My Brother’s Keeper & the Co-Optation of Intersectionality

 

Yesterday, while we lamented the SCOTUS decision to exempt Hobby Lobby and other Corporations-cum-People from paying for Lessina birth control because it violates their religious freedom, I learned that 30 Black women released a signed letter offering their support for the President’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative.  This letter from women like former Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin and Rev. Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr., comes on the heels of two major letters from the African American Policy Forum, one from a group of 200 Black men asking for the inclusion of women and girls in My Brother’s Keeper and one from over 1400 women of color, including Alice Walker, Angela Davis, and Anita Hill, asking for the same.

 

In a moment when it is so clear that the war on women is real, I wonder how Black women can accept analyses coming out of the White House re: MBK that marginalize Black women’s struggle. I have been thinking on this for weeks, as I have participated with the group of folks helping to organize a response to MBK. When I initially saw those sisters caping for the President, I thought of a favorite line from Project Pat: “Don’t Save ‘Em…They Don’t Wanna Be Saved.”

But I know that’s not productive. So let me think it through out loud with you.

 

Is our struggle invisible to us, too? I don’t believe that. Do we really believe that men have it worse than we do? I think many sisters do. I also think that while we have received and transmitted an incredibly sophisticated analysis of the nuances of racism and how it impacts our lives, we have been more reticent to think through the effects of patriarchy and sexism, primarily because it  creates a rift between us and Black men.  And at an affective level, we feel connected to Black men. Moreover, what so many sisters want, straight sisters who dominate the discourse on this, is a strong Black man, a knight in shining armor type, to show up for us, save us, love us, care for us, ride for us, and provide for us.  Hell I want that, too, but not at the cost of political invisibility.  And even though most Black women know this program won’t make that happen, we would support almost any program that makes it possible for us to have more Baracks for our many Michelles.

 

Also when we dare to assert that our womanhood matters, that sexism is a racial concern, there is hell to pay. The charges of race traitor get thrown like so many grenades.  As all the conflagrations pop off, brothers can’t hear us when we say, yes, young Black men and boys are in crisis. And they need all the help they can get. If that is all we were saying, they would hear that, but because we dare to say this:

 

Black girls need help, too.

 

We get branded as race traitors.

 

There’s a deep psychology to this that is disturbing. What will it take for us to become a both/and kind of people? What will it take for us to build racial freedom visions that include everyone? What will it take for Black men to stop telling the lie that our desire to be included is a call for Black men’s exclusion? The opposite is far more true. When Black men call for their inclusion it is frequently predicated on our exclusion. Brothers feel very little political allegiance to Black women as Black women. Their political analyses make very little space for gender, other than their own.

 

At the heart of this though is a far more inconvenient truth. To deal with Black women’s struggles would be to have to confront issues of male privilege, rampant sexism, and copious amounts of sexual and physical violence perpetrated on Black women at the hands of Black men. With us, it ain’t just the system that beats us. Our brothers beat us, too. Not all brothers. Not even most brothers. But far too damn many. And no one wants to address those issues because it seems then like we are pathologizing Black men.

 

So instead, they say simply help the race, and by helping the race, they mean Black men.

 

This is unacceptable.

 

It is unacceptable because we go to the same schools, live in the same unsafe communities, deal with the same systemic lack of access to resources that Black boys do.

 

It is unacceptable because like Ersula Ore, a professor at Arizona State University, Black women are frequently harassed by and violently engaged by police, who have no problem using excessive force, even when it is clear that we pose no threat to anyone’s safety.

 

But here’s the thing: I’m not going to spend this post engaging in attempts to prove that Black women and girls are doing worse than Black men.

 

For one thing, I don’t have to prove that. I simply have to show that Black girls are doing badly and are in need of help. The idea that two severely sick people don’t both need medical care is absurd. The measure by which we determine wellness is not whether you are as sick as another person but whether you are in fact well. And it would behoove us not to forget that.

 

So no intelligent person who responds to actual facts and studies (which you can see here and here)  can rightly conclude that Black women and girls en masse are doing well by any social measure.

 

This whole conversation isn’t about facts. The facts are on the side of helping women & girls alongside boys and men.

