrilineal norm that governed free society, enslaved mothers were forced to pass along their enslaved status to their infants; ensuring intergenerational chattel bondage was the first inheritance black mothers gave to black children in America.

As free citizens black women's reproduction was no longer directly tied to profits. In this new context, black mothers became the object of fierce eugenics efforts. Black women, depicted as sexually insatiable breeders, are adaptive for a slave holding society but not for the new context of freedom. Black women's assumed lasciviousness and rampant reproduction became threatening. In Killing the Black Body, law professor, Dorothy Roberts, explains how the state employed involuntary sterilization, pressure to submit to long-term birth control, and restriction of state benefits for large families as a means to control black women's reproduction.

At the turn of the century many public reformers held African American women particularly accountable for the "degenerative conditions" of the race. Black women were blamed for being insufficient housekeepers, inattentive mothers, and poor educators of their children. Because women were supposed to maintain society's moral order, any claim about rampant disorder was a burden laid specifically at women's feet.

In a 1904 pamphlet "Experiences of the Race problem. By a Southern White Woman" the author claims of black women, "They are the greatest menace possible to the moral life of any community where they live. And they are evidently the chief instruments of the degradation of the men of their own race. When a man's mother, wife, and daughters are all immoral women, there is no room in his fallen nature for the aspirations of honor and virtue…I cannot imagine such a creation as a virtuous black woman."

Decades later, Daniel Patrick Moynihan's 1965 report "The Negro Family: The Case for National Action" designated black mothers as the principal cause of a culture of pathology, which kept black people from achieving equality. Moynihan's research predated the 1964 Civil Rights Act, but instead of identifying the structural barriers facing African American communities, he reported the assumed deviance of Negro families.

This deviance was clear and obvious, he opined, because black families were led by women who seemed to have the primary decision making roles in households. Moynihan's conclusions granted permission to two generations of conservative policy makers to imagine poor, black women as domineering household managers whose unfeminine insistence on control both emasculated their potential male partners and destroyed their children's future opportunities. The Moynihan report encouraged the state not to view black mother as women doing the best they could in tough circumstances, but instead to blame them as unrelenting cheats who unfairly demand assistance from the system.

Black mothers were again blamed as the central cause of social and economic decline in the early 1990s, when news stories and popular films about "crack babies" became dominant. Crack babies were the living, squealing, suffering evidence of pathological black motherhood and American citizens were going to have to pay the bill for the children of these bad mothers.

Susan Douglass and Meredith Michaels, authors of The Mommy Myth explain that media created the "crack baby" phenomenon as a part of a broader history that understands black motherhood as inherently pathological. They write: "It turned out there was no convincing evidence that use of crack actually causes abnormal babies, even though the media insisted this was so…media coverage of crack babies serves as a powerful cautionary tale about the inherent fitness of poor or lower class African American women to be mothers at all."

This ugly history and its policy ramifications are the backdrop against which these three contemporary black mother stories must be viewed.

Undoubtedly Mo'Nique has given an amazing performance in Precious. But the critical and popular embrace of this depiction of a monstrous black mother has potentially important, and troubling, political meaning. In a country with tens of thousands of missing and exploited children, it is not accidental that the abuse and murder of Shaniya Davis captured the American media cycle just as Precious opened. The sickening acts of Shaniya's mother become the story that underlines and makes tangible, believable, and credible the jaw-dropping horror of Mo'Nique's character.

And here too is Alexis Hutchinson. As a volunteer soldier in wartime, she ought to embody the very core of American citizen sacrifice. Instead she is a bad black mother. Implied in the her story is the damning idea that Hutchinson has committed the very worse infraction against her child and her country. Hutchinson has failed to marry a responsible, present, bread-winning man who would free her of the need to labor outside the home. Hutchinson does not stay on the home front clutching her weeping young child as her man goes off to war. Instead, she struggles to find a safe place for him while she heads off to battle. Her motherhood is not idyllic, it is problematic. Like so many other black mothers her parenting is presented as disruptive to her duties as a citizen.

It is worth noting that Sarah Palin's big public comeback is situated right in the middle of this news cycle full of "bad black mothers." Palin's own eye-brow raising reproductive choices and parenting outcomes have been deemed off-limits after her skirmish with late night TV comedians. Embodied in Palin, white motherhood still represents a renewal of the American dream; black motherhood represents its downfall.

Each of these stories, situated in a long tradition of pathologizing black motherhood, serves a purpose. Each encourages Americans to see black motherhood as a distortion of true motherhood ideals. Its effect is troublesome for all mothers of all races who must navigate complex personal, familial, social, and political circumstances.

Comments (116)

1. MH-L: "Black mothers were again blamed as the central cause of social and economic decline in the early 1990s, when news stories and popular films about "crack babies" became dominant."

   And I thought it was the absence of black men (after the reproductive fun-n-game of course) that led black women to try outdo each other to become the Welfare Queen.

   So, this is what it's all about, Black Studies....but to stretch this as "troublesome for all mothers of all races" seem to be casting an overly BIG tent. You black mothers can have it all by yourself.....;~)

   Posted by Happy at 11/24/2009 @ 9:32pm

2. This is a very good, perceptive article, Melissa. Thanks. Yes, black mother bashing has implications for mothers of all races and classes, but it also shows that America is unbelieveably misogynistic.

   My only problem with the article is with this sentence: " . . .with her rapist father's child."

   Her rapist father's child? That statement is awfully sexist. Here we go again. Children are considered their father's property. Yuck!

   Posted by ktrig at 11/24/2009 @ 9:58pm

3. This is truely funny! After a rambling pointless soliloquy the thread author ends just like all good Palin attack dogs! The comedy is never ending from the hapless helpless hemmoraging haters AKA leftwingnut writers!

   Keep them spitting up their own blood Sarah!

   Posted by BigPasture at 11/24/2009 @ 10:20pm

4. This is truely funny!

   Posted by BigPasture at 11/24/2009 @ 10:20pm

   What is even funnier is that Ms. MH-L wouldn't dare to take shots at the lib film makers, the Hip-Hop profiteers, the rap artists, the race-hustling Jackson, Sharpton, Rangel, Prof. Gates, etc.... who promote such example of good citizenship!

   Posted by Happy at 11/24/2009 @ 10:38pm

5. Posted by Happy at 11/24/2009 @ 10:38pm | ignore this person | warn this person

   Yea, I always get a laugh out of the "our culture" thingies! Guess she didn't want to talk about the rest!

   Happy, they actually hire people like this to teach in Ivy League colleges! This is "higher education"! Guess it is the old redneck and blue collar philosophy in action known as the "cream or crap rising to the top" syndrome.

   Posted by BigPasture at 11/24/2009 @ 10:51pm

6. Are there Eubonics texting coursesoffered at Yale, or is just asking the question racist?

   Posted by BigPasture at 11/24/2009 @ 10:54pm

7. Wow, I cancelled my subscription some time ago, but let me take a moment to point to this poorly written and ill-conceived article as a major reason why I turned my back on The Nation over a year ago. This article claims to fight the poor representation of black mothers defined daily in american media by republishing 3 of these bad images with a throw-in closing paragraph finding fault with, ummm, articles just like this one?

   Thanks for nothing...

   Posted by cancelledSubscription at 11/24/2009 @ 11:26pm

8. "white motherhood still represents a renewal of the American dream; black motherhood represents its downfall."

   Yes. The vision of Michele, beautiful, successful Michele, with her beautiful daughters is "America's downfall."

   "Palin's own eye-brow raising reproductive choices and parenting outcomes have been deemed off-limits after her skirmish with late night TV comedians."

   Oh, the cuffs that place her "eye-brow raising reproductive choices" are too tight? Just how open to attack should her choices be? What restraints should placed on her choices? What will it take to lower those eyebrows?

   Speaking of black women... "While the recommendations are aimed at all women, it is also probably underappreciated that breast cancer appears to be more aggressive in young black women compared to white women." - Wash Post

   "New Breast Cancer Guidelines Could "Devastate" Black Women" http://newsone.com/nation/new-mammogram-

   guidelines-could-have-devastating-effect-

   on-black-women/ Black news website. Uh-oh!

   Posted by gangpapist at 11/25/2009 @ 12:05am

9. correction: cuffs that place her "eyebrow raising reproductive choices" off-limits are too tight?

   Posted by gangpapist at 11/25/2009 @ 12:08am

10. Are there Eubonics texting coursesoffered at Yale, or is just asking the question racist?

    Posted by BigPasture at 11/24/2009 @ 10:54pm

    The question may or may not be. Whether our actions or words are tolerable in society (or whether they are 'racist') is not exactly definable. That is adjudicated by our communities, and is dynamic.

    I can imagine a child asking earnestly, "Are there eubonics courses taught at Yale?"

    And I'd think, how sweet, she doesn't know how to say 'ebonics'. And it wouldn't be racist.

