White Americans Have Been Brainwashed About Race: Lies We Tell Ourselves About Black Women

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/white-americans-have-been-brainwashed-about-race-lies-we-tell-ourselves-about-black-women



Less discussed, however, but just as important, is the way in which black women too are being pathologized and demeaned, dissed by the same sources as those who have so continually sought to demonize their male counterparts.It isn't new of course: white critiques of the black community have always been nothing if not gender-inclusive. From the days of enslavement, during which black women were de-sexualized as masculine workhorses in the white imagination (even as they were often the object of white male sexual abuse), to the sexist condemnations of so-called matriarchal "ghetto culture" by the Moynihan Report in 1965, black women have hardly been immune to racist caricatures drawn by white folks. For that matter, neither have they escaped criminalization at the hands of law enforcement. Though we don't speak of it as often, it is not solely black men and men of color being targeted by the cops. While their names may be less well known than those of Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, Oscar Grant, or the recently added names of Crawford, Brown, Garner, Rice, and Akai Gurley, let there be no mistake, Tyisha Miller, Aiyana Jones, Yvette Smith, Rekia Boyd and Kathryn Johnston (among many others) are every bit as dead as they.

But while the knock on black men centers mostly around their presumed propensity for chaotic and nihilistic violence, the attack on black women focuses principally on their unique contribution to the production of such men (and more women like themselves) as breeders of "illegitimate" children---literal incubators of social decay. The trope of black women, especially teenagers, popping out babies they can't afford and with no regard for the presence of men in the home --- and the peddling of this image as normative in the black cultural experience --- is by now so widely-believed as to be a virtual article of faith. And as with the stereotypes of black men that give rise to the vituperative narratives about them, so too does this stereotype of black women rest upon outright falsehood.

The attack on African American women as sexually irresponsible baby mamas has two popular iterations. The first --- and it's one I've addressed before in previous essays --- concerns the commonly-held belief that out-of-wedlock childbearing is out of control in the black community; and the second focuses specifically on the phenomenon of teenage childbearing. Although the latter group of black females are typically part of the first (since most pregnant teenagers are unmarried, regardless of race), the larger group of unmarried black women with children (and the critique of such women) includes those who are older as well.

Looking first at the broader issue of so-called "illegitimate children" in the black community, those who forward this argument simply do not understand how to read or interpret basic statistical information. They claim, for instance that the "out-of-wedlock birth rate" for black females has skyrocketed; but in fact, nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, actual birth rates for unmarried black women (which means the number of live births per 1000 such women) has dropped dramatically. From 1970-2010, the birth rate for unmarried black women fell by nearly a third, from 95.5 births per 1000 unmarried black women to only 65.3 births per 1000 such women. In other words, unmarried black women are already doing exactly what conservatives would have them do: namely, having fewer children. This means that even if we were to accept the absurd argument that out-of-wedlock childbearing is evidence of cultural pathology, black culture must then be steadily getting healthier and less pathological, rather than more so. In a given year, for every 100 single black females, between ninety-three and ninety four of them will not have a baby---hardly evidence that out-of-wedlock childbearing is a normative experience for black women.

[gollygee]

1. Kick

[MrScorpio]

2. Damn Skippy! nt

[Number23]

11. DU has pissed me off so bad this weekend I think I have finally reached my limit

Might be joining that long, long, LONG assed list of black and brown posters that wouldn't post here if they were paid to.

[oberliner]

3. BS Headline

This does not match my experience in any way shape or form.

[Skittles]

12. I've noticed a lot of stereotyping in articles like these

seems like enlightened white folk just do not exist

[Scuba]

4. Nailed it. Here in rural Wisconsin I all too often hear about "irresponsible baby mamas" ....

... and young black women (girls) being 'breeders of "illegitimate" children'.

This shit is no accident.

[CTyankee]

15. funny. I'm online on facebook now with two white men (friends of a friend) in WI about this

very subject. I got totally steamed and told them how disgraceful it was for them to talk that way, since they have NEVER been poor and nonwhite (nor female to boot) and they didn't know what they were talking about. I hope I shut them up but I may have to ban them from my facebook page. They are not using the language you quote, but in a way they are worse: they do it "politely." I'm thinking of being rude to them and asking them how THEY like it!

[niyad]

6. k and r

[Cali_Democrat]

7. In general, white Americans more easily swallow up propaganda and are more easily brainwashed

Over 90% of Fox News viewers are white which is no surprise. I'm sure the numbers are similar for the talk radio audience.

