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September 23, 2010

Thoughts on "No Wedding, No Womb!"

Yesterday, bloggers united to bring awareness to a very important issue. The goal was to challenge the problem of fatherlessness and out-of-wedlock births in the black community.  "No Wedding, No Womb!" was the brain-child of Christelyn D. Karazin.  It's clear that children who are reared in two-parent homes fare better socially, educationally and economically.  I'm so glad that so many people want to address such an important moral and social issue.

I like the fact that this movement was focused specifically on the African American community. Often when people focus directly on an issue as it affects black people,they are met with a "what about all the [insert another group/race] who have this issue" attitude that is unproductive.  Martin Luther King said, "One of the sure signs of maturity is the ability to rise to the point of self-criticism."  Though having children outside of marriage is not an issue exclusive to the black community, it's an issue that hits the black community harder than any other segment of society--we should be ok with facing that.

We have tough decisions to make if we want to change the statistics on out-of-wedlock births in the black community.  Social programs can't solve issues like this and avoiding or downplaying the importance of personal responsibility does us a disservice.  There are real choices that have to be made on a personal level with regards to the way we view marriage, children, and sex.

I applaud Christelyn for her efforts and I hope that it becomes more common for us to humbly examine and take responsibility for addressing our issues as a people.

Please visit http://www.beyondblackwhite.com/nwnw/ to see all of the blogs done in support of the "No Wedding, No Womb!" movement.

Around 70 percent of black children are born to unmarried women.  What is necessary to change this?
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3 comments:

LaNeshe said...

Definitely an issue that needs to be spoken to.

Anonymous said...

Wrong! All children in a two parent household do not ALWAYS fare better! Visit you local school and get a real glimpse not manipulated data.

Trevor said...

I think we all know people from single-parent homes who are now healthy, productive adults and we know people from two-parent homes who didn't fare so well. I was raised in a single-parent home from age 10 on up--and I think I turned out ok. So, I'm not discounting the exceptions, I was just stating that as whole, children from two-parent homes generally fare better in our society.

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