Black Male Oedipus Complex

I don't know if it's just me, but Kanye West's song brings up memories of me dating black men who never stopped dating their mothers, and really never removed themselves off of the tit. I think I'm going to throw up as these flashes of men who had these bizarre pseudo-sexual, intimate relationships. This song is honestly raw and disturbing as it shows that Kanye is still a young boy trying to navigate his affections for his mother and his mother's affections for another male.

I never thought that a man calling his mother every night and regulating her evening activities was healthy. And real talk, I got a cousin who said his mother can never have a boyfriend. He's married with children and lives miles away, while she is alone and going through major health complications. So she's been dickless for about the last 15 years.

Interestingly, in time for father's day, I would like to thank all the men who planted seeds and left little black boys to create a manhood that was wrapped around their mother's frustrations from absentee father's and complicated dating life. And I want to congratulate all the mother's who kept their children from their father's as a tactic of vengeance due to a funky relationship with their baby's father.

All of you's who were raised by women, this is not a stab. Black women have raised millions of beautiful children. But I'm not going to front, some of my friends biggest pains are men who simply cannot let go of their mother's to develop an intimate relationship.

BTW, single mothers, your son is not your n*gga, and never will be. He is not the man of the house, and please let him be a child. But I forewarn you, don't take him anywhere near Eddie Long's church or Longfellow program.


Mama Jones Is The HBIC: "In this bonus clip from Episode 7 of Love & Hip Hop, Mama Jones is furious with curious for not giving her a heads up about the proposal!"

Homeless Mother Arrested for Knowingly Sending Child to School District Outside of Where She Lives (Um, She's Homeless?)

Damn, can a sista catch a break in America anymore? I don't know what's going on, but I have a hard time believing that municipalities are so strapped for cash that they would arrest a homeless woman for sending her kid to the wrong school district. Um, hello, when someone's homeless, they don't actually have a school district to call their own, do they? Help me understand this shit because obviously it's above my pay-grade just a tad bit. Yep, I'm gonna need one of youse people in Connecticut to 'splain this one here:

NORWALK -- A homeless woman from Bridgeport who enrolled her 6-year-old son at a Norwalk elementary school has become the first in the city to be charged with stealing more than $15,000 for the cost of her child's education.

Tonya McDowell, 33, whose last known address was 66 Priscilla St., Bridgeport, was charged Thursday with first-degree larceny and conspiracy to commit first-degree larceny for allegedly stealing $15,686 from Norwalk schools. She was released after posting a $25,000 bond.

McDowell's babysitter, Ana Rebecca Marques, was also evicted from her Roodner Court public housing apartment for providing documents to enroll the child at Brookside Elementary School.

The police investigation into the residency began in January after Norwalk Housing Authority attorney Donna Lattarulo filed a complaint alleging McDowell registered her son at Brookside, but actually lived in an apartment on Priscilla Street in Bridgeport.

As part of the evidence presented in the complaint, police received an affidavit of residency signed by McDowell and dated last September attesting that she lived in the Roodner Court public housing complex on Ely Ave.

When she was interviewed by police in the case, McDowell admitted to living in Bridgeport at the time she registered her son in Norwalk schools.

She said she knew a man who owned a home on Priscilla Street and he allowed her to sleep at the home at night, but she had to leave the home during the day until he returned from work.

She also acknowledged that she stays from time to time at the Norwalk Emergency Shelter when she has nowhere else to stay.

McDowell also admitted that Marques was her son's babysitter from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. after the boy got out of school.

After the Norwalk Housing Authority became aware that Marques helped McDowell by providing documents needed to get McDowell's son into Brookside, Marques was evicted from her apartment in January.[...]

Sounds like somebody at the housing authority was mad "somebody" was sleeping on someone's couch. Hell, it's a wonder they're not trying to get back-rent. Surely they can get blood from a tunip so that in itself shouldn't be a problem, right? If only everyone working for the city saw it that way.

Saying No to Pregnant Women in Bars & Yes to Pregnant Teens in Frayser High School

OK, so I know what you're thinking. Yep, you're probably staring at the pic above and wondering; is this woman really in a bar or nightclub pregnant, and chugging down a few beers? Yeah I know, I did the same thing too; and, a part of me wants to think she's drinking that new Kool Aid that comes in a brown bottle. But then gravity hit and pulled me back to reality; I realized that there are women, who though pregnant frequent these spots without a care.

