Black in America 2: Parenthood

Good evening everyone! I hope that you enjoyed tonight's special and more importantly, I hope you find something insightful to take back from this Blog. As always, please feel free to share your comments and viewpoints. Because of all the segments of tonight's show, I'm going to focus on the one issue that is most glaring to me.

The first part of the special was particularly intriguing to me so I'll apologize in advance in focus on it a lot. The staggering marriage/divorce statistics in the United States are only dwarfed by 6 countries (Sweden is #1 with a 54.9% divorce rate) in the entire world! India has the lowest divorce rate in the world with 1.1%. These statistics are courtesy of Americans for Divorce Reform. The United States is in 7th place worldwide with a 45.8% divorce rate. Though divorce is a troubling issue in every community, there is no doubt that the African American community is plagued by this problem. Now, if you were watching Black in America 2, you saw the marriage counselor who was in her second marriage with a husband over 500 miles away. I can't lie...I thought it was RIDICULOUS!!!! If I was in there, I'm sure I wouldn't have been able to take her seriously but at the same time, she did make some valid points. She commended the couple for being great parents but did say they miss the mark on the marriage portion.

My view on the whole thing is just this: Playing House isn't married. It seems like more and more people in my generation and community are starting to use those two phrases interchangeably. Eventually, these "play houses" turn into single parent homes (often single mothers) raising children. Leading to a whole slew of problems that we are all very aware of. I'm sure that some of you may think the biggest problem is the incarceration rate of blacks, others may think that it is the education deficiencies in the community but I think the biggest problem leads to the two that I have just mentioned. So here it is...the BIGGEST problem to the African American community is the amount of children being born to unmarried parents. Take this number - 69...as in 69% of ALL BLACK children born are born to unmarried parents! Crazy, right!? Especially when compared to 43% of Hispanic children and 28% of Whites. When you take that and look at a lot of the issues plaguing the community while also considering the percentage of divorces, you can't help but see catalyst of problems to come.

Now, don't get me wrong...I do not think that any situation or environment is too big to overcome. Look at Tyler Perry's portion of Black in America 2 if you need a refresher. At the end of the day, will power, determination, drive, and faith can take a person farther than any letter of recommendation can but it is important that we understand the impact of our decisions. In a era of "Kids having kids", we are all seeing more and more of peers having children at a young age and in situations that are "less than desirable". Before I conclude, I want to shout out ALL the parents out there that are doing what they are supposed to! *applause* You all have more strength that I do because my favorite kind of kids are the ones you can return at the end of the day, lol. Lord knows that my parents weren't ready/prepared for me but they did what they had to do and didn't take the OTHER way out. I appreciate it because I know that having a hard life is better than not having a life at all. So with that said, we have to do a better job of giving our children the opportunities that we never had. That begins with us doing the things that we need to do (go to school, get a good job, etc.) to provide the proper resources that allow our children to thrive.

*Inspired by Black In America 2*

Until next time folks....