    You question, i fear is likely an example of the other possibility.

    Posted by Blair Wooff at 11/25/2009 @ 12:34am

11. With slavery, and after slavery racist exclusion, it has been extreme and degrading poverty and illiteracy that draw African American women to different degrees of despair that dehumanized them beyond any point.

    And those stupid people mocking this article, are the culprits of the sins of their southerner grandfathers that ate on silver and porcelain out of the degrading poverty and helplessness of these people.

    God only knows that these poor women had to fight anyone, including their sometimes abusing men, to keep life. If they have at times abused on taking government benefits it is only because when working in the private sector it was so hard for them to earn a dignified salary. Besides, one can only imagine what might had been to take humiliation and mockery on a day-by-day basis.

    I think Melissa that not necessarily they are bad mothers, but instead I concede they have hardened a little bit too much in a defensive posture against the aggressiveness of society. It is the instinct of conservation what has turned some to desperate situations. And it is only when - some day - they will feel accepted and somehow comfortable in this society that they will melt down their iron curtain.

    Posted by Frank42 at 11/25/2009 @ 01:39am

12. There's lots of LGBT issues in this film. Try to imagine Precious as an abused LGB or T youth, or just LGBT issues projected onto the character. This is a story written by a black bisexual woman, directed by a gay black man and the mentor character is a black lesbian.

    Why not make Precious literally gay? Well portraying abused LGBT youth creates a chicken and the egg debate. Does the abuse cause homosexuality or transsexuality, or is the LGB or T person abused because they are LGB or T? Trying to convince an audience that it's the latter is impossible. Even LGBTs that come from abusive homes experience uncertainty with the answer.

    Posted by GrrrlRomeo at 11/25/2009 @ 03:36am

13. Posted by gangpapist at 11/25/2009 @ 12:05am |

    Are you saying that black women aren't strong enough to ask for a mammogram if they want one, GP?

    Its a GUIDELINE...not a feeble attempt at eugenics.

    Posted by snowball777 at 11/25/2009 @ 06:25am

14. Keep them spitting up their own blood Sarah! Posted by BigPasture at 11/24/2009 @ 10:20pm |

    Yes, keep up the excellent work, Ms. Political Kryptonite.

    Signed, Doug "The Human Vegetable" Hoffman.

    Posted by snowball777 at 11/25/2009 @ 06:29am

15. Why Bad Black Mothers???? When I watch the news, what i see isn't only bad black mothers. I see bad mothers in general . More often i see white mothers on trial for murder and abuse than black. Movies and books with a bad white mother---A child called it-mommy dearest-an american crime-carrie-freeway....and lets not forget kellie pickler's mom who deserted her. I feel the attention is being taken from bad mothers to race. Movies like this are important in my opinion, they make us more aware of what really goes on and helps things like this to be prevented...

    sorry for the poorly put together comment ...super tired

    Posted by justdance at 11/25/2009 @ 06:44am

16. "In 1999 the number of children being raised by a single parent reached a high of 19.9M or 28% of children under the age of 18."

    How many of them were white? ~10M.

    How many were black? ~6M.

    And here's something else for our racist con friends to digest: how many of the black mothers were single because their significant other died in combat in one of our ill-advised wars because it was the only path they saw between the ghetto and college?

    Blacks in the Army: 144% recruit to population ratio.

    Hispanics: 115% recruit to population ratio.

    White: 96% recruit to population ratio.

    Posted by snowball777 at 11/25/2009 @ 07:03am

17. Wow, I cancelled my subscription some time ago, but let me take a moment to point to this poorly written and ill-conceived article as a major reason why I turned my back on The Nation over a year ago. This article claims to fight the poor representation of black mothers defined daily in american media by republishing 3 of these bad images with a throw-in closing paragraph finding fault with, ummm, articles just like this one?

    Thanks for nothing...

    Posted by cancelledSubscription at 11/24/2009 @ 11:26pm | ignore this person | warn this person

    Maybe if you read the articles more thoroughly, you'd still be a happy subscriber today, because you've completed misrepresented the substance of Ms. Harris-Lacewell's arguments. She mentioned the bad images to show how the media at large is feeding into an image of "Bad Black Mothers", then goes on to attack that image and describe how it is both untrue and harmful to our perception of black motherhood at large. This article is in no way trying to perpetuate this "Bad Black Mother" stereotype, which you seem to accuse it of doing. In fact, it does quite the opposite by attacking this perception, as it rightfully should be attacked.

    Don't call something poorly-written when it's really just been poorly-read.

    Posted by badreligionlover at 11/25/2009 @ 07:25am

18. there is no racism in America, and the liberal media are to blame for creating welfare queen imagery.

    Posted by crabwalk at 11/25/2009 @ 07:42am

19. The issue for many is not racist, but real..

    80% out of wedlock births in the black community is most likely to produce bad mothers...the same for any race ...the children have no chance...

    thats not racist..there is a choice to be made...birth control..

    80% out of wedlock in any community is suicide for that community and explains a disproportional crime rate, jailings and murders.

    Posted by YourJomamma at 11/25/2009 @ 08:22am

20. snow: "How many of them were white? ~10M.....How many were black? ~6M."

    HAPPY: So, the inference is there's no problem until the point where black children in single-parent household reach the level of whites, 10 million. Never mind that numerically, there are 5~6 times more whites than blacks in the US. Nothing to see here, move along, all is HAPPY and honkey dory.

    snow: "how many of the black mothers were single because their significant other died in combat in one of our ill-advised wars because it was the only path they saw between the ghetto and college?"

    HAPPY: Just how high could black combat death could've been? Between Desert Storm (`91) and now, let's say 5,000 (including even accidental, non-combat deaths).....and how many of that 5,000 were romantically committed to a pregnant black woman at the time of death? Last, how significant would the answer be proportionally to 6 million?

    My advise to snow: Stay w/video games and avoid sociology that involves common sense math!

    Posted by Happy at 11/25/2009 @ 10:05am

21. "thats not racist..there is a choice to be made...birth control....80% out of wedlock in any community is suicide for that community and explains a disproportional crime rate, jailings and murders"

    didn't someone get in a lot of trouble once for arguing that birth control in the black communities would lower the crime rate?

    maasch just echoed that argument.

    Posted by darladoon at 11/25/2009 @ 10:48am

22. "this is what it's all about, Black Studies....but to stretch this as "troublesome for all mothers of all races" seem to be casting an overly BIG tent"

    apparently, happy missed the whole conclusion:

    "Each of these stories, situated in a long tradition of pathologizing black motherhood, serves a purpose. Each encourages Americans to see black motherhood as a distortion of true motherhood ideals. Its effect is troublesome for all mothers of all races who must navigate complex personal, familial, social, and political circumstances"

    Posted by darladoon at 11/25/2009 @ 10:52am

23. Posted by YourJomamma at 11/25/2009 @ 08:22am

    What is the crime rate in Wasilla?

    Posted by crabwalk at 11/25/2009 @ 11:06am

24. black welfare queens?why don,t you complain about welfare recieving bastards of military industrial complex,wall street tycoons and host of many nations run by dictators friendly to the empire?

    black mothers are villified and demonised because of their race.pure and simple.in reality black mothers have shown themselves to be the strongest in their society.they are the ones who have kept the black family together while suffering from slavery,racism and inequality for decades at the hands of european white racists.

    whites tend to blame blacks and especially black women for the decline of their economy and society while their government spends trillions on militray expansionism and the thiefs of wall street who have ruined america,s economy.

    Posted by excalibur999 at 11/25/2009 @ 11:11am

25. .....happy missed the whole conclusion:

    Posted by darladoon at 11/25/2009 @ 10:52am

    Conclusion unsupported, is no conclusion at all!

    Show me where is the troublesome effect "for all mothers of all races" from her piece of garbage....er....commentary.

    Posted by Happy at 11/25/2009 @ 11:13am

26. Posted by Happy at 11/24/2009 @ 9:32pm

    Anybody surprised Happy jumped right on this topic?

    or not know why?

    Posted by Mask at 11/25/2009 @ 11:18am

27. 'Embodied in Palin, white motherhood still represents a renewal of the American dream; black motherhood represents its downfall.'

    One big difference. The Palin's work hard to support their family.

    I'll probably be called a racist for the following remarks but oh well. A quick disclaimer; yes of course, there are blacks who have climbed out of the ghetto, mostly on the backs of white assistance:

    I've lived in urban America most of my life. I've seen firsthand the effects that liberal policies of the sixties had on my country. In my community we had people of all colors and races. However, not until the late seventies did the community become predominately minority. The old expression, 'there goes the neighborhood', couldn't have been more accurate.

    With this new majority came crime, prostitution, drugs, community organizers, welfare queens and all the other trappings of an immoral, irresponsible race. Gone was the peaceful hard-working ethic where people used to keep their doors unlocked and weren't afraid to take a walk at night.