Case in point, check out what happened to Michelle Lee:

A bar in suburban Roselle could end up in a legal battle after forcing a woman to leave because she was eight months pregnant.

Michelle Lee, a 29-year-old Chicago native now living in Denver, came into town for a baby shower last week and her friends talked her into a night out afterward, ABC News reports.

Lee and her friends went to the Coach House in Roselle--about 30 miles northwest of Chicago--where she planned on drinking some water and having a slice of pizza, until a bouncer approached.

"He said to me, 'I have a personal question to ask you, are you pregnant?' I said yes. Then he said, 'I'm going to have to ask you to leave,'" Lee told ABC.

For Colored Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When Not Getting Hired Because of Gold Fronts is Enuf

Alright, I know what you're thinking; and no, this isn't one of those posts where I rip the movie apart. Nor is it one of those posts where I defend the movie "For Colored Girls..." from the criticisms of the Neo-Negro Bourgeois, as I'm known to do. The truth is, I haven't seen the movie, the play, nor have I read the book.

There has been much back and forth as to be expected about the movie especially since Tyler Perry was involved in its production. However, since every black blogger has an obligatory "For Colored... [insert whatever's fucked up about the Black community here]" who am I to be any different.

Not to get into a black gender war or anything, but since the movie - from what I heard - had more to do with "colored boys" and their dysfunctional behavior. I wanted to take a moment to shine some light on some pretty damning news via a study released yesterday by Council of the Great City Schools, via The New York Times:

An achievement gap separating black from white students has long been documented — a social divide extremely vexing to policy makers and the target of one blast of school reform after another.

But a new report focusing on black males suggests that the picture is even bleaker than generally known.

Only 12 percent of black fourth-grade boys are proficient in reading, compared with 38 percent of white boys, and only 12 percent of black eighth-grade boys are proficient in math, compared with 44 percent of white boys.

Poverty alone does not seem to explain the differences: poor white boys do just as well as African-American boys who do not live in poverty, measured by whether they qualify for subsidized school lunches.

The data was distilled from highly respected national math and reading tests, known as the National Assessment for Educational Progress, which are given to students in fourth and eighth grades, most recently in 2009. The report, “A Call for Change,” is to be released Tuesday by the Council of the Great City Schools, an advocacy group for urban public schools.

Although the outlines of the problem and many specifics have been previously reported, the group hopes that including so much of what it calls “jaw-dropping data” in one place will spark a new sense of national urgency.

“What this clearly shows is that black males who are not eligible for free and reduced-price lunch are doing no better than white males who are poor,” said Michael Casserly, executive director of the council.

The report shows that black boys on average fall behind from their earliest years. Black mothers have a higher infant mortality rate and black children are twice as likely as whites to live in a home where no parent has a job. In high school, African-American boys drop out at nearly twice the rate of white boys, and their SAT scores are on average 104 points lower. In college, black men represented just 5 percent of students in 2008.

The analysis of results on the national tests found that math scores in 2009 for black boys were not much different than those for black girls in Grades 4 and 8, but black boys lagged behind Hispanics of both sexes, and they fell behind white boys by at least 30 points, a gap sometimes interpreted as three academic grades.

The search for explanations has recently looked at causes besides poverty, and this report may further spur those efforts.

Great, because this news is so bad that this is something we must discuss, folks. As a matter of fact, in light of this revealing study, I'm now motivated to start an online movement in an attempt to save our "colored boys".

The Baby Momma's Momma's Momma: Ignorance, Guilt, Religion, & Disregard

by Tracy Renee Jones

She’s twenty years old now. My greatest accomplishment and most trying and involved personal project, my daughter is so very much the reason that I still exist. I wouldn’t be here had it not been for her being here. I’m not sure at what point I would go back in time and choose to do anything differently. So many links in a chain of events contributed to her being here.

Life is supposed to be precious because ‘they’ say so, but life isn’t precious. Nor is life a great blessing, nor is life a journey. Life…..is a repetitive cycle of complicated challenges, innumerable daily obstacles, disappointments, frustrations, and thankless requirements.

Life is a bitch…and then you die. I have life, because I chose to give my daughter life, because I was taught that that is the ‘right’ thing to do. I live, because I’ve always been painfully aware of what life is really like and I refuse to allow my daughter to face THIS shit on her own.

