Tiger Dating White Women: Should Black Women Care?

[Tropicana]

When there is already a shortage of Black men, do you think we can spare that 8.5%.

I was a function for Black lawyers put on by an organization that used to be overwhelmingly male. There were only 4 or 5 men attending and most of them came with partners, 2 with White women. The room was PACKED with Black female lawyers, most single. Where are all of these women going to find partners?

[Diplomat]

I can't think of a single reason why they should.

Did you read the points about the message it sends to Black young people and the impact on Black children if all well to do Black guys run off with White women or did you just skip over those parts?

I didn't skip over any part but I do find those arguments similar to fear mongering. I believe this generation is far more accepting of biracial relationships and that is a good thing given our multicultural society. The message we should be teaching our kids is that love knows no colour. They are the ones that are attending school and making friendships with people of different races, culture, and colour. That Tiger, or anyone else for that matter, is drawing attention because of the colour of the woman he chooses to date is disturbing. After all, this is 2013 and as a society we should have evolved much further by now.

[Tropicana]

I believe this generation is far more accepting of biracial relationships and that is a good thing given our multicultural society. The message we should be teaching our kids is that love knows no colour.

What is the point of teaching our kids this when those from the majority group are teaching their kids to stick with their own kind? How does it serve us?

[Diplomat]

What is the point of teaching our kids this when those from the majority group are teaching their kids to stick with their own kind? How does it serve us?

We teach them that because it is the right thing to do, IMO. We are not responsible for what other people teach their kids.

[Tropicana]

We teach them that because it is the right thing to do, IMO. We are not responsible for what other people teach their kids.

And that leaves us with Black men marrying White women at more than twice the rate that Black women marry White men exacerbating the shortage of partners for Black women. How does this serve us as a community? How does that contribute to stable Black families?

[Diplomat]

And that leaves us with Black men marrying White women at more than twice the rate that Black women marry White men exacerbating the shortage of partners for Black women. How does this serve us as a community? How does that contribute to stable Black families?

Until we acknowledge the fact that we have some issues in the black community that lend itself to the continued fragmentation, it is too easy to see biracial relationships as a threat. Some have projected that over the next several years, the white person in North America will be in the minority because of the continued migration of people from all over the world to NA. There are some people who insist on the races sticking together with their own kind but I see that as a form of reverse racism. Why would any black person promote any kind of racism, something that we experienced and which has been acknowledged as demeaning?

IMO, the notion of "stable Black families" is a diminishing concept. Like I said, there are many issues in our community that need to be addressed and waging war against interracial dating is not a hill to die on.

[Tropicana]

Until we acknowledge the fact that we have some issues in the black community that lend itself to the continued fragmentation, it is too easy to see biracial relationships as a threat.

I am one of the people who has certainly acknowledged some of the issues the community faces so you are preaching to the community.

There are some people who insist on the races sticking together with their own kind but I see that as a form of reverse racism. Why would any black person promote any kind of racism, something that we experienced and which has been acknowledged as demeaning?

Racism is that what you call it? I call it self-love.

IMO, the notion of "stable Black families" is a diminishing concept.

Come again you don't think that our community needs stable families. Odd comment coming from a pastor.

Like I said, there are many issues in our community that need to be addressed and waging war against interracial dating is not a hill to die on.

The lack of stability of families in our community and the fact that so many Black children continue to be raised in poverty in single parent homes is a are both significant issues for your community and directly related to dating issues.

[Diplomat]

Come again you don't think that our community needs stable families. Odd comment coming from a pastor.

I am also a college professor who is very familiar with the historical and current trends in the black community as it pertains to the family. Of course, our community needs stable families. What we disagree on is what those families should look like.

The lack of stability of families in our community and the fact that so many Black children continue to be raised in poverty in single parent homes is a are both significant issues for your community and directly related to dating issues.

No, there is no causal relationship between the two. To try to tie them together is being disingenuous.

Quite frankly, the story here gives me hope; kids moving away from the stereotype of their parents.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending-now/georgia-high-school-students-organize-first-ever-integrated-173643001.html

[Tropicana]

I am also a college professor who is very familiar with the historical and current trends in the black community as it pertains to the family. Of course, our community needs stable families. What we disagree on is what those families should look like.

No, there is no causal relationship between the two. To try to tie them together is being disingenuous.

Come again...you have truly got to be kidding me. Of course there is a link between single parent, single income households and poverty. How dare you accuse me of being disingenuous. I have studied this FAR more than you I assure you. It was my area of speciality.