    The mood in the community, post civil rights/welfare was one of 'Let's get all we can from whitey', while the gettin' is good. Preachers like Rev. Wright with his 'God damn America' speechs were the norm.

    Keep having babies was the plan. Whitey will pay for them and pretty soon we'll have the votes to get our guy in who will give us even more. Black men had a ball, running around knocking up all the women while taking no responsibility at all. Most of these kids have no idea who their father even is.

    Then along comes someone like Ms. Lacewell to whitewash the sins of her race with the excuse that the ancestors were once slaves, many of whom had a better life than they ever had in Africa.

    Time to come clean.

    Posted by gunslinger1 at 11/25/2009 @ 11:23am

28. Posted by gunslinger1 at 11/25/2009 @ 11:23am

    So, gunny, black mothers keep having daughters who end up having illegitimate kids.....right?

    While Sarah Palin.....has a daughter that ended up having an illegitimate kid?

    What's the difference, exactly....I'm sure you'll have one.

    Posted by Mask at 11/25/2009 @ 11:33am

29. I would like to see Ms. Lacewell do an honest article for a change, one that tells the real truth about blacks in the inner cities instead of making excuses and telling outright lies.

    For years, poor immigrants came to this country without the help of anyone or anything except their hard work ethic. No-one gave them the shelter of the slave master. While they had their freedom, they were still looked down upon. They took the most menial jobs to support their families. They had no plan to bilk the government like the black community did and does.

    Laborors united and formed unions, (many of which later became corrupt), to get the decent pay and benefits that were commensurate with their work. Blacks were second and third generation freemen in those years. In the deep south they were lynched and kept as secondary sub-humans. None of this was right and no-one says it was anything but evil.

    However, having said that, blacks as a people should have taken the opportunity of the boom years of post WWII America to better themselves, along with the advancements of the Civil Rights era. They should have recognized the ills that welfare brought and learned to mesh into society with the same work ethic that whites did.

    Yeah, I know, I have no understanding of slavery and the disease it was on our legacy. Bullshit! At some point, blacks have to step up and take responsibility for the conditions of their race in this country. The well is dry. The Tea Party is growing.

    What ever happened to Motown? Where did all this nauseating rap crap come from with the degrading to women lyrics and profanity laced verse. Is this any way to move forward? I think not.

    America has produced reknowned blacks in all fields. If some can do it, why not all. Get a grip.

    Posted by gunslinger1 at 11/25/2009 @ 11:38am

30. What's the difference, exactly....I'm sure you'll have one.

    Posted by Mask at 11/25/2009 @ 11:33am

    The government, meaning YOU, doesn't support Sarah's grandchild.

    Black mother's during the sixties and seventies were baby factories, on purpose. The more babies, the bigger the check. It was a pretty good racket.

    Do you enjoy paying for that kind of abuse? Well, maybe under that MASK, you are a blackman.

    Posted by gunslinger1 at 11/25/2009 @ 11:41am

31. I'll tell you something Mask, you don't foll anyone here with your holier than thou attitude. Yesterday I called you ignorant, today I call you ignored.

    Posted by gunslinger1 at 11/25/2009 @ 11:42am

32. Posted by excalibur999 at 11/25/2009 @ 11:11am

    Bullshit!

    Posted by gunslinger1 at 11/25/2009 @ 11:43am

33. "mothers of all races who must navigate complex personal, familial, social, and political circumstances"

    Mothers of most races don't keep having babies to compound the above problems. Mothers of most races realize that their promiscuity got them into a mess, not a way to make a living.

    Posted by gunslinger1 at 11/25/2009 @ 11:51am

34. Some people are probably taking offense to my remarks but, well, that's tough. I don't believe in being politically correct anymore. Especially now that we have a black President. There's no excuse for any irresponsibility in the inner cities any longer. All barriers have been broken with Obama's election. The party is over.

    Posted by gunslinger1 at 11/25/2009 @ 11:54am

35. 'Moynihan's research predated the 1964 Civil Rights Act, but instead of identifying the structural barriers facing African American communities, he reported the assumed deviance of Negro families.' -- Melissa Harris-Lacewell

    .

    FROM THE MOYNIHAN REPORT:

    'In this new period the expectations of the Negro Americans will go beyond civil rights. Being Americans, they will now expect that in the near future equal opportunities for them as a group will produce roughly equal results, as compared with other groups. This is not going to happen. Nor will it happen for generations to come unless a new and special effort is made.

    There are two reasons. First, the racist virus in the American blood stream still afflicts us: Negroes will encounter serious personal prejudice for at least another generation. Second, three centuries of sometimes unimaginable mistreatment have taken their toll on the Negro people. The harsh fact is that as a group, at the present time, in terms of ability to win out in the competitions of American life, they are not equal to most of those groups with which they will be competing.' -- http://www.dol.gov/ oasam/programs/history /webid-meynihan.htm

    .

    THE WORDS OF DANIEL MOYNIHAN:

    'Somehow liberals have been unable to acquire from life what conservatives seem to be endowed with at birth: Namely, a healthy skepticism of the powers of government agencies to do good.' -- Daniel P. Moynihan -- 14 may, 1969 -- New York Post -- http://creative quotations.com/one/ 1018.htm

    Posted by HonestLiberal at 11/25/2009 @ 12:45pm

36. THE WORDS OF DANIEL MOYNIHAN:

    Posted by HonestLiberal at 11/25/2009 @ 12:45pm

    Give it up, girl, they've probably already classified Moynihan as a bigot even though his report says "American racism" and slavery and Jim Crow are responsible for the problem, and the report doesn't put the blqme on "deviance."

    Posted by Mistral at 11/25/2009 @ 1:25pm

37. I wonder if the US soldier appreciates being lumped in with women who detest their children, as opposed to one who is simply violating a contract with military service. Putting a bottle of coke on the same shelf as wine will not change the components of the soda's nature.

    Nothing surprises me in the media anymore. This is inflammatory because it encourages people to make judgments based on socio-economic circumstance and skin color, neither is an option nor should it be a determining factor of worthy or unworthy.

    Why do people waste energy on this kind of idle fodder.

    Posted by skirklan at 11/25/2009 @ 1:44pm

38. Visualize whirled peas!

    Posted by sntauri at 11/25/2009 @ 1:45pm

39. Work against war: visualize world peace.

    Work against hunger: visualize whirled peas.

    Posted by Mistral at 11/25/2009 @ 1:49pm

40. Posted by snowball777 at 11/25/2009 @ 06:25am

    Those guidelines are followed by insurance companies, and certainly would be under any "public option." She could ask. Under 50, she'd most likely be denied.

    I don't know if you include me in your "racist cons" comment. Unlike the author, I think America is grownup enough at this point to take a look at some of the ugly sides of the hood.

    The great lib Jerry Springer probably did much more damage to this country by uniting lumpen proles across the color line in self-exploitation and debasement than "Precious" ever could.

    The fact is that the hood has pathologies, lots of them. The inevitable link back to slavery is correct, but gets us nowhere. It becomes a cyclical argument. I was listening to a talk show on WBLS about AIDS in the black community, and the speaker starts talking about how "we need to look at how sexual practices in our community go back to slavery times" and I want to bang my head against the steering wheel. With "intellectuals" like these will these problems ever be solved?

    Moving forward involves introspection. Without it, white America would still be where it was in the early 60s.

    Ms. Harris-Lacewell "dreads" seeing black women demonstrate "effortless glamour, professional success, measured wit, firm guidance, loving partnership."

    I don't. Introspection (social and personal) is one of the keys to achieving those.

    Posted by gangpapist at 11/25/2009 @ 1:56pm

41. "The more babies, the bigger the check. It was a pretty good racket"

    (quote of the YEAR)

    Posted by darladoon at 11/25/2009 @ 2:03pm

42. The government, meaning YOU, doesn't support Sarah's grandchild. "----Posted by gunslinger1 at 11/25/2009 @ 11:41am

    Oh?

    What private enterprise was paying Sarah Palin's salary when Bristol delivered, Gunny????

    heheh

    Posted by Mask at 11/25/2009 @ 2:07pm

43. Anybody surprised Happy jumped right on this topic?

    or not know why?

    Posted by Mask at 11/25/2009 @ 11:18am

    Let's hear it, since I am not sure I know why?

    Posted by Happy at 11/25/2009 @ 2:20pm

44. You question, i fear is likely an example of the other possibility.

    Posted by Blair Wooff at 11/25/2009 @ 12:34am | ignore this person | warn this person

    "You question "must have been a form of "eubonics" texting! So they DO have it at Yale!

    Posted by IndianLease at 11/25/2009 @ 2:26pm

45. The government, meaning YOU, doesn't support Sarah's grandchild.

    Posted by gunslinger1 at 11/25/2009 @ 11:41am

    Actually, the government does support, because the paycheck is a (State) government paycheck. Which brings up the next question: why does the government employ such a large portion of the workforce (and spend such a large portion of the economy's money)?

