(ThyBlackMan.com) I saw this photo on a friend’s facebook page and I just knew I had to write an article. I hear women talk about how trifling their baby daddy is, but my question is always but… didn’t YOU choose him? I mean what’s worse, the person who supposedly ain’t shyt or the person CHOOSING to be with the supposedly ain’t shyt person? So let me understand correctly, your baby daddy is trifling because he is irresponsible, so YOU say. Well show me where you acted in a responsible manner. As women since we carry the child, most of the responsibility is on us, and the FIRST act of being responsible is to be wise when choosing who we decide to reproduce.
“Not a single cent is to be allocated to help non-custodial fathers hire attorneys to enforce their visitation orders in court. Not a cent. Mothers who want help collecting child support have a free lawyer to represent them in court – the attorney general of the state she lives in. She’s got all the power of the state plus billions of dollars from the federal government at her beck and call at no cost to her. But the same federal government that spends billions every year in legal fees and administrative costs for custodial mothers, spends not a cent for father who want to see their kids. Most parents who divorce do so without a lawyer. That’s because they can’t afford one. Well, that continues to be true post-divorce, but if Mom wants help with child support, she gets it in spades. Dad? He’s on his own. If Mom prevents him from seeing his kid, it’s up to him to hire a lawyer. Gender equality anyone?”
I hope no one minds Im not black, but my child’s father is. This article has taken me out of denial. Your completely right it was my responsibility, my choice. We were engaged but too fast I believe and he lead a double life (NOT CHEATING) but he was an alcoholic..once i found out I left and became crazy judgmental about him. Thank you for helping me snap out of it
I know I’m a little late to this post but I get so tired of people acting “holier than thou”. Towards single mothers. Especially when they’re black. I’m an unwed 18 yr old black female. I was not in love with my babys father when I decided to have sex with him and I’m not in love with him now. We both were irresponsible but when I found out I was pregnant I made it my business to take care of my child. It doesn’t matter if the parents are together or not, if the mother can man-up and take care of her responsibilities then why isn’t the father held to that same standard. People expect black women to be the pillar of strength and that shit gets tiring. I know I may not have made the best choice in deciding who to procreate with but if the nigga ain’t shit then he ain’t shit and sometimes single mothers need to vent. We’re not superwoman. We’re mothers just trying to do what’s best for our children
Tyrone…Adeyinka, step away from the computer then come back and re-read the article. Perhaps your being blinded by the familiar narrative of the worthless male is clouding your comprehension of what sister is saying. If a woman lays down with a trifling man, she cannot and should not be upset that he is trifling. Likewise making the system her baby daddy in support and enforcement of her revenge filled heart, does not excuse her own lack of discipline and INITIAL act of giving sex before marriage or even getting to know the male. Actually more female already knows the man is trifling or fails to get to know him but gives up the sex in HOPES that it will mold him into the fantasy she may have. This is a case of putting the cart (sex) before the horse(marriage, knowing the character of the man).
On a side note, how many of you remember the high school girl who accused the young man of rape in California? Her mother and her sued the school board and got 1.5 million dollars and the youth spent six years in Jail despite a lack of evidence. Well it turned out he was innocent after she contacted him on facebook wanting to be his friend. During a proceeding conversation on the phone she confessed that she had lied about it, but wanted them to be friends. Of course he taped the conversation and this was what got him exonerated.
How many people know that this female had two children with two different men,one five years old…yes, she had a child shortly after crying rape and sending an innocent man to jail. Her and her mother blew the 1.5 mil in three years and she went on welfare and remains on it till this day.
Yet this woman is on the internet garnering support from others who enable the same behaviour sister talks about constantly. Yet our community cant seem to see the wrong of the female…only the males.
Perhaps if both youth were not “making out” under the stair well at school, something would not have displeased her to call rape and started the journey of pain and suffering and take both to the place they are now.
this is what sister is talking about being responsible. Obviously her mother didn’t teach her the value of valuing her womb, nor did he.
TRUTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! COULDN’T HAVE SAID IT BETTER
YES!
Wow! This article should be passed along to everyone. Great read, very thought provoking!
While men need to be responsible for their behavior and any children born of that behavior, men being men is nothing new. Two thousand years ago mother were telling their daughters the SAME thing most tell their daughters today, “keep your legs closed”. What has changed is the social structure we live under. Men, across ALL socio-economic areas, are taught by society to find and marry the “good girl” while at the SAME time being free to sleep around, or at the least, have a “sweetheart” on the side. Those females on the “side” are viewed by society and men as being “less than” the “good girl”. Someone to be used for his pleasure and disregarded until the next time. While men are viewed as DOGS for their behavior, the TRUTH is, men have been doing the SAME thing for hundreds of years. What has changed is the so-called freedom women now have to express their sexuality(Not so free after all). The hope of “sexing” FIRST and “hooking” him does not usually work because, mentally, they have already been cast in the “bad girl” catagory. Because male nature and behavior has NOT changed in thousands of years, females MUST make different choises and decisions about the kind of man they desire BEFORE sex. Afterward, it’s too late.
Good article!!!
Thanks Terrance for the kind words you wrote about Black women. We don’t hear this often in many venues: the media, etc.
This is a great article. When we stop following behind other people by doing what they’re doing and go back to our traditional values and start working together, we will finally stop having these problems in our community. The Black woman is the most amazing being on this planet. She is the first teacher, but if she allows herself to think on a lower level of the physical first rather then the mental, we will fail as a people.
Black Unity means financial independence and happiness
The initial action is not allowing him to enter her, but two people coming to that agreement to have sex together. A woman is no more responsible than the man.
I actually agree that women need to be careful and take responsibility for their part. But we also need to encourage men to be more responsible as well.
And we need to stop putting women on this pedestal as the gate keepers only to tear them down for being human the way that you do in your post.
Please please show some compassion, some understanding… something
The American system is designed to make sure that Black men can’t make it. My jaw dropped today when I read that 70% of students in Howard University are females.
Peace Queen Natalie!!!! Love you Sis!
@Adeyinka where in my article did I excuse men from responsibility?
another gem sista! thank you.
just three of over fifty articles recently bringing the conversation into the mainstream. There is a growing chorus of men and women on both sides of the aisle that reject the current model of rights versus responsibility regarding reproduction. We strive for equality and that personal liberties are restored and antiquated laws replaced.. Its coming but we stay in the “hood” echo chamber reinforcing the same failed ideology that people are beginning to rekject.
http://wtvr.com/2012/03/08/why-do-only-women-have-reproductive-rights-choice/
http://www.glennsacks.com/30_years_after.htm
http://www.thomas-purcell.com/2012/05/on-child-support-and-abortion.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vp8tToFv-bA&feature=related
and then there were the feminist that stood up in opposition to the development of the male birth control pill at the WHO conference on reproductive rights..Trust me the word is getting out regarding the disadvantage that men have in the discsussion of reproductive choices. Our community will be left behind and blindsided once again because we are uninformed and do not have a clue regarding the cultural shifts and subsequent policies/movments that are taking place.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JymN5yu-K_o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZAuqkqxk9A
Ro v wade essentially established that inthe event of an unwanted pregnancy that a woman could not be “forced” into motherhood. As long as this reality of “choice” exist for women the argument will eventually be successfully be argued that men can no longer be held to a different standard of expectation as it relates to reproductive rights.
I understand your pov in this article, but that in no way excuses a man from his responsibilities. Yes there is irresponsibility on both parties, but also responsibility on the same two parties. Perhaps the ” dead beat” is called such names because of his conscious decision to continue to assume no responsibility even after the irresponsible mother has stepped up to the plate for the sake of the human life at stake.