For starters:

Child Poverty

Nearly 16 million children in the United States – 22% of all children – live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level – $23,021 a year for a family of four. Research shows that, on average, families need an income of about twice that level to cover basic expenses. Using this standard, 45% of children live in low-income families.
Most of these children have parents who work, but low wages and unstable employment leave their families struggling to make ends meet. Poverty can impede children’s ability to learn and contribute to social, emotional, and behavioral problems. Poverty also can contribute to poor health and mental health. Risks are greatest for children who experience poverty when they are young and/or experience deep and persistent poverty.
Research is clear that poverty is the single greatest threat to children’s well-being. But effective public policies – to make work pay for low-income parents and to provide high-quality early care and learning experiences for their children – can make a difference. Investments in the most vulnerable children are also critical.

http://www.nccp.org/topics/childpoverty.html

Family Composition and Poverty

Although most children raised by single parents fare well, on average they are at greater risk of poverty as well as accompanying health, academic, and behavior problems compared to children growing up with married biological parents.

The first set of columns in Figure 1 show that poor black children are substantially more likely than poor white or Hispanic children to reside in a single-parent family (58 vs. 35 and 30 percent).


Although all children included in this report live in households with incomes less than the federal poverty line (FPL), they differ with respect to how far below the FPL their households’ incomes fall. The second set of columns show that poor black children are most likely to live in households’ with incomes less than half of the FPL (36 percent vs. 30 and 29 percent).

http://www.nccp.org/publications/pub_1032.html

Comment re: integrated proms...while this is progress, there is little point in having an integrated prom if the Black women are left out. Believe you me, I know from experience of what I speak.

[Tropicana]

This Week in Poverty: US Single Mothers—'The Worst Off'


In my work covering poverty this past year, I’d be hard pressed to come up with anyone who is doing more to shatter the myths about single mothers in the United States than Tim Casey, senior staff attorney at Legal Momentum, the nation’s oldest organization advocating on behalf of the legal rights of women and girls.
Casey himself was raised by a single mother, and he is relentless in his pursuit of the facts about the real lives and living conditions of single-parent families in America—especially critical at a moment when women are demonized for being unmarried and blamed for their circumstances.
Yesterday, Casey and his colleague, Laurie Maldonado, research associate of the Luxembourg Income Study Center at the Graduate Center City University of New York, released an exhaustive new report, “Worst Off—Single-Parent Families in the United States, A Cross-National Comparison of Single Parenthood in the US and Sixteen Other High-Income Countries.”
Using data from government agencies, social scientists and researchers worldwide, the report shows that single mothers in the United States—most of whom are either separated or were previously married—are employed more hours and yet have much higher poverty rates than their peers in other high-income countries. Let me run that by you again—because it’s generally not what you’ve been reading of late in the news: the majority of single mothers in the United States are separated, divorced or widowed; and they work more hours and yet have higher poverty rates than single mothers in other high-income countries.
The employment rate for US single mothers during the mid- to late-2000s was 73 percent, compared to an average of 66 to 70 percent in peer countries. In a 2000 comparative study of nine peer countries, 87 percent of employed US single parents were working thirty or more hours a week, compared to just an average of 64 percent of jobholding single parents in the other countries.
And yet employment isn’t keeping US single parents—more than 80 percent of whom are single mothers—out of poverty. Using 50 percent of median income as the standard for measuring poverty, US children in single mother families have a poverty rate of 63 percent when only parental earnings are considered, comparable to the 61 percent average for children in single mother families in other high-income countries. But when transfer payments are included—such as a government child allowance, unemployment insurance and other assistance programs—the US rate only declines to 51 percent, while the peer countries average poverty rate falls all the way down to 27 percent.
“The reason we have these high poverty rates for single mother families—despite their comparatively high employment rates and high share of full-time workers—is because our income support system is terribly inadequate and there’s a very high rate of low-wage work,” says Casey.
Indeed, the United States lags far behind other high-income countries in supporting the combination of “jobholding and caregiving.” In all of the comparison countries, new parents are entitled to paid leave; in the United States, just 11 percent of employees enjoyed it in 2011. The United States is the only one of the seventeen comparable countries without an entitlement to paid annual leave, which averages four weeks in peer countries. With the exception of the United States and Canada, all of the comparable nations also provide paid sick days, averaging over three days per year; and ten of the countries provide up to five days of paid leave annually to care for a sick child.

Lots More Here: http://www.thenation.com/blog/171886...-mothers-worst

[Xavier]

IMO, the notion of "stable Black families" is a diminishing concept. Like I said, there are many issues in our community that need to be addressed and waging war against interracial dating is not a hill to die on.

