Tag Archives: black men

Black Men Targeted By Anti-Abortion Billboard

Jessica WakemanSeptember 26, 2011 //
Fatherhood beings in the womb billboard

Not content to just shame black women for having abortions, an anti-abortion group is now targeting black men with their controversial billboards. “Fatherhood starts in the womb,” reads a new billboard in California paid for by Issues 4 Life and The Radiance Foundation (the same group behind billboards in other states that compared abortion to slavery and other offensiveness). It depicts a black man kissing his partner’s pregnant belly — which, judging by the size of it, is about nine months along. “The abortion industry has created a culture of abandonment. Responsibility has become someone else’s concern, and death the solution to ‘unplanned’ pregnancies — the natural result of sexual behavior,” anti-abortion activist Ryan Bomberger, told LifeNews.com. “There’s nothing natural about an industry that generates over $200 million, annually, by killing a child left defenseless by the absence of a father.” Keep reading »

New Book Asks, “Is Marriage For White People?”

Jessica WakemanSeptember 9, 2011 //

I almost feel bad for black women. It seems like the majority of the time they’re written about in the mainstream media, it’s about one of two topics: Why aren’t any of them married? as a question or None of them are married! as a statement. How frustrating that their representation in culture is thinned down to their marital status, right? The latest example is a new book by Stanford law professor Ralph Richard Banks called Is Marriage for White People? How the African American Marriage Decline Affects Everyone about the so-called “man shortage” among middle-class blacks. As promotion for his book, Banks also published a piece in The New York Daily News last week entitled, “Why Black Women Are Justifiably Bitter: The Bleak Relationship Picture For African-American Females,” which began with the paragraph:

“Stereotypes of black women as angry or bitter are pervasive. They are also more accurate than many people would like to acknowledge: many black women have perfectly good reasons to be angry or bitter.”

Oof. Keep reading »

The Trouble With Kanye

Jessica WakemanMay 15, 2009 //

If you know anything about Kanye, you know he loves his Balenciaga sandals and neon. Some people think he looks moronic. Some people think he looks awesome. Apparently, some people think he looks “gay.”

Blogger Elizabeth Gates at the Daily Beast noticed how homophobic and racially motivated some commenters’ replies were about recent paparazzi snaps of Kanye and his entourage at Fashion Week. “Only gay guys wear that [crap!]” one wrote. “Bootylishious,” wrote another. But this isn’t anything new. Two years ago, 50 Cent made waves when he complained that Kanye got invited on “Oprah,” not him, which he said proved Middle America would be OK with their kids being gay. Keep reading »

Black Women Have Higher Chance Of Remaining Unmarried

Persia AliFebruary 16, 2009 //

Many black women are quick to point out that there are no good single black men out here. It turns out, they might actually be right, which also may explain why more black women remain unmarried than white women. Forty-two-percent of black women have never been married, compared to 21% of white woman, according to national statistics. That’s double, chicks! Within the last two generations, marriage rates for African-Americans have dropped significantly. Between 1970 and 2001, the black marriage rate dropped by 34 percent, compared to 17 percent in the general population. African-American women are also the least likely group to get married in the United States. That’s pretty sad. And if they wed an African-American man, those couples have the highest divorce rate in the United States. So what the hell is going on?
Keep reading »