    Posted by Mistral at 11/25/2009 @ 2:30pm

46. Let's hear it, since I am not sure I know why?----Posted by Happy at 11/25/2009 @ 2:20pm

    Why, Happy....simply, racial topics are near and dear to your heart. From whom else will we hear the clear, concise, conservative view on the issue?

    I mean, except for tuning into Rush three hours a day....but you spare us that. heheh

    Posted by Mask at 11/25/2009 @ 2:38pm

47. Posted by Mistral at 11/25/2009 @ 2:30pm

    Actually, Todd Palin works pretty hard, makes good money and supports his children. He won't have to work nearly as hard now though, thanks to Sarah prosperous career. Her book sold 300,000 copies in the first week, at five dollars prifit per book, that's a cool mil and a half for Sarah. Not a bad weeks work for a dummy who can see Russia from her back yard huh? I wonder what next weeks take will be.

    As for your question: 'why does the government employ such a large portion of the workforce (and spend such a large portion of the economy's money)?'

    The obvious answer is because our government is way too big. Too many entitlements and too much bureaucracy, and too many political paybacks. But that's what America has morphed into with liberal policies. Now obama wants to burden future generation with even more of the load to the tune of triple deficits.

    Posted by gunslinger1 at 11/25/2009 @ 2:42pm

48. I notice that no blacks are here to challange my take on Lacewell's garbage piece. Maybe because there is no defense other than all the worn out victimization excuses.

    Posted by gunslinger1 at 11/25/2009 @ 2:45pm

49. Why, Happy....simply, racial topics are near and dear to your heart.....

    Posted by Mask at 11/25/2009 @ 2:38pm

    That's what sells, no? We DO have a half/half but looks mostly BLACK Bower-in-Chief, no?

    Isn't the Libs' favorite cause, to `help' the Dem-plantation-bound blacks, now front and center on the Agenda? Isn't ACORN all over the news, and will continue to be? Didn't we have Asshole Gates? Jackson forbidding blacks from voting against HC? Muslim terrorist Maj. Hasan?

    Get on the wagon, MASK! This country is now, ALL ABOUT RACE!

    Posted by Happy at 11/25/2009 @ 2:51pm

50. "stupid people mocking this article, are the culprits of the sins of their southerner grandfathers that ate on silver and porcelain"

    Posted by Frank42 at 11/25/2009 @ 01:39am

    Let's see if the cement shoes that you have made for me fit.

    I grew up in a neighborhood that shifted from majority white to nearly all black. My parents taught me early that racism was wrong, and I've never believed otherwise. I have thought about the problems of the hood (I still ive in the hood) for as long as I've been able to think about such things.

    Gradually over time I've shifted my views from the standard liberal boilerplate to a more "conservative" perspective. Why? Did I get rich? Nope. A bad personal experience? Nope. So now this dago from the South Side is somehow a "culprit of the sins..." of soutern blah blah blah. Whatever.

    You see, for me, the priority is to solve problems, not present the appearance of caring about the problem.

    That blacks face adversity as a result of race is a fact.

    Responses to adversity can be negative, positive, or neutral. Let's say that there are a significant minority of white guys (and girls) walking around who, because of specific personal circumstances (an abusive parent maybe) have faced more adversity than the average black American. Can we agree? And that among that minority of whites who have faced a very high level of adversity, there is a variety of responses, some good, some bad. OK?

    While the life circumstances of these particular honkees hardly renders them "privileged," they undoubtedly do benefit from whiteness in one regard. They do not have an entire ideology/industry peopled by the likes of the author and yourself, committed to apologizing for a negative, self-destructive response to

    Posted by gangpapist at 11/25/2009 @ 2:52pm

51. their struggles on an EXPLICITLY RACIAL basis.

    This is a tremendous benefit that I don't think can be overestimated.

    It is this benefit, which people like myself, would like to extend to our fellow black Americans.

    Posted by gangpapist at 11/25/2009 @ 2:55pm

52. Posted by Happy at 11/25/2009 @ 10:05am |

    Just providing a dose of sanity to salve those who read the racist diatribes to be found here...simple counter-examples to the mythology you've laid before us so proudly.

    Not every single-mother is black.

    Not every black, single mother is a welfare queen.

    The preconceived notions you carry around in your head are a disturbingly distorted sampling set from which to generate any conclusions of consequence.

    Posted by snowball777 at 11/25/2009 @ 3:09pm

53. Posted by snowball777 at 11/25/2009 @ 3:09pm

    Well there it is. The expected accuser of being racist by a denier. The first step in recovery is to admit that you're in denial.

    Posted by gunslinger1 at 11/25/2009 @ 3:17pm

54. Ms. Lacewell, BTW, that's a great picture at the lead of your article. Whats that they say about a picture is worth a thousand words? Hell, I hope it's no-one you know.

    Posted by gunslinger1 at 11/25/2009 @ 3:19pm

55. Posted by gangpapist at 11/25/2009 @ 1:56pm |

    I don't consider you a racist con...your posts about Muslim soldiers you served with was proof that you evaluate human beings, not preconceived fairy tales like some others who shall remain happy (though he's not alone by any means).

    I agree that hood culture, in at least as much as that means degradation of 'the ladies', irresponsible DNA management, or the tendency to use fire-arms over chess matches for dispute resolution isn't to be legitimized or ignored.

    I agree, trying to find a root cause in an unchangeable past is pointless is a present beset with avoidable tragedy.

    I'd be perfectly willing to let go of staples like affirmative action, if there were systems in place to deal with getting poor, smart kids to college regardless of their tendency toward sunburn.

    The core problem isn't race, it's education, but both have the same cause and the same best solution: parents teaching their kids.

    How to deal with families where the parents won't fulfill this role often demarcates a stark policy divide between progs and cons.

    Posted by snowball777 at 11/25/2009 @ 3:22pm

56. correction: is a present -> in a present beset...

    Posted by snowball777 at 11/25/2009 @ 3:23pm

57. The author's contention that black mothers represent the "downfall" of the American Dream, is consistent with The Nation's distorted view of America, but extraordinarily tone deaf.

    The non-political "womens" magazines that you find by the check-out at the grocery store regularly feature Michele. The mom-in-chief is a bonafide maternal superstar. The relative stubbornness of Obama's popularity ratings, despite rising unemployment, and a leftist agenda in our center-right country, is only explainable by the fact that people desperately want to support the first black president and his telegenic, nuclear, super-functional family.

    Posted by gangpapist at 11/25/2009 @ 3:27pm

58. Well there it is. The expected accuser of being racist by a denier. The first step in recovery is to admit that you're in denial. Posted by gunslinger1 at 11/25/2009 @ 3:17pm |

    Sorry...12-step is for people who think G-d should solve their self-generated problems on their behalf.

    As for being in denial...of what? Racism?! LOL

    Posted by snowball777 at 11/25/2009 @ 3:30pm

59. I'm not convinced that the media has a problem of perception regarding black mothers, especially in terms of this article. Especially in terms of the soldier article. When the soldier article was featured on websites, the headlining photo was a very sympathetic one of a mother and her son, and made only tangential reference to her unmarried status. The article's headline and content were inherently critical of the notion that a mother might be tried for staying with her son instead of deploying.

    As for the film Precious, I have not yet seen it. However, from the trailer and general consensus, it seems like a story about a (very) troubled black girl in today's society. I think that rather than the acclaim for Mo'nique's character (the mother) is not based on a societal tendency to hate black mothers, but rather the tendency of critics to embrace only a limited variety of films starring predominantly black casts; white audiences only want to watch black actors in supporting roles, or in either historical or serious social-justice type films. Few white viewers go to see movies where black people are essentially "regular people" like Barber Shop (probably among the more popular in white culture of this group). Given this viewing filter, the acclaim for the actress is very likely because she does an excellent job in this type of role.

    I don't know that white America has a particularly negative perception of black mothers that is separate from black-directed racism in general. It's a stereotype I had never heard of (as a white person from south Florida), (but I also never heard of the apparent stereotype that "black people only eat watermelon"). I think that there is a negative perception of poor mothers, and many black women may get hate from two angles.

    Posted by ducksonarow at 11/25/2009 @ 3:46pm

60. Big P, you are the racist here along with Happy, was the eubonics sentence suppose to be funny, because it wasn't.

    Posted by Denise29 at 11/25/2009 @ 4:47pm

61. MLH: I am trully disappointed with this article. In case you have forgotten, Precious is a movie...Mary Jones is not an actual person. Moreover, the stories that you pointed out actually happened...they are real and we (black, white or otherwise) should not deny their existence. The bottomline is that the black experience can not be confined to some narrow conceptions. Its diverse, its wide and it ecompasses characters like Mary and Claire as well as the real-life mothers referenced in your article---Bottomline: there are bad people in this world. I would have thought someone with your educational credentials wld have avoided the knee-jerk protestations of some b.s. monolithic conception of black identity, but I guess I gave you too much credit.

