Dietz. Sure most of my post describes poor women with children of all races however it seems to me that many people have a certain disdain for the poor single black mother. In general, with a very broad, stereotypical brush they paint her as a parasite sucking every last dollar from their wallets with welfare and health care for her children born to many absent fathers.
That is what separates her from other single poor women. She is blamed for being poor.
Many people do care. Many people understand the roadblocks to her successful escape. But they do not care enough to go to Baltimore, stand arm in arm and demand change. It is not immediately impacting their life.
I am certainly one of those people. Are you?
How can we ask “where is the outrage” if we are not outraged enough to take action?
Agree with dietz. Don’t see any one race being singled out as being blamed for being poor or accusing them of being parasites on the state and/or federal system. No need for hyperbole.
If you’re a poor single mother of so many kids, life doesn’t change much when it comes to the struggles relating to your impoverished status. Things begin to differ once race is varied. Your X times as likely to lose your job. Your X times as likely to suffer domestic violence. Your children are X times as likely to go to jail…X times as likely to get into illicit activities…X times as likely to be poor or impoverished themselves…and it goes on.
“There are protestors for these children and even the women who have faced police brutality, but unfortunately, more people show up to protest for the black men and don’t show up for the black women and children. These are the protestors that won’t be broadcast on CNN or Fox. These are the protestors that aren’t heard about unless you have ties in the area”
I’m not blaming it on lack of coverage. I live in the local area. No protestors for the toddler, no demonstrations for her. But plenty of demonstrators for the two men who attacked a police officer.
“If you’re a poor single mother of so many kids, life doesn’t change much when it comes to the struggles relating to your impoverished status. Things begin to differ once race is varied. Your X times as likely to lose your job. Your X times as likely to suffer domestic violence. Your children are X times as likely to go to jail…X times as likely to get into illicit activities…X times as likely to be poor or impoverished themselves…and it goes on.”
Yes!!
So instead of spending our time blaming the establishment and police officers, trying to keep people down, let’s focus on preventing women from becoming poor single mothers. Not that corrupt police officers should be tolerated, but let’s spend our money and our effort to prevent young women from getting into that situation. Shout it out, talk about it constantly, getting pregnant while you are young and single will do this to you. Let’s have door to door birth control, pay young women of all colors not to become pregnant, whatever it takes.
Hmm, while Imm sure there are many who are comfortable donating through GoFundMes. I’d feel a lot more comfortable helping a family who I am familiar with or have ties with through an organization or some sort. GoFundMe has helped a lot of families, but it wouldn’t want to see it replace welfare.
I guess it depends upon what you consider the same community, jazzymom. I consider it all my community, and I live some distance from both places. They are maybe 40 miles apart, but it was all big local news around here, though it probably barely made the national media. And the thing is, it certainly is possible that the police officer overreacted by shooting the men. It may be valid that there should be protests, however, trying to terrorize the police officers family by holding a protest at his house (that fizzled pretty quickly), before knowing all of the facts, is unacceptable.
I wish the police departments had the money and the will to have body cameras. I also wish that they had enough money to always have two people in a police car. I can’t imagine stopping a number of suspects, in the middle of the night, by yourself.
Niqui. No I would not want it replacing welfare either. But suppose you could donate a dollar to a single black mom stuck in this poor drug infested Baltimore neighborhood. Now suppose just 10,000 other people donated a dollar. It could be life changing for her and her kids. One buck.
I see the mom who went out and dragged her son home has a gofundme page. Now she received a great deal of national attention yet her gofundme seems to have $13,000. So maybe it wouldn’t work.
^^^ So…it still begs the question…why no MSM coverage of these protests? Why no Mayors at the podium, no Sharptons at the mike, no NAACP representatives speaking out in support of these very courageous folks?
Hey, where is Uhuru house (the ones who defended Lovell Mixon when he killed 4 officers in Oakland CA.).
Just not enough mileage to be gotten.
As for the second quote , yup, it’s white supremacy that makes a black young man shoot his demographic equal. That explains why people persecuted in WWII now kill each other regularly…because you know who was a supremacist.
Violence in black communities has been covered by the media and discussed at length by the leaders you reference. Maybe you don’t watch the channels where this is covered.
You think racism and white supremacy has nothing to do with the violence in poor communities? You really do not see connections between past history and present reality?
Mainstream media doesn’t want to show the black community building itself. They don’t want to show the community addressing its problems. Surely a headline about the dangerous rioters and looters are more interesting than a headline about those who cleaned up and tried to restore their community, isn’t it? A headline about protestors being out after curfew is more interesting than a headline about the racism Baltimore police showed when dealing with curfew breakers of different races.
The media is doing a better job, but I believe work can be done. I’m tired of race-baiting articles that do nothing but feed negative stereotypes and feelings. It’s not helping anyone. It’s hurting the lives of individuals across the nation.
Yes, each person is responsible for their actions. You pick up a gun and shoot a police officer, then the consequences should be dealt out by the book. What shouldn’t happen is that person gets a harsher sentences than another who did the same thing a month prior.
Having opportunities so that better choices can be made is not just an individual responsibility, though, particularly in ghettos that generations of racist policies and practices helped create. It’s a societal responsibility too.
So the conversation should be on both fronts of responsibility.
If there was a bipartisan plan to address both aspects: programs to reduce single motherhood, incentives for kids to stay in school, improve education (despite union opposition), improve police policies (despite union opposition), focus on job creation in the inner city and other poor communities, create public service corp for youth etc…would you support it?
Write your senators and representatives to support it?
One of the very successful models with which I am familiar involves an all female Catholic HS. While quite a bit of FA is given, the majority of young women do come from upper middle class backgrounds. Down the road a bit is predominantly hispanic Catholic K-8. Working class families, poverty etc. Here’s what the HS has implemented.
Starting in 6th a certain number of young women are adopted by the HS. They are personally mentored, they are given all the support they need academically, socially and financially. If they complete their portion of the program they are guaranteed a seat at the HS - ALL expenses paid. While at the HS they receive additional mentoring and support. At the end of those 4 years there’s enough $$ in a special fund to supplement reasonable college tuition for another 4 years.
The catch…in order to be accepted into the 6th grade program the parents must sign a contract which stipulates outlines their mandatory participation in such things as English language classes, training/education on how to support their daughters and a number of hours they must donate to the K-8 institution.
Yes, it is additional stress on the time of a poor family but the schools have found that ‘forcing’ the parents to participate to a certain level is the only way to actually have the students become successful.
Changing our public education system so that it demands parental involvement would be one very big step and I’d support it with all my typing/letter writing skills.
Don’t know how successful we’d be in the inner city job creation department. The fact is, most jobs simply are not based in cities the way they used to be. My own home town had several factories while I was growing up - my father worked at one. They are simply gone - replaced by lofts, tech companies etc. Rather than try to turn back the clock how about encouraging a inner city self staffed and run daycare…maybe bring in some teach for America style volunteers. Have the grandmothers/grandfathers/ great aunties etc collectively and in an organized fashion watch the younger kids…like used to be the case in small towns. Then if a job is available outside of the inner city an individual would have greater freedom in commutes etc.
If you get a chance do look at the book ‘Tattoos on the Heart: the Power of Boundless Compassion’. It was on S required HS reading list. It gave me an understanding of the inner city/gang/poverty issues because no, I don’t live there…but I my heart can still weep for any mother who must bury a son lost in a culture of violence.