White Americans are also much more likely to be supportive of the police and vote Republican.

TPTB know this so they specifically target white Americans with their propaganda.

[Wounded Bear]

8. There you go again...

bringing facts to an emotional battle.

I know, it's disrepectful to kid, but I've been living in a Fox-bot household for a year now, and I've experienced this shit first hand and Jimmy Buffet's line comes to mind: If we couldn't laugh, we'd all go insane.

One unfortunate corollary to the hatred is how they accuse liberals of being too emotional about issues like these. Generally in a loud, uncontrolled and yes, emotional tone of voice.

One thing I know. One of the most powerful negative influences against the family-of all races-is corporatism and how it drives everybody, regardless of individual personality, into that orgy of competitiveness we rightfully call the rat race. And it is, of course, especially destructive among communities of color and any ethnic background that doesn't have the imprimature of acceptance by the overlords.

And, of course, we always get the old, "Well I didn't really do or say anything wrong, but I'm sorry if you feel bad because of it" non-apologetic apology common among the PTB.

[lumberjack_jeff]

9. In 2012 The birth rate for unmarried women of all races was 45.3

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr62/nvsr62_09.pdf

The birth rate for unmarried women declined in 2012 for the
fourth consecutive year. The rate fell 2% from 2011 to 2012, to 45.3
births per 1,000 unmarried women aged 15–44, the lowest rate
since 2003 (Tables C, 15, and 16). The nonmarital birth rate was
13% lower in 2012 than in 2007 and 2008, when it was at its historic
peak of 51.8 per 1,000.
The percentage of all births to unmarried women was 40.7 in
2012, essentially stable for the third consecutive year. The number
of nonmarital births rose very slightly from 2011 (1,607,773) to
2012 (1,609,619). The 2012 total is 7% lower than the 2008 peak
(Table C).
Birth rates for unmarried women fell in 2012 for women in age
groups under 30; the rate was essentially unchanged for women
aged 30–34, and it increased to historic peaks for women aged
35 and over. The steepest declines were for teenagers, particularly
younger teenagers aged 15–17, whose rate dropped by 8% from
2011 (14.9) to 2012 (13.7). Although the majority of nonmarital births
are for women under age 25 (54% in 2012), this level has dropped
from 64% in 2002 (25).
Nonmarital birth rates declined for all race and Hispanic origin
population groups except API women, for whom the rate increased
by 2%, from 22.4 in 2011 to 22.9 per 1,000 in 2012. Despite this
increase, API women had the lowest rate of all race and Hispanic
origin groups in 2012. Hispanic women had the highest nonmarital
birth rate of all groups in 2012 (72.6) but also the largest percent
decline between 2011 and 2012, a 3% drop (from 75.1 in 2011).
Rates for non-Hispanic white women (32.1) and black women (62.6)
fell 1% and 2%, respectively, in 2012. All race and Hispanic origin
groups have experienced declines from the peak rates of 2007–
2008, with the largest decline for Hispanic women, down 29% (from
102.1 in 2007).
While the percentage of all births to unmarried women was
down slightly in 2012 (40.7) from its peak of 41.0% in 2009, it was
still more than twice the level in 1980, 18.4% (Table C). About 9 out of
10 births to teenagers aged 15–19 were nonmarital compared with
about 1 in 5 for women in their thirties. Almost two-thirds of births to
women aged 20–24 were nonmarital (64.8%)—the age group with
the highest number of nonmarital births (593,894).
The proportions of nonmarital births vary widely by race and
Hispanic origin. In 2012, the percentage of nonmarital births for
non-Hispanic black (72%) and AIAN (67%) mothers was more than
three times that of API mothers (17%) and more than twice that of
non-Hispanic white mothers (29%). A little more than one-half (54%)
of births to Hispanic mothers were to unmarried women. These
proportions were essentially unchanged from 2011.
More than one-half of all births in DC, Louisiana, Mississippi,
and New Mexico were to unmarried women in 2012 (Table I–4). Less
than one in five births in Utah (18.7%) were to unmarried mothers,
the lowest of any state. These geographic variations largely reflect
compositional differences by race and Hispanic origin among states.

[malaise]

10. THe perpetrators of these myths don't give a flying fugg

about the truth. You see the breeders in chief were the white slave owners.

[freshwest]

13. And they weren't complaining about immigrants then, were they?!

[malaise]

14. Of course not - that was free labor

What I'll never get is how they succeeded in pushing the myth that it is the African-Americans who were and are lazy