Tag Archives: black men

The Soapbox: Black Men, Is Chad Ochocinco Your Hero?

Erica WatsonAugust 16, 2012 //
Domestic Violence Arrest
Chad Ochocinco and Evelyn Lozada photo
Chad Ochocinco was arrested for domestic violence this weekend. Read More »
Ocho Apologizes
Ochocinco and Evelyn Lozada
Ochocino issues a public apology for his alleged domestic violence. Read More »
Ocho's Race Criticism
Ochocinqo criticized for not choosing black women on VH1 dating show. Read More »

Chadvelyn, LosOcho and OchoSado: those were the three hybrid names that I came up with for my favorite reality TV couple, Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson and Evelyn Lozada. But after only six weeks of marriage, the beautiful sounds of wedded bliss and the hoopla surrounding their much anticipated reality show have been silenced by the head-butt that was heard around the world.

By now, everyone knows about the drama surrounding Chadvelyn. The Internet has been all aflutter with updates. She-said this, he-said that and we-said “WTF?” He loses his job, she files for divorce, and we all sit back to make judgments and assumptions about everything. Keep reading »

Comedian Kevin Hart’s Cartoon Message To Black Women Is Offensive

Tiffanie DraytonApril 11, 2012 //
Black Marriage
New book asks, "Is Marriage For White People?" Read More »
My Interracial Marriage
What it's like being in an interracial marriage. Read More »
Black Women Stereotypes
Stephen Colbert gets schooled on stereotypes of black women. Read More »
On the rise?
Are interracial marriages on the rise? Read More »

A few months ago, I picked up a book called Is Marriage For White People? In it, author Ralph Richard Banks addressed the decline of successful black marriages in America. He attributed this to two factors: 1) African-American women attaining a higher level of education than their male counterparts, and 2) successful black men marrying outside of their race twice as much as within. So for simplicity’s sake, let’s just say that as soon as black men find success, they often marry outside their race, leaving behind a very small and mediocre dating pool to choose from. This lack of suitable, stable men in the black community forces women to either “marry down” or stay single, which limits opportunities for successful marriages.

With that being said, why has comedian Kevin Hart taken it upon himself to misrepresent the current and dyer situation by negatively and wrongfully stereotyping black women in this cartoon? Keep reading »

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 »