    Posted by mykaladrian at 11/25/2009 @ 4:51pm

62. Ya know gunslinger1, why don't you shut the hell up! Go back to where you came from, we don't need nor want your type of racism and misogyny and all the rest from the likes of you. Go somewhere that they love Sarah, OK, somewhere they like everything you say, because you are a right wing jerk. Jeebus, I can't help it, I know its gun1 before the end of his rant because of the stuoopidity that he writes about, YOU, Gun1 get to me like no one else here because you are everything I find weird and dispicable, and just plain stoopid.

    Posted by Denise29 at 11/25/2009 @ 4:59pm

63. .....white audiences only want to watch black actors in supporting roles, or in either historical or serious social-justice type films....

    Posted by ducksonarow at 11/25/2009 @ 3:46pm

    So, Sidney Poiter, James Brown, Wesley Snipe, Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Will Smith only do "supporting roles"?

    Posted by Happy at 11/25/2009 @ 5:02pm

64. The preconceived notions you carry around in your head are a disturbingly distorted sampling set from which to generate any conclusions of consequence.

    Posted by snowball777 at 11/25/2009 @ 3:09pm

    You Californian Libs are the hardest-core of the Politically Correct bunch....you couldn't tell the difference between folks telling it like it is vs. real racists, sexists, homophobes, xyz!

    I haven't declared this in a while but know that I am immune to PC and it's one reason I left the corporate world. I despise superficiality, form over function, pervasive office politics.....

    Brain and performance are all that matters....beauty would help (ie, Halle Berry)!

    Posted by Happy at 11/25/2009 @ 5:11pm

65. Posted by Denise29 at 11/25/2009 @ 4:59pm | ignore this person | warn this person

    Gosh, I love this kind of talk.

    Posted by emile duBois at 11/25/2009 @ 5:15pm

66. Why thank you Emile.

    Posted by Denise29 at 11/25/2009 @ 5:25pm

67. Posted by snowball777 at 11/25/2009 @ 3:30pm

    My comments have nothing to do with racism, although I can easily see how someone in denial can construe them as such. Fact is, I detest freeloaders and abusers of any stripe. Color has nothing to do with it except for the fact that the stated abuse just so happens to be predominate amongst the black race, visa vie, welfare Queens.

    As I also stated, I lived much of my life witnessing this first hand. I'm not just making it up, like the MSM is so prone to do with everything pertaining to the right.

    I don't have any more time for this nonsense today. Gotta get the bird ready. I'll enjoy the fruits of my labors tomorrow with my family and give thanks for everything we've earned.

    Happy Thanksgiving to all. Even you Darla.

    Posted by gunslinger1 at 11/25/2009 @ 5:28pm

68. Uh, nothing wrong with fact. Multiple factors involved in perpetuating bottom rung socioeconomic, educational status. Somewhere in the mix is racism and sexism. Black females get brunt of these. Some degree of health and mental health problems become comorbid elements. Bring a kid into picture and you get disproportionate symptom of sick system, "bad black moms"-Duh.

    Posted by winyahn at 11/25/2009 @ 7:41pm

69. Radicals like Amiri Baraka and Eldridge Cleaver nearly destroyed black American literature and intellectual culture. They defamed Louis Armstrong, the most important musician in our nation's history. They denigrated James Baldwin, one of our greatest writers, employing vile homophobia.

    They reduced black lit to radical grandstanding and macho posturing. Hip hop soon followed suit, and now young black artists play the part of the nation's town idiots.

    This film is an attempt to make a serious work from a dubious source, a book by "Sapphire," a one-hit wonder shock-and-awe style writer the likes of whom we are now forced to consider seriously.

    MHL, like her radical forebears would like to silence the creators, by way of shaming them, for wandering outside the walls of her quasi-nationalist mental ghetto.

    Posted by gangpapist at 11/25/2009 @ 8:04pm

70. Happy Thanksgiving all, even Happy and Gunslinger1.

    Posted by Denise29 at 11/25/2009 @ 8:09pm

71. Back atcha Denise. My contributions to the feast are baked mac and cheese and clam stuffing. I'm drying the bread crumbs right now. I'm sure the bagged kind would do just as good, but wth.

    My stuffing entry will be judged in a competitive annual stuff-off that me and my sisters started last year.

    Posted by gangpapist at 11/25/2009 @ 8:23pm

72. Holiday tip, gunslinger1: when you post in the future on these threads, you can save all of us (including yourself) some time (not to mention save some stress on your typing fingers) by simply posting the words "WHITE POWER" in all caps. Because really, that's essentially all you've said in any of your posts on this thread.

    Doing something as boneheaded as blaming minorities for the decline of your neighborhood... nah, it wasn't the decline and stagnation of working class wages or a lack of urban investment in public schools and jobs that lead to your neighborhood worsening... it was "them damn darker-colored folk" and their inherent laziness and immorality, right? The classic Limbaugh et al. explanation for urban decline.

    If you really believe this... That is sad... Way to drink the racial Kool-Aid.

    Happy Turkey Day, everyone!

    Posted by badreligionlover at 11/25/2009 @ 8:25pm

73. Hey you too gangpapist, my contribution is doing dishes, been doing them for too many years now but am loved for it, what more needs to be said.

    Posted by Denise29 at 11/25/2009 @ 8:42pm

74. Where to start...haha @ Gangpapist:

    Re: Cleaver and Baraka

    I'm not sure if you've kept up on the development of African American Literature. You're also giving Baraka and Cleaver way too much credit for doing something they haven't done. You're using these two figures, whom I agree are problematic, to overshadow many great African American writers and scholars who all emerged at the same time or sometime after those two like Toni Morrison, Toni Cade (Bambara), August Wilson, etc. You may disagree with Baraka's politics but many people (not just blacks) still respect his earlier literature and poetry. It's also ironic that you cite Cleaver's incendiary rhetoric, but forgot to mention that Cleaver became a Christian conservative during the late 70s and early 80s and was even embraced by some in that movement.

    Posted by a1mccoy at 11/25/2009 @ 11:00pm

75. @ Gangpapist:

    Now, don't get me wrong here, as an African American, I do find a decent amount of literature written for an "urban audience" troubling, but I'm not sure if its effective to totally use two people to try to, a.) demonstrate the obvious-not all black people are perfect, and to b.) obscure the intellectual and literary advances of other black American writers, especially those of black women. I'd also say the same regarding your comments about hip hop as well. Not every single hip hop artist raps about violence, etc. Only someone like Bill O'Reilly or Jason Whitlock would have you believing that. I listen to quite a few hip hop artists who demonstrate critical thinking and lyrical depth. I've also been exposed to some music in other genres outside of hip hop and R&B that I found troubling. Don't blame the whole genre because of your limited exposure, or just complete disdain, for it. That'd be like me arguing that all white people were racist because I had one or two bad encounters...lol...you wouldn't accept that sort of logic coming out of my mouth, so why should we accept yours?

    Posted by a1mccoy at 11/25/2009 @ 11:06pm

76. @ Everyone criticizing MLH for, essentially, not blaming all of the black "boogeymen" (Sharpton, Jackson, et al.) for problems that may arise within the "black community" (whatever you may think it is...). A lot of people seem to have forgotten that she has been very critical of many black male leaders in the past when it's come to actually doing practical uplifting work. Second, just because you don't see or hear of MLH, or any other person of color, criticizing black Americans doesn't mean they don't. We do, often. However, when we do, we go directly to the people in question. I don't think telling a kid to "pull their pants up" is sound social policy (because even if he or she acquires all of the "skills" doesn't guarantee them a job contrary to many people's assumptions), but I pass these types of messages to the youth to their face, not as "a leader" in public because that's a good way of actually failing to get your point across. I'm not the biggest Sharpton fan, but I did give him credit for actually trying to draw attention to the Derrion Albert beating by going to Chi and demonstrating. Believe it or not, he's also been one of the biggest critics of hip hop culture and many of the artist's use of the "n-word."

    Posted by a1mccoy at 11/25/2009 @ 11:17pm

77. @gunslinger1 First, comparing the "immigrant experience" (as if there is a unified experience) and the enslavement of Africans is laughable if not disturbing. I won't even devote my time to that because its so crazy. I'd just say read history books about those subjects from diverse perspectives and try not to let your assumptions dominate how read those works. Second, unions have always been corrupt. Many of the trade unions during the 19th and early 20th centuries (until the CIO formed), discriminated against blacks, Mexicans, Chinese, and Japanese (especially on the West Coast). I'm not arguing that all white workers were racist, I am saying that there were many who were and not all unions were as inclusive as you assume (while there have always been many progressive white workers, you'd probably disagree with their politics though :-).

