Friday, October 23, 2009

Be Fruitful and Multiply!


While doing my usual daily blog reads I stumbled upon an interesting topic that quickly grabbed my attention. From the blog A Belle in Brooklyn:

"What is going to become of African- Americans if all of the educated folks continue to be baby free?...
...The people in our community that need to produce the most are not and the people who need to stop producing, multiply like there is no tomorrow. What will happen to future generations?? We complain that there is a lack (in particular) of well mannnered, educated AA men. But if we are not getting married and having babies and in turn, raising well-mannered, educated AA men, who is to blame?"

Like a puppy my ears perked up and was at attention. Rather alarming at first, but it does bring to the forefront a very important question. Why are the educated, successful, upper crust African Americans not reproducing. Now, that's not to say that NO educated African Americans are having babies. But, in comparison the vast majority of successful African American women are single, childless; and if they do have children, its usually one, or two. I am guilty of this myself. I am educated, I classify myself as successful, yet I am still single, marriage no where in sight, and when that does happen (which it WILL..lol) I only plan on having one child...if any at all.

Are we to blame for the direction our community seems to be headed? Of course well ALL share in the responsibility. Now, don't get me wrong by no means am i saying go out and start having babies like rabbits. However, I cannot deny that the question did not open my eyes a bit. Ok, maybe now I'll have two children (lol); but seriously, WHY are we not reproducing? Why are we not 'training a child up in the way he should go." But in the same token must we give birth to the next generation in order to play an active role in their lives? So maybe we are not ready to have children of our own. That is understandable, I am definitely not ready to have a child. So, can we not in turn nurture the child of another, a child who may not have a parent at home who was afforded the opportunities we were?

2 comments:

rey said...

a couple of things...
1) i'm really tired of the separation of people into races.. i doubt that it is only the upper echelon of black people are not having many children... i'm pretty sure that all rich people have fewer kids... not just black people
2) i dont think the purpose of living is to reproduce, when i tell people i dont plan on having kids they look at me as though i wont fulfill my predetermined role as a man to plant a seed... i feel that in life there are many paths, parenthood is just one...
3) i would imagine people with little time on their hands and little money have less opportunities to have a wide variety of experience... as such they will indulge in sex (drugs and alcohol) because it's cheap... unfortunately this leads to pregnancies... and abortions cost $$ so you drop 1...2...3 kids and before you know it you have a football team... this is just the way things are... not good not bad just is ... so i let it be :)

Tori D. said...

This is a topic that I've been thinking about as well. I compare all of the people I know from high school who are content having multiple babies with no real means of bettering their lives or living situations. They are okay with where they are, even though their children will be brought up in areas that typically see a cycle of poverty, crime, lack of education, etc. Then I look at how many of my college-educated, "upwardly mobile" peers are having babies. The numbers don't even compare.

Part of me feels that we should be trying to reproduce (when the time/means are conducive) because children who are raised in an environment where education, bettering one's self, etc. are the norm are more likely to aspire to that as opposed to being willing to slip back into poverty, crime, etc. On the other hand, I do not want kids! They just don't fit into my life plan, and I seem to hear this more and more from my peers.

Instead I think we'd make a greater impact by mentoring these children that are coming up in less-than-ideal situations. Show them that there is something more, something better that they can have. If we don't get to them while they are young and try to mold them, it won't matter how many children we have; they'd fall victim to those that don't know any other way but taking advantage of others.


Sorry so long & all over the place!

 
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