The Expansionist

Monday, March 27, 2006

Infantilism in the Black Community. In an astonishingly un-self-aware bit of rationalization, a black woman named Joy Jones, concurs (in an opinion piece in yesterday's Washington Post) with what a 12-year-old black boy once told her: "Marriage is for white people."

I realized that all the things I expected marriage to confer — male companionship, close family ties, a house — I already had, or were within reach, and with exponentially less drama. I can do bad by myself, I used to say as I exited a relationship. But the truth is, I can do pretty good by myself, too.

Oh, can you really? Can you really dispense with a permanent, stable love relationship? Is loving companionship so trivial to you? You say at one point you can't afford at present to buy a house on your own, but you could eventually. How lucky you are, if that happens. But who will be in that house? You, alone? What a full, rich, rewarding life that will be.
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Completely missing from her moronic discussion was the actual state of financial affairs for blacks in general, black women more particularly, and black children most particularly.
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The median income for black households in the United States in 2001 was $29,470; for whites, $44,517. Blacks have only two-thirds of white income. Put another way, whites make half again as much as blacks.
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24.7% of blacks live in poverty. For whites, the figure is 10.8%.
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5.5% of married couples live in poverty; 13.5% of male householders with no wife present live in poverty; 28.4% of female householders with no husband present live in poverty.

Children with two married parents are much less likely to be living in poverty than children living only with their mothers. In 1996, 10% of children in two-parent families were living in poverty, compared to 49% in female-householder families.

This contrast by family structure is especially pronounced among certain racial and ethnic minorities. For example, in 1996, 14% of black children in married-couple families lived in poverty, compared to 58% of black children in female-householder families.

Refusal to marry, or stay married, is a real bargain for black people, isn't it?
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I've got the solution. Let's just outlaw black marriage. Then they might want it. It has worked with gay men. Let's try it with black women.
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(The current U.S. military death toll in Iraq, according to the website "Iraq Coalition Casualties", is 2,323.)

- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 5:32 PM

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