    Posted by a1mccoy at 11/25/2009 @ 11:26pm

78. I don't wish to overshadow the work of great black writers post cleaver/baraka. I would add Paul Beatty to the list you've presented.

    But they still loom (Baraka, Cleaver) , a threat of tribalist blackmail.

    Baraka's early work was good. Before he felt the need to denounce his ex-wife, his association with the Beats, the implied bisexuality.

    One of the great talents of our generation, Tupac Shakur, was handed a death sentence by his mother, in the form of Cleaverism-as-revolution. He called it "Thug Life." Many innocent souls have followed him.

    When the 40 year influenza inflicted on the black intellectual community by the likes of cleaver and baraka has passed, we will see an awakening as exciting as Bird, Monk, and Trane, and as desperately neede as the Harlem Renaissance.

    Posted by gangpapist at 11/25/2009 @ 11:30pm

79. @gunslinger1: Re: your point that blacks should have taken advantage of the postwar boom sounds good on the surface, but, again and this is something that many historians have been uncovering in gov't and other pertinent documents, many blacks weren't able to enjoy this boom. True, WWII spurred the second great migration of blacks from the South to the North, Midwest, and the South, and many black women and men were able to find jobs (replacing white male workers). However, you neglect to consider how many of them were pushed out (especially women-black and white) when soldiers returned. Also, while many blacks served in segregated, and often non-combat, but menial labor, units, many of them were denied the GI Bill and many of them could not partake in participating in the suburban housing boom initiated by the gov't (yes, your dreaded gov't) by setting the market low via VA and FHA loans (blacks were especially excluded from FHA loans) and by real estate developers who sought to profit from a segregated housing market.

    Posted by a1mccoy at 11/25/2009 @ 11:32pm

80. ...this segregated market was also buttressed by neighborhoods organizing race-based covenants that prohibited whites(even if they wanted to) from selling to blacks (as well as Latino/as, Asians, and Jewish Americans in some places). Don't forget, this happened not just in the south, but in places like Detroit, New York City, Philadelphia, and cities in California. Now, I'm not saying that no blacks made it and that they couldn't be successful. That's ludicrous. The Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts enabled many blacks to pursue opportunities like never before. What I'm arguing is that if we choose to use history to back up our points then we shouldn't underestimate the history of exclusion in the public and private sectors. I am also arguing that we need to be more open-minded when we talk about what is needed to help unfortunate people and the nature of civil rights "successes." Some people say, "well if people of color just started acting right and quit blaming white people they would be fine" and then others actually say, "there are insurmountable structural problems."...

    Posted by a1mccoy at 11/25/2009 @ 11:41pm

81. a1mccoy,

    you don't have to convince me about hip hop. I have plenty of intelligent hip hop in my mix. Do you think the hip hop that the majority of hip hop played on the "urban" radio format is positive?

    Posted by gangpapist at 11/25/2009 @ 11:47pm

82. The problem is the people debating only want to emphasize one point OR the other. Like I said earlier, telling blacks to pull their pants up, close their legs, quit blaming white people, is not the best social and economic policy because it can't account for the tough questions of structure such as why aren't there enough good jobs with good benefits to go around everywhere, and not just in "nice" areas? And see zoning ordinances, real estate laws and customs, gov't policies, capital flight, uneven development in suburbs and cities generally, etc. for reasons why places aren't "nice." Graffiti artists and gangs don't have the capability to do what's been done to places like Flint. You also need bulldozers. And I don't even think "jobs" is the silver bullet-that's where I disagree with black "leaders" and many whites. And the overemphasis on structure can't account for those who may not act right at times. But, going on television to ridicule some people is not going to work, especially when I can just go speak to them myself. The problems in ghettos, Appalachia, and other racialized areas are deeper than behavior. Also, we tend to forget that there are many people in those areas who desperately seek to make due (people forget that Clinton and Bush totally decimated the welfare rolls in the last 10 years). There are people of color in urban areas (even in Detroit) trying to be self-reliant, even growing their own food.

    Posted by a1mccoy at 11/25/2009 @ 11:59pm

83. And I agree, excessive materialism, violence, mysogyny, homophobia, anti-intellectualism are problems, but a lot of Americans have problems with those issues, not just people of color. People want to get on hip hop artists, but regular Americans glorify or at least demonstrate those behaviors daily. We deride "elites," watch violent movies and support wars, vote for gay marriage bans, and try to buy as much as the next person. If I go speak to some youth about change, then I also know that I have a responsibility to question my own past actions, where I fit now in the larger scheme in the evolution of global capital and where my dollars go. I have a feeling that too many "responsible" people only feel that other people have to rethink some things (and I'm talking beyond whether or not someone should be a "racist" LOL. I won't doubt that many whites changed because of the CRM, but while I don't blame racism for anytime I make personal mistakes, I have ran into a lot of racism myself...lol). Sometimes I truly wonder if the likes of gunslinger1 want to actually help, or if they're just saying "black people are bad too so just leave me alone." Because I can't remember ever ridiculing someone in the name of "helping them." I guess many will have to be convinced...

    Posted by a1mccoy at 11/26/2009 @ 12:06am

84. Also my last point to gunslinger1: just because you can speak from experience in the "ghetto" doesn't mean that it's universal. That's very flawed logic. I've myself lived in bad situations and have known others who have had as well. It's not all like you say it is. I'm not saying there aren't bad people, I'm saying that using your narrow experience to make claims about a large group is highly problematic, if not flat out wrong. Put it this way, the only people I knew to cheat off welfare weren't black, but actually white. I remember hearing one white dude talking about how he schemed to receive benefits longer and how he was going to use his benefits to take a vacation. Now, would I take that step to say that "whites are equally as bad as blacks"? No, because I know that the people who actively scheme on the government is probably rather small--black, white, Asian, or Latino/a and I'd also love to stack the money that all people scheme from welfare against those wealthy people and gov't officials-black and white-who evade paying their taxes (like we all have to do) and stash their money in off-shore accounts. C'mon now LOL.

    Posted by a1mccoy at 11/26/2009 @ 12:12am

85. @Gangpapist: LOL "Cleaver and Baraka still looms" No they don't. Cleaver has been dead since 1998 (he died a conservative) and Baraka and his politics has been thoroughly been refuted by blacks and whites. Any recognition he gets is because of his literature, not politics. Their form of politics has also been marginalized within the "black community" and America at large (of course since America at-large never agreed...haha). Your reference to Tupac is funny too. Afeni Shakur did not hand Tupac anything. While I love his music, that dude got shot over some dumb stuff, not "Cleaverism as revolution" (still being ahistorical aren't you? lol). Tupac was also a much more complicated, but still problematic, individual. Many around him say that he had disavowed "thug life," but got caught up in other people's (Suge Knight's) beefs (probably because Knight pretty much owned the dude for paying that six figure bail and 'Pac's record deal). Others, including 'Pac's father, have also said that he sought to organize lower and working class blacks (I don't know when 'Pac was supposed to do that...lol) and that he had larger ambitions beyond hip hop. Now, of course, no one will ever know. But reducing his death to his mother's politics or shortcomings is intellectually dishonest at best.

    Posted by a1mccoy at 11/26/2009 @ 12:22am

86. @Gangpapist: And I hate to break it to you, but you missed the funeral of that type of black politics years, if not decades, ago. As someone mentioned about black Americans at large, black intellectuals are very diverse and many have moved away from the sort of politics that you've been harping on. Any black person advocating for guerrilla warfare in the hood is going to be laughed off the stage. Black politics, as a whole, has gotten more conservative since the 1970s. I think part of the problem is that many whites don't see it that way because African Americans will still talk about race/racism and they/we have mostly voted Democratic (but people forget that the Democratic party shifted towards the right as well). People like Beck try to point to the New Black Panther Party (and ACORN-which was started by a progressive white person) as the new boogeymen, but I don't know any (or know of any) black Americans (even surviving Panthers have had a cool reaction to them and wish not to be associated with them) who actually takes them seriously. It's funny because I think Beck takes them seriously. And while many black and white Americans will recognize some of the contributions to the likes of Sharpton, Jackson, even Rev. Wright, not too many blacks see them as "their leaders" like many whites seem to do. Many blacks criticize them daily, just not in the faces of the haters since most only seem to be interested more in castigation...

    Posted by a1mccoy at 11/26/2009 @ 12:32am

87. And it's not to say that there aren't progressive black americans. They are just different from those who were out there duing the 1960s and 1970s. You won't see a black man writing some of the things that Cleaver did in Soul on Ice, you'll see The Covenant, or hear MHL instructing black men to be more cognizant of poverty or domestic violence (which I have seen). There are also left-liberal and what you'd consider radical black activists out there as well. I guess they don't capture your imagination like Cleaver because they're not out there patrolling the police...haha Many of us may be more boring than Baraka as well...sleep well...