 

This is about feelings. This is about the President’s feelings about not having a father. This is about Black men’s feelings of invisibility in a system that makes clear in so many way that they are first and foremost, a problem with which to be reckoned.  This is about Black men’s feelings of pride at having the leader of the free world, a Black man, stand up finally and say “Black men matter.” And this is also about Black men’s deep and inexplicable feelings of hatred and resentment toward Black women, summed up the best by Chris Brown and pastor Jamal Harrison Bryant: “These Hoes Ain’t Loyal.”

 

And it is those feelings, rooted as most of them are (sans the disloyalty) in actual social realities, that make it seemingly impossible for brothers (and sisters) to get out of their feelings and assimilate new facts into their frame.

 

So rather than engage facts, they use accusations. “You academics are elitist, out of touch, and you are letting feminism run amok.”

 

To be clear, I grew up in a family where most of the men have had some level of interaction with the prison industrial complex. This shit is not theoretical for me. But I also grew up in a community where lots of young girls had babies before they had the resources to parent. My own father was taken out by gun violence, but he was a terrible domestic abuser, and that meant that I had to deal with those things while going to school and trying to make excellent grades. Correcting his abuse would have helped, certainly. But resources to help my mom not struggle to make it would also have helped. Mainly having governmental resources that not dictate what kind of family structure my mother should choose to be well mattered most.

 

When I went to school I dealt with racist teachers who made me cry everyday, teachers who saw my questions and my right answers as a challenge to their authority, teachers who tried in big and small ways to break my spirit. I made it, but so many of the other Black children – boys and girls—didn’t. Again, this shit isn’t theoretical.

 

Here are three prevailing responses to our advocacy for women and girls of color.

Let the boys/men go first. Well we’ve heard that one before.

 

The Council on Women & Girls helps women and girls of color. Oh I thought our race was always supposed to matter first. Let us not forget the way the brothers tripped in 2008 over Hillary. As one man said to me, the question is “what matters more? Your Blackness or your womanhood?” To him I replied, “find me the moment in which I’m not one of those at exactly the same moment that I am the other and I will answer your question.”

But now all of a sudden, we are women first. And we need to lay our claims for resources that acknowledge the realities of both race and gender to the side.

That is the most insidious and wrong-headed cooptation of intersectional discourse I’ve ever seen.  As it goes, if it’s not white women, then it’s Black men, coopting the project of intersectionality to narrow the parameters of our freedom vision rather than make them more expansive and inclusive.

 

Women and girls of color are doing just fine. To quote Clair Huxtable, “Let the Record Show” that that is complete and total bullshit.

The frame that governs Black politics at large remains deeply patriarchal. That frame says a few things. Among them, slavery emasculated Black men and made it impossible for them to assume their rightful place at the head of Black families and communities. 2nd, Black men are targeted by racist policies in which they are killed, locked up, and otherwise disfranchised by police. 3rd, even though Black women have also been harmed by slavery, Jim Crow, and modern day iterations, rape is a lesser crime than lynching. Moreover if our men were able to lead families, they could protect “our” women from rape. So rape is first and foremost a disrespect to the Black man’s right of sexual entitlement over his woman. 4th, Brothers are an endangered species. 5th, if we could just restore Black men to the head of communities, all would be well.

 

President Obama may not subscribe to every idea listed above, but he subscribes to and traffics in the father-lack narrative that binds these ideas together, going around giving copious speeches about how much he missed having a dad. A father lack narrative is not the basis of good social policy. Black feminist scholars have talked about forever how this idea of father lack, which also translates to the larger idea of needing men to lead shit, functions to pathologize the work of Black mothers and to minimize the leadership capacity of Black women.

In this regard, the President has become Moynihan 2.0. And the fact that he is progressive about women’s issues more generally does not mean he is progressive on the role that Black women play in communities. More to the point, whatever he may know intellectually about the role Black women play, that knowledge is trumped by the emotive force of his father lack narrative. Long way to say, the President remains all in his feelings about not having a daddy and we are paying for it.

Let me also take this opportunity to respond to those critics who say, “why would we on the left or far left actually expect or look to the federal government to save Black people’s lives?”

Good question. And valid point. At best, MBK is a neoliberal framework that abdicates the federal government of actual monetary responsibility to ameliorate the social conditions it created. It suggests that helping men and boys of color is a public good, but that the actual machinery to lift them up is a private duty. It simply outsources that private duty from communities of color to corporations.

And in a world where corporations are people, (rich, white male people who can practice religion apparently) outsourcing the fate of Black boys to said corporations is dubious at best.