You hit the nail on the head. Interracial dating should not even be a issue when it comes to our community as there are far too many other issues that need to be tackled.

[Tropicana]

United Kingdom


The Equality and Human Rights Commission response to:


Ending Child Poverty: Making It Happen

1. The Commission believes that child poverty cannot be seen as the unique characteristic that determines children's life-chances. The likelihood of a child achieving a range of desired outcomes in his/her life today is still closely related to a series of events or physical characteristics that are independent of his/her own capabilities. For example:

· 51% of black and black British children live in poverty compared with 27% of white children[1]
· Women heading their own households, especially lone mothers and single pensioners, have the highest risk of poverty [2]
· 1 in 4 children in poverty lives in a family with at least one disabled adult[3]
· In almost 70% of households where both parents are out of work at least one parent is disabled[4]
· BME groups in England have higher rates of unemployment; increased likelihood of living in low-income households; and a tendency to have more children, which is associated with poverty[5]

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[1] It doesn't happen here Bernardo's report 2007.

[2] Gender and Poverty. Oxfam report. 2005

[3] Households below average income DWP 2007

[4] Gabrielle Preston. 2006. A route out of poverty. Disable people, work and welfare reform. Child poverty action group.

[5] 2001 census

Lone Parents
1. Lone parenthood needs to be seen from the equalities perspective:
· Lone mothers make up 90% of lone parent households.[1]
· Black and mixed ethnicity women are particularly likely to be single mothers
· Black African and Black Caribbean women in the UK are more than three times as likely to be lone mothers as any other group of women.[2] and more likely to be lone parents than white women
· Three in 10 lone parents (29%) have a sick or disabled child

A major effort needs to be made in order to help support lone parents to enter into the labour market. Lone-parent families are four times as likely to experience persistent poverty as couple families[1] and half of lone parents do not work.^[2]. For many lone parents, employment is often insecure and temporary, with approximately 29% of those who enter employment via the New Deal for Lone Parents returning to Income Support within a year[3].

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[1] The circumstances of persistently poor families with children: Evidence from the Families and
Children Study (FACS). National Centre for Social Research on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions. 2008

[2] The circumstances of persistently poor families with children: Evidence from the Families and
Children Study (FACS). National Centre for Social Research on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions. 2008

[3] Evans M, Eyre J, Millar J and Sarre S (2003) New Deal for Lone Parents: Second Synthesis
Report of the National Evaluation DWP.

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[1] Gender and Poverty. Oxfam report. 2005


[2] Black and Ethnic Minority Women in the UK. Fawcett Society report. 2005

Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) families
1. BME families in Britain face a number of disadvantages including higher rates of unemployment and an increased likelihood of living in low-income households. Increasing the use of childcare among BME families is crucial to the government’s target of eliminating child poverty in Britain by 2020.

[Tropicana]

I don't have the study at my finger tips but definitely for the UK Black children are more likely to live in impoverished single parent housedholds than mixed race Black children. Seems the men will stick around for blondie but not for their own Black Caribbean women.

[Xavier]

I don't have the study at my finger tips but definitely for the UK Black children are more likely to live in impoverished single parent housedholds than mixed race Black children. Seems the men will stick around for blondie but not for their own Black Caribbean women.

Tropicana, are you saying that things will improve if interracial dating is barred? I just don't see how that can fix all the other issues. I always start with education...knowledge is king and it can lift you out of poverty.

[Tropicana]

Not at all. I have always made it clear that, philosophically, I am not opposed to interracial dating. It is possible for a man and woman to meet, find that they are compatible, fall in love, marry, and raise healthy well adjusted children. It is the current state of affairs that is of concern to me with twice as many Black men as Black women marrying interracially. This is an improvement. The ratio used to be 25:1. The gap is closing but not fast enough.

I am saying that as long as the interracial dating playing field is not level, there will continue to be significant numbers of Black women raising children in poverty without partners. I have taught my son that until these realities change, he needs to make a commitment to marry a solid, Christian Black woman and raise children in a Christian home. I can't force him to make that choice but I have let him the realities and his responsibility to the Black community. If more mothers did that, we would not see Black men so eager to go White once they have experienced financial success.

When the status quo changes and people of other races begin to teach their children to be colour blind in their choices, then we can also teach our children to be colour blind when selecting partners. Right now, the only people benefiting from the status quo are White women who can select from the most affluent partners from just about any race. (There are also a lot of self-loathing Indian and Asian men who hanker after White women.) We are shooting ourselves in the foot when we tell our sons that colour doesn't matter. In the world as it is.....it does.