    Posted by a1mccoy at 11/26/2009 @ 12:36am

88. I can't believe I was getting the authors initials wrong. Oops. Just wanted to acknowledge that and sign my name because I can't stand when people are willing to make controversial, if not downright offensive, comments while hiding behind their screen names and ultimately not taking responsibility for they say (even as they are telling everyone to take personal responsibility for themselves). I wanted to register again so I could change my screenname but found out I must've created this account a long time ago, so...and if someone tries to take my identity they'll be sorry because it'd be a waste of time since i'm a broke, but very privileged (and thankful), graduate student...lol

    Have a happy holiday,

    Austin McCoy

    Posted by a1mccoy at 11/26/2009 @ 12:42am

89. Thanksgiving timing was good for this article. Every year around Thanksgiving local and national news feature horrifying stories of child abuse. Maybe so parents will see how bad it looks and refrain, even when drunk.

    Even when the kids are being totally embarrassing and bringing shame to the family in front of friends and all the relatives, proving that you are doing a terrible job raising your children, in front of anyone who could ever help them out in their lives.

    My friends' families watched the news tsk tsking and discussed how awful. My mother's friends would watch the news and try to figure out who did it, as in, "I think it was the father," or whoever.

    Then there is the Tony Hillerman novel where Navajo and White people are looking at each other asking, "Why don't they take care of their children?" and looking at the bad parents in their own race saying, "Why don't we take care of our children?"

    Parenting is too difficult. Nobody should do it. Thanksgiving puts family problems out there. The point is well made that Black mothers are taking the hit this year, in slavery years, next year, forever, but every parent knows it could be her/his turn at Thanksgiving.

    Posted by myth at 11/26/2009 @ 09:23am

90. aimmccoy,

    Sorry, got too tired to respond last night. I didn't miss the funeral. I haven't noticed a new Angela Davis breaking a new George Jackson out of prison.

    But the effect that the post Carmichael SNCC takeover / "Black Power" movement has had on black intellectual/popular culture remains.

    Just look at how hip hop has mirrored the BP movement's one-dimensional use of Malcolm X as an icon. I've lost count of the number of songs in which the MC is "looking out the window like Malcolm."

    I don't know how you can completely ignore the link between the macho posturing in today's hip hop and the gangsterism/pseudo nationalist soldierism of that movement.

    As for Tupac, he said as much himself. Yes, he was a very conflicted dude, doing an uplift piece one minute, then a "ride on these niggas" joint the next. But he inherited that. His own mother had seen the trajectory of that movement, devolving from nationalist/socialist militant to gangsterism (with some help from Hoover), ending up a drug addict herself, just like Huey. That bipolar/suicidal nature of his, was something he inherited.

    Anyway, I didn't mention Baraka, Cleaver, because I'm "scared" of them or what they represent. I know that movement is long gone. If anything, as a Chicago native, I have a certain respect for Fred Hampton.

    But they undoubtedly had a deleterious effect on black lit and intellectual culture. Not least because of their attacks on some of the great artists in our nations history who they didn't deem "black enough." MHLs shaming of "Precious" isn't exactly in the same vein, but its racially-motivated wannabe censorship just the same.

    Posted by gangpapist at 11/26/2009 @ 09:31am

91. It was intersting talking to you.

    Happy thanksgiving.

    Posted by gangpapist at 11/26/2009 @ 09:32am

92. Parenting is too difficult.

    no it isn't.

    don't hit the kids, EVER.

    don't humiliate the kids

    don't thwart the kid's will unnecessarily

    get out of the way

    and they will turn out fine, not like you, but fine.

    Kleine Kinder, kleine Sorgen. Grosse Kinder, grosse Sorgen.

    parenting never stops.

    Posted by emile duBois at 11/26/2009 @ 11:56am

93. Posted by emile duBois at 11/26/2009 @ 11:56am

    It's difficult for people with shall we say, limitations. Cons blame the parents, Dems blame the system. Regardless, gazillions of kids are having a rough go of it as we speak due to parents with the lovely combo of low IQ & high self absorption. These go hand in glove with domestic violence, substance abuse, financial instability, lack of structure, consistency, follow-through, quick to use anger, domination, and loveliest of all -- just plain ol' not really there physically-emotionally. Kids being raised by tv, public schools, half ass after school programs.

    Posted by winyahn at 11/26/2009 @ 12:36pm

94. Schools are increasingly parental. Having through backwards means, like keeping the class in line, safe - to teach basics, emotional restraint, the sand that becomes the cement that becomes the building blocks of social skills -- and inasmuch as we appear to live in a timespace continuum with limitations, and you can't teach any of the R's if the class is unRuly, this all is the compensation happening daily for the poor parenting happening daily outside of school.

    Posted by winyahn at 11/26/2009 @ 12:41pm

95. TIMESPACE goes to: Johnny please don't __(disruptive behavior)___. Johnny please go take a Time Out. Johnny please say sorry. --------------> NOT 'Now what inference can we draw from the story...

    When SOCIETY hasn't drawn any coherent inference this many decades later regarding the facts that 1- Johnny's parents are losers and 2- he's being disruptive'?

    (Swap disruptive for slow for inattentive...)

    Posted by winyahn at 11/26/2009 @ 12:46pm

96. I don't know about this one, MELISSA.

    Certainly, there has been a concerted effort to disrupt the cohesion of the black family since the days of slavery, and the "tough on crime" policies post-Reagan that feed a prison-industrial-complex with primarily black and Latino men is a continuation of this effort.

    But, despite Moynihan's report 35 years ago, the black woman in particular has been the chief CAUSE of black success because black fathers have been absent for the most part in most black families.

    And we also have remarkable counter examples like Michelle Obama, who in her role as Fist Lady has become the "model" of motherhood for this country for white, black, brown, yellow, and red families everywhere in America.

    Have not seen the Precious movie yet, but we should not be too quick to extrapolate from one movie the plight or view of black motherhood in America. Black mothers - including my own - are viewed as heroes by most people. "Any" woman who can work 3 jobs while finishing a college degree and raising 3 children by herself can only be regarded as a HERO.

    Posted by Metteyya at 11/27/2009 @ 1:16pm

97. I don't know about this one, MELISSA.

    Certainly, there has been a concerted effort to disrupt the cohesion of the black family since the days of slavery, and the "tough on crime" policies post-Reagan that feed a prison-industrial-complex with primarily black and Latino men is a continuation of this effort.

    But, despite Moynihan's report 35 years ago, the black woman in particular has been the chief CAUSE of black success because black fathers have been absent for the most part in most black families.

    And we also have remarkable counter examples like Michelle Obama, who in her role as Fist Lady has become the "model" of motherhood for this country for white, black, brown, yellow, and red families everywhere in America.

    Have not seen the Precious movie yet, but we should not be too quick to extrapolate from one movie the plight or view of black motherhood in America. Black mothers - including my own - are viewed as heroes by most people. "Any" woman who can work 3 jobs while finishing a college degree and raising 3 children by herself can only be regarded as a HERO.

    Posted by Metteyya at 11/27/2009 @ 1:16pm

98. A black woman taught me how to blow my nose correctly so I wouldn't catch ear infections. A black woman taught me to appreciate Bach and took my class to a concert where I heard harpsichord improvisation for the first time, her intention. A young black woman walked with me across 125th street every week to my first jazz studies classes and helped me feel at home. I once dreamed my parents were black, and my mom was a very good cook who made a pigeon pie from birds my dad shot on our city rooftop (ok it was a crazy dream). And black moms are supposed to be inept / cruel / unloving / whatever these pathological haters say?? I think not.

    Posted by A_Pax_On_Your_Houses at 11/27/2009 @ 6:36pm

99. If it walks like a Mom and talks like a Mom, well you get the idea.

    Posted by Denise29 at 11/27/2009 @ 6:45pm

100. Governing is too difficult.

     no it isn't.

     don't hit the citizens, EVER.

     don't humiliate the voters

     don't thwart the citizen's will unnecessarily

     get out of the way

     and they will turn out fine, not like you, but fine.

     Clearly, Congress isn't good at this.

     Posted by freiheit1 at 11/27/2009 @ 9:17pm

101. "It turned out there was no convincing evidence that use of crack actually causes abnormal babies..." It's not necessary to write BS to prove the point that there is prejudice &discrimination. I avoided coffee & sugar, let alone wine and CRACK when I was pregnant because I know I was creating a human life in my body. Crack, alcohol,pot, heroine, absolutely causes problems. By including that statement, you lost respect from me (and probably other moms out there too).

     You seem confused about who you're upset with. Is it Sapphire, an AA woman who worked in the trenches, before she created characters based on experience? Is it Toni Morrison for being a novelist / poet who took truth & subtext & weaved it to create a story that will haunt you, regardless of skin tone?

     Bringing up books written over 100 yrs ago or 5o yrs ago to further illustrate what we understood back then? Why open with what feels like disdain for Huxtable and Obama?