 

But here’s the issue: MBK is the president’s signature racial justice initiative. I know it doesn’t deserve that designation, but such as it is, it is what we have. And what this initiative does at a discursive level is make a powerful and unprecedented argument about the ways that long-standing racial structures have structurally disadvantaged and limited the pathways to success for men and boys of color, particularly Black men.

 

Thus the initiative suggests that when a group is structurally disadvantaged the government has a prevailing responsibility to stand up and offer resources to ameliorate those conditions.

 

This is an important argument, despite the fact that I have serious reservations about its execution.

 

But when juridical structures interpellate identities, which is a fancy way of saying that when the law recognizes your unique structural position, it sets a precedent for future forms of recognition.

 

What MBK does is remove Black women, very particularly, from this social equation. By arguing forthrightly for the legitimacy of excluding us, it suggests that we are not structurally disadvantaged by long standing systems of racism. Or if we are, the refusal to commit resources to help us, suggests that we have magical powers to overcome these systems.

 

Of course, neither of these things is true.

 

And while it is true that helping Black boys and men does help Black women, my question is “Are we only worthy of trickle down racial justice?”

 

Surely not.

 

When Kimberle Crenshaw theorized intersectionality 25 years ago, she was offering a solution to a specific problem. Existing legal frameworks could not account for forms of employment discrimination that were unique to Black women. They could help if all Black people were excluded or all women were excluded but not if Black women as an intersecting category were excluded, for say, wearing braids.

A quarter century later, our first Black president, who enjoys the overwhelming support of Black women, is using the logic and social analyses pioneered by Black women to argue for our active exclusion. And  some of our most powerful Black women are actively co-signing the madness.

Jesus wept.

Black women deserve better. Even the ones who don’t know they do. And we won’t stop fighting till we get it.

Further Reading: Paul D. Butler, “Black Male Exceptionalism? The Problems and Potential of Black Male Focused Interventions”  DuBois Review, Vol. 10, 2013. (PDF Here)

46 thoughts on “My Brother’s Keeper & the Co-Optation of Intersectionality

  1. This is a good article.. And while I do agree that Black women’s struggle is bad, so is ours.. We can’t just ignore our different roles in life.. I think we should respect them.. It’s not like Black men are doing better than Black women, in fact Black men are doing worst than Black women.. We should be all treated equally but let one thing happen at a time instead of trying to make more trouble.. These women just want to support Black men which is what is lacking extremely in the Black community today..

    1. We should support Black men, but then the question becomes in what ways do Black men also intend to support us? Again, if one thing has to happen at a time, why is it now gentlemen first instead of ladies?

      1. No it’s not gentlemen before ladies, and I do support Black women, I always defend you guys, and tell you how beautiful you are, but that’s not the point.. And if Black women support Black men so much why is there so many of us acting up.. Everything has a root.. Wanting a strong, Black man is not supporting them, it’s putting expectations without encouragement.. I get the article and that Black women don’t need to be left out, but there are venues for Black women what about teaching a Black man how to do a man..

      2. What’s the extent of your support? Telling us how beautiful we are? I need WAY more than that.

        What have you done to support Black women on a more meaningful level? For example, at baseline, have you rallied against the viewing of the black female body as a sex object, meant only to be consumed by males — i.e. do you take a stance against the way we are portrayed in hip hop/rap music and media? Do you acknowledge that street harassment is a real issue? When engaging with Black women, are you conscious of whether or not you are consistently acknowledging them as equal individuals, deserving and worthy of respect?

        You clearly haven’t acknowledged that our problems are valid, so your “I do support Black women” statement is already negated. I, a Black woman, feel thoroughly UNSUPPORTED by you based on the content of this initial response and all of the responses you have posted thus far. My mirror told me I was beautiful this morning. That’s not all that we need from y’all.

      3. Listen Courtney, I always have acknowledged Black women as individuals, and I always will.. I have a mother, sisters, a pastor, all Black women.. Now I may not rally or anything because frankly it’s not my thing.. I have never disrespected a Black women in my life, even if they disrespected me, which has happen because I’m a nice guy. I’m very conscious around people period. I’m sorry if I came off the way you said I did, but you gotta look around.. Sure Black women need help, but there are a lot that is getting it, while Black men very seldom get appreciation.. It’s just mostly frowns and disregards.. Do you support Black men, do you want more of us in college just like you guys are doing?… Do you want Black guys to feel like they rock?.. Cause honestly I don’t feel like it sometimes…

    2. Yeah…no. No to all of this junk. There is no “fact” to the matter that Black men are doing worse than Black women (did you read the article?). That is a value judgment, buddy, not a statement of fact. And, just so you know, it it is pretty clear who you value and who you don’t. And, just a note…saying we should all be treated equally disallows you from saying ‘but Black men should go first.’ C’mon man! And finally, there ain’t never been a shortage of Black women supporting Black men. Stop the madness!