No Wedding, No Womb: DICK, DUDES, & DECISIONS [#NWNW]

By Tracy Renee Jones

I don’t know what to think at this point. Is #NWNW... No Willie, No Worries? No Way, No Wood? No Wedding, No Waka? No Wage, No Wedding? Or is it No Roger, No Re-Run, No Rent? Honestly, I’m getting dizzy. And I think I’m insulted…or maybe I'm not, and the theme makes sense but the mission lacks any particular stance, so is it NOT MEANT for me to figure out which side I’m on?

Maybe my only participation in the debate about my pussy, my potential (partner) and my partner’s (potential) is for me to sit here and be further confused (and contribute to these pages hits on all these websites). What was I supposed to be saying ? Oh, yeah..so….DICK, DUDES and DECISIONS.

Do I think the "No Wedding; No Womb!" campaign to be a worthy one? Indeed, I do think the cause is worthy…YOUNG BLACK PEOPLE are more than worthy. I say this as a single mother because this shit ain’t a cake walk. Back when I was a teen, no one openly discussed being a single mother, or sex, or relationships, or the potential a young person has if they choose to make critical decisions and the follow through involved when it came to obtaining life goals.

Back then, a young person had demands placed on their raging, growing (growling) hormones and not much else to go by. I feel that the NWNW opens the discussion about why more Black women do NOT control their incidences of birth in this day and age and I’m all for that.

Stuff White People Don't Like: White women being forced to 'live on welfare' like those 'lazy black people'

Over at The New York Times I read a piece discussing recent cuts in child care subsidies; and how they negatively impacting single mothers. The article told the story of Alexandria Wallace, a 22yr old single mother struggling to find employment in our tough economy.

Ironically, Alexandria lives in the state of Arizona, and she is also white. And as you know, all eyes are on Arizona given their recent "effective"  legislative introductions to their resident. Check out Alexandria's story as highlighted and titled, The New Poor: Cuts to Child Care Subsidy Thwart More Job Seekers:

TUCSON — Able-bodied, outgoing and accustomed to working, Alexandria Wallace wants to earn a paycheck. But that requires someone to look after her 3-year-old daughter, and Ms. Wallace, a 22-year-old single mother, cannot afford child care.

Last month, she lost her job as a hair stylist after her improvised network of baby sitters frequently failed her, forcing her to miss shifts. She qualifies for a state-run subsidized child care program. But like many other states, Arizona has slashed that program over the last year, relegating Ms. Wallace’s daughter, Alaya, to a waiting list of nearly 11,000 eligible children.

Despite a substantial increase in federal support for subsidized child care, which has enabled some states to stave off cuts, others have trimmed support, and most have failed to keep pace with rising demand, according to poverty experts and federal officials.

That has left swelling numbers of low-income families struggling to reconcile the demands of work and parenting, just as they confront one of the toughest job markets in decades.

The cuts to subsidized child care challenge the central tenet of the welfare overhaul adopted in 1996, which imposed a five-year lifetime limit on cash assistance. Under the change, low-income parents were forced to give up welfare checks and instead seek paychecks, while being promised support — not least, subsidized child care — that would enable them to work.

Now, in this moment of painful budget cuts, with Arizona and more than a dozen other states placing children eligible for subsidized child care on waiting lists, only two kinds of families are reliably securing aid: those under the supervision of child protective services — which looks after abuse and neglect cases — and those receiving cash assistance.

Ms. Wallace abhors the thought of going on cash assistance, a station she associates with lazy people who con the system. Yet this has become the only practical route toward child care.

So, on a recent afternoon, she waited in a crush of beleaguered people to submit the necessary paperwork. Her effort to avoid welfare through work has brought her to welfare’s door.

“It doesn’t make sense to me,” she says. “I fall back to — I can’t say ‘being a lowlife’ — but being like the typical person living off the government. That’s not what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to use this as a backbone, so I can develop my own backbone.” (read more)

Now of course the larger issue here is that states are cutting back on programs that provides funding for child-care. They are doing so even after the Obama administration added $2 billion the $5 billion the federal gov't gives to states for said programs in last years Stimulus. The Obama administration has also proposed a $1.6 billion dollar increase in funding for the 2011 fiscal year. However, I do take issue with the presentation centering on single white mothers as "the new poor". Ethnicity aside, I think what Arizona and other states have done, dangerously sets low-income, single unemployed mothers back.