     The real issue is social power, financial wealth and STATUS. That difference is either expressed or exploited in the arts. You can find a mother who parents from within abject poverty or slavery, as well as a mother who is in the middle, or upper class...or in the case of Obama, the ruling class. She's rare. If we create stories about that mom, I'm sure articles will ensue that call it out as BS or that we are denying the struggle.

     If our community complains every time a black woman is the lead character of a story & when there are too few black woman's stories, it's a damned if you do and damned if you don't situation. I think Sapphire did a great job & so did Cosby.

     Posted by lightskinned at 11/28/2009 @ 11:01am

102. Articles like these are so frustrating because they bring out the worst instincts in all of us. They justify the racist's worst instincts and they enrage the liberal's worst instincts. Then all the statistics come out and as we know statistics can lie for both sides.

     Yes, the Black community has terrible problems. Crime, violence and childhood pregnancies are horrific problems for the Black community and society as a whole. There are historical reasons for it and there are many who dedicate their lives to trying to alleviate these problems. And there are many Black leaders who seem to thrive on the problems as they accuse Whites of being the sole reason for all the ills. And nothing aggravates the situation more than an economic downturn and a severe recession as we are experiencing now.

     As many have said before, the answer is education. We have to pay the teachers more and make sure they are safe in inner city schools. Good teachers can help to overcome parental apathy. Violent students who think good grades mean being "White" have to be removed from the classrooms so they do not contaminate the educational environment.

     And Black parents must come to understand that the key to success in life is not sports, but good grades. Asian and Jewish families could care less if their kid makes the basketball team. They demand A's from their children in the classroom and Blacks must start demanding the same from their kids. That is until there are as many good jobs in the NBA as there are in medicine, dentistry, science, accounting, teaching and business.

     I will never understand why Blacks don't scream about the song, "Oh Girl" with lyrics that include, "all my friends call me a fool, they say let the woman take care of you". Stupid

     Posted by bean22 at 11/28/2009 @ 11:58am

103. Every year around the holidays, "families" become elevated in the media. All of us are well-familiar with the usual sob stories of some low-income families, almost always single-parent, that get trotted out to elicit donations.

     Today's local paper wrote of a single, 30-yrs old black woman with, get this, 6 kids ranging from 15 to 4 months....they live with her mother. She is currently unemployed, but did work off and on in the usual jobs at the low end of our economy.

     While sympathy for the kids is a natural response, the response I had to her life choices is much, much stronger.....in fact, the strongest I have ever had.

     A black teen can make a mistake....maybe even two, and still not exhaust society's tolerance for their lack of control. But, pray tell, why should society tolerate a black woman that goes on to accumulate 6 mistakes by the age of 30?

     Libs place the burden of supporting women such as the above on society but......do we have any effective `management tools'?

     The woman I cited here, is a prime example of a "Bad Black Mother" to average tax-paying, working Americans.....a very different sort from the over-analyzed types Ms. ML-H wrote about.

     Posted by Happy at 11/28/2009 @ 1:19pm

104. "The woman I cited here, is a prime example of a "Bad Black Mother" to average tax-paying, working Americans"

     does the woman you reference not pay taxes? does she not work? does she not contribute.....anything?

     or is she just.....a drain on our economy?

     i fail to see your point, happy. but it is abundantly clear that you didn't grasp the POINT of the article.

     Posted by darladoon at 11/28/2009 @ 3:12pm

105. darla, I know you're stoned just about all waking hours and your comprehension is what it is...

     But what do you suppose an unemployed or low-wage worker contributes in terms of taxes besides some nominal sales tax?

     Even working, is it not unreasonable to assume the woman I cited gets food stamps and perhaps housing vouchers?

     Since you asked "is she just.....a drain on our economy?"......Perhaps now, you can reach your own conclusion.

     As for this woman w/6 kids, there isn't a doubt in my mind that our safety net benefits have sustained her and directly contributed to her not taking responsibilities....thus, a very, very Bad Black Mother!

     Instead of giving 2 or 3 kids enough attention to be raised properly, as a heroic single parent, she will likely end up with 6 low-performing kids with some of them, repeating the Bad Black Mother cycle she started.

     I've used up my sympathies for such parasites!

     Posted by Happy at 11/28/2009 @ 4:27pm

106. That's all you have Happy, she's stoned, that's it? And you use it over and over again, its old and it doesn't matter, you really need to come up with something new.

     Posted by Denise29 at 11/28/2009 @ 5:37pm

107. "But what do you suppose an unemployed or low-wage worker contributes in terms of taxes besides some nominal sales tax?"

     every wage worker pays SS taxes, medicare and medicaid taxes, and depending, a sliver of income tax.

     "there isn't a doubt in my mind that our safety net benefits have sustained her and directly contributed to her not taking responsibilities"

     no doubt, huh?

     Posted by darladoon at 11/29/2009 @ 11:08am

108. I believe this view of the movie seeks to protect grown black men and black women and not the children that did not choose to be in this family. The children forced to live under this kind of rule grow up so hurt and they will become adults that hurt others. Instead of rescuing them, we want to protect their parents. It's easy to play pretend,be in denial and blame anyone else for presenting what we want others to believe is a distorted view, but it is not. Neither Michelle Obama, nor her husband the President, can overcome what's really happening in our culture. And we can not just marginalize the trouble by saying, "other people do it too." We are only 32 million and we take chunks of flesh when we continue to not address the self injuries. Barack and Michelle are hope and example, but not the rule. We've got to clean up a lot of junk. I discuss this subject in my newly released book, Black Men Stop! http://tinyurl.com/blackmenstop. Download and read the free sampler, engage, discuss. We've got to address what's real, what's true or our children and grandchildren will face what we left!

     Posted by blackmenstop! at 11/29/2009 @ 8:54pm

109. I appreciate the exposure of the depiction of Black mothers , and oppression of Black women. But the problem is cast far too narrowly in this piece. The bigger problem is that anything having to do with women's value should be concentrated in their role as mothers.

     Precious is a profoundly important film, and what is says about Mo'Nique's character is that this women was CREATED by the conditions she was forced into. Read this deep piece from Revolution Newspaper for more on this: The Potential of Precious Girls Everywhere.

     http://www.revcom.us/a/184/precious-en.html

     Posted by sarah123 at 11/29/2009 @ 11:48pm

110. I appreciate the exposure of the depiction of Black mothers , and oppression of Black women. But the problem is cast far too narrowly in this piece. The bigger problem is that anything having to do with women's value should be concentrated in their role as mothers.

     Precious is a profoundly important film, and what is says about Mo'Nique's character is that this women was CREATED by the conditions she was forced into. Read this deep piece from Revolution Newspaper for more on this: The Potential of Precious Girls Everywhere.

     http://www.revcom.us/a/184/precious-en.html

     Posted by sarah123 at 11/29/2009 @ 11:49pm

111. 'Precious is a profoundly important film, and what is says about Mo'Nique's character is that this women was CREATED by the conditions she was forced into.' -- sarah123

     'I'm depraved on account of I'm deprived!' -- 'West Side Story'

     Posted by HonestLiberal at 11/30/2009 @ 08:00am

112. 'A black teen can make a mistake....maybe even two, and still not exhaust society's tolerance for their lack of control. But, pray tell, why should society tolerate a black woman that goes on to accumulate 6 mistakes by the age of 30?' -- Happy

     '...look, I've got two daughters ... if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby' -- Barack Obama -- 29 March, 2008

     Posted by HonestLiberal at 11/30/2009 @ 08:02am

113. Posted by HonestLiberal at 11/30/2009 @ 08:02am

     Wanna bet Sarah doesn't wish Levi had worn a condom EVERY time???? Instead of "mistakenly" not "that one time"?

     Posted by Mask at 11/30/2009 @ 1:02pm

114. Posted by Mask at 11/30/2009 @ 1:02pm

     What???? Please don't try to equate Sarah Palin or her daughter to welfare queens. I'm sure Sarah wishes that things worked out with her daughter and Levi, but the beautiful baby that they have certainly makes up for his immaturity. Also, I'm pretty sure that Bristol won't be having another six babies out of wedlock and asking you to pay for them.

     Read her book. You'll learn alot.

     Posted by gunslinger1 at 11/30/2009 @ 1:11pm

115. 'I fail to see your point, Happy. but it is abundantly clear that you didn't grasp the POINT of the article.' -- darladoon

     'eye-brow raising reproductive choices' -- Melissa Harris-Lacewell

     Posted by HonestLiberal at 11/30/2009 @ 3:07pm

116. 'I fail to see your point, Happy. but it is abundantly clear that you didn't grasp the POINT of the article.' -- darladoon

     'eye-brow raising reproductive choices' -- Melissa Harris-Lacewell

     Posted by HonestLiberal at 11/30/2009 @ 3:07pm

     Honestly, I'm not sure I get this one (the MH-L one)!

     Posted by Happy at 11/30/2009 @ 4:33pm