      1. I’ve lived with a single mom all of life, who has taught me the best way that she can on how to be a man, I also go to a church full of women where the pastor is a widowed women whom I respect deeply.. Don’t tell who I value and over who.. There is also more Black women attending college than ever now, more so than a lot of other groups at this time.. While they is a complaint that there is a shortage of Black men in that realm.. I’m sorry if I implied that Black men should go first but that wasn’t the intent for my statement..

    3. Hey people I’m sorry to anyone this comment offended, I didn’t mean to say that I think Black men should be first and women should be second.. This was typed out of a sensitive moment.. Black women shouldn’t be left out because they do need help too, but if any of you haven’t read the statistic Black women are leaving us behind.. There are venues to tell Black people how beautiful they are, and you even have a Black women’s expo where you’ll find plenty of Black men.. But how much do we have for Black men?…

    4. Wow. You really didn’t read the article, did you? At best, it looks like you did a quick glance at the first couple of paragraphs. Crunktastic is speaking to your way of thinking: that it is not an either or and that all black people matter and that the “one at a time” attitude is extremely detrimental.

      1. Oh I read the article, and I know that she still supports it despite the fact that she still strongly believes it’s sexist.. Here is why the Black community is never able to get things done. Too busy seeing the glass as half empty instead of half full! There is no question there is a greater need for mentors for males in the black community than females. The percentage of black families being raised by a single mother is far greater than that of other races. Many of these young men lives in families absent of all men including fathers, brothers, male cousins, uncles, grandfathers. It is often said it takes a village but what is a young man to do when the village is absent, in jail, on drugs, or absent by choice. That statement one at a time was bore of a a spur in the moment. Black women already have programs dedicated to them. It’s women like you that can’t see what’s really going on..

  2. Sounds to me like this brother is saying that “we should all be treated equally” but Black men should go first cause the roles they play in life are somehow more important.

    This does not sound like equality in any meaningful sense to me.

      1. Black Boys and Girls both need assistance and guidance… So let’s create a “my sister’s keeper” program and call it a holy day! There is no harm in educating boys and girls separately to deal with their individually collective issues. As they mature through the programs, we can bring them together..

        Everyone please stop complaining (its negative and gets us NO WHERE!) and start creating!

  3. Jay David: what statistics? I would love to learn what is your proof that we are leaving behind black men.

    Why is it so hard for so many black men to sit with their privilege? The bottom line is this: I want black men to have all the resources you need to be well. We’re up against 500+ years of conditioning, racial violence, etc, so its gonna take that much more for all of us to be well. But I am NOT interested in the holistic liberation of black men that so you can just become a white man and allow you treat us the way white men have treated us for centuries. Sometimes I wonder if that’s what this whole thing is about, many black men wanting access to the whitesupremacistheteropatriarchalcapitalism power structure that has put many white men at the top. Im not supporting black men’s liberation from white supremacy just to make you my new oppressor. Nope.

    1. Come on Mandisa really?.. You can look on the news and see what’s going on.. Black women 57% of college attendance, that’s better than a lot of group of women.. You guys are really coming up.. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, one in three Black men can expect to go to prison in their lifetime. http://americanprogress.org/issues/race/news/2012/03/13/11351/the-top-10-most-startling-facts-about-people-of-color-and-criminal-justice-in-the-united-states/..http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-09-28/the-plight-of-young-black-men-is-worse-than-you-think.. http://www.clutchmagonline.com/2014/02/know-black-women-lead-groups-college-enrollment-watch/.. You might want to look at all of these if you have the time.. Good day to you ma’am..

      1. Thank you for the statistics that still don’t show that “we are coming up.” Even though we are more likely to have higher education, black men still out earn us. Who is the fastest growing prison population? Who has the highest rates of interpersonal and sexual violence committed against us? Who is getting blamed for committing genocide yet simultaneously scapegoated for having too many welfare babies and subsequently blamed for our failed economy? What does it mean when both mom, dad, aunt, grandmother, uncle, are all in prison-who bears the brunt then?

        Our comment chain shows that BLACK PEOPLE are in need of support. Once again, this is not an either/or. Centering black men, black boys, along with black women, black girls and all the black GNC people makes alot more sense since we are affected by white supremacy. Point Blank.

      2. I agree we are both affected by White supremacy, but this just one privately funded program.. It’s just one program.. They can and have created programs for Black women.. MBK is just focusing on Black men, and there’s nothing wrong with that.. Women have influence but you can’t deny the power that men have also…

      3. Your statistics on college attendance is wrong. It’s closer to 70% female to 30% male for blacks. You used the numbers for all of America.

        http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=72

        “But I am NOT interested in the holistic liberation of black men that so you can just become a white man and allow you treat us the way white men have treated us for centuries.”

        Clearly Sandra has lost the plot. I can’t deal with the fake nonsense from people so steeped in sexist ideology that they can’t see bold face realities like black men representing 40% of the prison population, 49% of homicides with only 7% of the population. We aren’t served by entertaining those who go around calling black men ‘privileged’ because some black feminist figured they could exploit white feminist powerful establishment whose true purpose remains making victims out of some of the most privileged women in the country.

        Black people should know better than to embrace without question a perspective designed to turn half the White population into victim class on par with Black America as if White America would choose helping Blacks over their own wives, sisters, daughters and mothers if given the option. Wake up!

  4. Poor Jay David! Everyone is beating up on him but I think he’s absolutely right. The men definitely need more help than the women.

    We all know the stats – between incarcerations, unemployment, high school/college graduation rates – they all skew AGAINST our men. It takes a man to raise a man so until they learn how to be good husbands & fathers I think the majority of the resources should go towards them. Women have proven they’ll be alright. Women tell men ALL the time how much they “don’t need a man” so if there’s only so much time & money & training available then why SHOULDN’T it go towards Black men? We became disenfranchised as a people because the MEN were torn from the homes, let’s not forget.

    Of course it would be optimal for men & women to be helped at the same time, but you can’t deny the statistics so IF only 1 group of people can be helped – it should be our men.

    1. @Chocolate Vent I would ask you, as several others have already, to show us those stats. Send us a link. Black women are being sent to prison in large numbers, being racially profiled, being killed, and any of the conditions you state about Black men. The article points out that the solutions are based on FEELINGS rather than actual facts. The author clearly is aware of the state of black men in this country. She simply doesn’t agree with the “men first” mentality of so many of our people. You say that black women have proven that we will be ok, so the resources should go to the men first. How do you define “ok”? Why do we have to hold on until men are helped? As the article says, both groups need wellness. Why make the false argument about who is more sick? BTW what does a woman needing a man have to do with any of this? Are you suggesting our worth (and our need for assistance) is determined by our willingness to admit our need for men? Surely not!

      1. Sharon Johnson Black women already have a few programs for themselves… That Black men support.. Maybe women should be focusing on those instead of trying to get anything that men get.. Like I said look at the links I showed them.. Black women are going through all this stuff but not at the level that Black men are.. And it’s not Black men first.. It’s Black men finally.. Nobodies undermining women but there is a need for reliable men as it is repeatedly stated by multiple women.. I wonder if it were the opposite what would happen..

    2. @ Chocolate Vent You said,

      “We became disenfranchised as a people because the MEN were torn from homes.” Were only men torn from families? Didn’t slavery and Jim Crow and poor education and lack of jobs and racism (among other things) affect black women too, or just the men? I think what you are saying is fix the men and return them to their rightful place as head of the family, and women will fix themselves. That the ONLY thing ailing Black women is that her Black man is being disenfranchised.

      “It takes a man to raise a man,so until they learn how to be good husbands and fathers I think the majority of the resources SHOULD go toward them.” So you are suggesting that Black women are stronger, smarter, more capable than Black men since we have learned to be good wives and mothers without programs like MBK.

      “Women tell men all the time how much they don’t need a man, so if there is only so much time and money and training available then why shouldn’t it go toward Black men?” There really isn’t anything I can say to this except, REALLY? Is that really what you meant to say?

  5. “What MBK does is remove Black women, very particularly, from this social equation. By arguing forthrightly for the legitimacy of excluding us, it suggests that we are not structurally disadvantaged by long standing systems of racism.”

    This is a terrible bit of logic. Nowhere and in no way does MBK suggest this. The omission of black women from this ONE initiative does not mean that black women could not benefit nor contribute to the goals of MBK. The author makes sweeping and accusatory inferences based on a presumably innocuous omission.

      1. Uhm..that this particular initiative was focused on men. Big conspiracy I know *eye roll*

  6. i dont mean to laugh because this really isnt a laughing matter. but seriously, the debate is none debatable as i see it that the more they “these so called men” keep responding the less support i’d consider having for them….needing to go first and all. ha. stop while you’re ahead. your statics arent showing…but a little bit of ignorance is.

    anyway:

    “When I went to school I dealt with racist teachers who made me cry everyday, teachers who saw my questions and my right answers as a challenge to their authority, teachers who tried in big and small ways to break my spirit. I made it, but so many of the other Black children – boys and girls—didn’t. Again, this shit isn’t theoretical.”

    ^-yes amen. started when i was in elementary school. had to tell my strong black grandma, she then told my strong black aunt, who in turned went up to the school one day, all kids at home. told me she had a little talk with my old wrinkly white faced teacher. “if you ever put your hands on my niece again, there will be in fact another black woman in prison. but there would also be a old grumpy white BITCH 6ft under.” i’m really not a violent person myself, but i understood/stand. that woman use to pick on me just for smiling at her. which i did often because i was scared of her. she pushed me a lot. but the day she called me stupid and pulled me by the hair. my soul got hurt. i had to tell. i smiled when my aunt told me this, even though she then told me it wasnt a nice thing to do, “but sometimes black women have to protect each other. even our babies.”

    it does in fact blow that the mere discussion of who goes first? what needs are more important? is even being held, that we (as a Black ppl) even allow someone/thing outside our own control to have us have this topic exist, saddens (in my feelings about that) me. our black men, and the sistahs supporting MBK, should be saying ‘nope. not without the rest of my sistahs and brothahs.’ point blank. yet, mostly because as a sistah (raised by my gma, mama, aunt….later in life, female cousins etc.) if we are to chose, it should be Sistahs First. point blank. if we are going to break it down from century past, we need to look way way deeper to see who really is the Head of the Household and Community. we often speak in small groups, us sistahs, when we can positively and none dramatically engage with one another. we are the ones trying to keep your asses out of prisons, off the streets to be in a loving home. we also will tell you we dont need your ass if your ass can only make sense when I HAVE TO TELL IT TO. c’mon now, we have always been first…and will remain as such as long as we STAND together, sistahs/women of color. we dont have to let this be the case with MBK. if men seem to think they are the only to rally and protest, then lets build our Million Women March. we have to PUT ourselves first if we plan to be it – and yes yet again MAKE THEM SEE US too.

    {off topic a bit, but would anyone be opposed to ever voting Mrs Michelle into office? i mean i think someone should get her to run for president, is that a ok rumor to start?)

    Oh and Courtney, often love feelin’ your passion about topics. Thank you for the open dialogue…even when some of us stray a bit. 🙂

    1. You see what you guys seem not to notice is that Black men are still falling behind.. What don’t you understand about that.. I can’t believe it’s this is even a discussion either..You guys got the Black women code, Black girls rock, Black women’s expo, just all around support for each other.. You don’t really care about us getting help.. It’s all about you guys, and not being included into everything.. But I guess you don’t notice this because you’re only seeing it from a women’s perspective.. You don’t know the insecurities that Black and Hispanic men go through, and I guess you don’t notice the amount of women complaining that they can’t find a good man.. That’s what this program is for.. To help the ones who society and even Black women are seem to be forgetting..

      1. lmao. i feel like as the queer black creature that i am, i should say something about that ‘can’t find a good man’ slipped in comment.

        i prefer women, and yet still have nothing against the attraction to/with a man. however, when a “MAN” actually approaches me then that would be a different topic. but you’re right, i MIGHT allow him then to walk side by side with me. respect do for sure, just like any man must understand that women are very well capable of standing on our own. sometimes yes, like any relationship, we dont want to. but uh, no one is stating they dont want a ‘good man’ either. but what people usually do want, are equals.

      2. None of the things you listed, black girls code etc., are in the same realm as the My Brothers Keeper program. For example, none of them were designed by the government, and none of them are really intended to alleviate the stressed that black women face in the same way, and at the same level, as MBK is (supposedly) intended to alleviate stresses on black men. This is an important point because the inclusion of women into MBK, as the author points out, would be an acknowledgement from the government that black women need, and are deserving of, direct aid.
        Let me also say that as a man I completely disagree with your statement “you don’t really care about us getting help”. I can’t imagine that you actually think this is true. No one has “forgotten” you (or me). Black women have always cared about us and cared for us. Why can’t you return the sentiment? Why can’t take this opportunity to show your support for your sisters? Why do you have to come up here and start “making trouble”, instead of dedicating your time and effort to supporting black women, or black men for that matter?

      3. Data shows that boys and young men of color, regardless of socio-economic background, are disproportionately at risk throughout the journey from their youngest years to college and career. For instance, large disparities remain in reading proficiency, with 86 percent of black boys and 82 percent of Hispanic boys reading below proficiency levels by the fourth grade – compared to 58 percent of white boys reading below proficiency levels. Additionally, the disproportionate number of black and Hispanic young men who are unemployed or involved in the criminal justice system alone is a perilous drag on state budgets, and undermines family and community stability. These young men are more than six times as likely to be victims of murder than their white peers and account for almost half of the country’s murder victims each year. MBK is not government funded BTW, it’s a privately funded organization that happens to be implemented by Obama.. Firstly, I have support for Black women, secondly I’m not here to start trouble I just stated an opinion and other people disagreed.. And yeah a lot of Black women have cared for us, and so had a lot of Black men.. You don’t know me Cris and don’t know how I am.. I author of the article has a right to state her opinion and I have a right to disagree.. Just like you have a right to disagree with me.. Oh yeah, and I’ll return the sentiments, to the ones who gave me sentiments..

      4. Again, none of the data you’ve listed from the whitehouse fact sheet gives any reason for why black women shouldn’t be included in my brothers keeper. People are not trying to argue that black and latino men are doing great. The fact that you continue to give this argument shows that you’re not listening to the multiple people (mostly women) who are here in conversation with you. I also understand that the program is not entirely funded by the government, and may not even actually generate much if any new money for the issue. You are right, I don’t know who you are, but I still think we should support black women on the issues they think are important, and in the manner they deem appropriate (see the 1400 women who signed the petition for inclusion).

      5. I support Black women just not on this issue.. It’s only because President Obama is implementing this program which I suppose makes the reason why feminist and those who support them are petitioning for the inclusion of Black women.. But I don’t understand why they want to argue like Black women aren’t getting helped and that this program is sexist because they put Black men first.. Which is not really true…None of the statements here have convinced me of why this is even an issue.. There were also women who supported the program against those claims, let’s not forget about that…

  7. It’s not about needing a man, cause a women shouldn’t right of the pat, but they should need the man that they love, the one that’s meant for them.. I understand that women want a man that can be a man.. One that has their back, and that they can depend on.. So I’m not talking about women needing a good man, I’m simply talking about them saying that there’s a lack of them..

    1. Where did you get your “data” and percentages?
      I find it odd that every time you comment you want to give data, statistics and percentages yet never provide those of us interested in vaguely understanding your point of view…with a link, a newspaper, magazine, your 5th grade homework, something.

      {i highlighted your percentages and data to google search, I’m just curious which links you are using as your actual knowledge/resource of the info you are providing us with}

      1. jusRhae it doesn’t matter I’m done debating anyways, it’s pointless all we all want to do is win an argument, we aren’t accomplishing anything.. I posted some links up there, it’s up to you if you want to find them valid or not.. At least I tried though instead of going only by my personally views in which I have no basis on facts…

  8. I actually dont want to win an argument. I’m not even that kind of person. Winning means nothing to me really. I guess that’s because I am not competing with anyone. I dont see the point. I know exactly who I am. Like I said up some ways up too, I want equality.

    1. I want equality too.. Although to you guys it seems like I’m saying Black men first.. I wasn’t… I’m saying that Black men need to catch up to Black women.. It’s not even just Black men though it’s Hispanic men too, and that’s what this program that was not government funded by the way is recognizing.. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmiley/tsr/too-important-to-fail/fact-sheet-outcomes-for-young-black-men/
      http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/news/2012/03/13/11351/the-top-10-most-startling-facts-about-people-of-color-and-criminal-justice-in-the-united-states/

  9. There is no need for black men to change because they will always get the support of black women no matter what they do. The certainty they have in receiving support from black women is the problem.

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