First-Hand Witness of Emotional Trauma ~ by Vanessa Jean Louis of “Afroconservative” [Event Post]

www.afroconservative.com

No Wedding No Womb

As an inner city school counselor, my passion for strong families was birthed as a result of witnessing firsthand the emotional trauma that ensues as a result of students who are born without married mothers and fathers. Many of us in the blogosphere (from different political persuasions) are writing in tandem about this issue as a result of the deafening silence from the media, academics, and so called “Black leaders” who refuse to acknowledge the pernicious psycho-social effects on children who are a product of unwed motherhood.

Historically, the poverty rate of Blacks in the early 20th century can be directly linked to unemployment, low wages, and discrimination. In 1960 almost 80 percent of Black children were born in wed-lock. Today almost 70 percent are born out of wed-lock and that number is as high as 90 percent in the inner cities. However, today, poverty is primarily a result of family structure. David Ellwood, Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University, notes the vast majority of children who are raised entirely in two-parent homes will never be poor during childhood. Conversely, the vast majority of children who spend time in a single parent homes will experience poverty as well as an increased chance of experiencing other social pathologies, namely, low self-esteem, involvement in the penal system, higher likelihood of not finishing high school, and a higher chance of repeating the same cycle.

The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) declares, “It is no exaggeration to say that a stable, two-parent family is an American child’s best protection against poverty.” Former Clinton domestic policy advisor Bill Galston explains that avoiding family poverty requires just three things: 1) finishing high-school, 2) marrying before having children and 3) marrying after the age of 20. Only 8 percent of families who follow this prescription are poor, while 79 percent of those who fail to follow those steps live in poverty. Many believe that marriage ruptures the pernicious poverty cycle that traps children. The PPI also found that when controlling for single motherhood, Black and White crime rates are virtually identical.

I’ve spoken to men who say how difficult it is to date certain women when they haven’t had active fathers. Somehow, even without any psyche “credentials” they are able to correlate things like self-worth and emotional health with how active fathers have been in the lives of their daughters.

Before “interest groups” infiltrated our communities with their entitlement programs– family, faith, and education were the glue that kept us together. As a conscious Conservative, I contend that Blacks will not be able to globally compete without a PARADIGM SHIFT which emphasizes strong families. Policies like Lyndon Baines Johnson’s “War on Poverty” nullified the importance of the Black man in the home. Almost 5 decades later, we’re now realizing just how emotionally and economically detrimental single motherhood can be.

Lawmakers should focus more on promoting mother-father marriage units via tax incentives that don’t penalize marriage. Women need to stop opening their wombs to men who don’t think they’re special enough to marry. Men need to man-up and step-up, for the sake of the well being of their children. Hollywood needs to stop glorifying single-motherhood because kids need fathers. We all need to actively speak against this social problem–for the sake of students like the ones I’ve encountered as a school counselor. They have an emotional deficit because they don’t know where daddy is.

Studies show that children raised by never-married mothers are seven times more likely to be poor when compared to children raised in households with married mothers and fathers. We often hear about “leveling the playing field”. It’s time we start in the home.

Biography
Vanessa, better known as the “Afroconservative” has been working in the inner city as a School Counselor for several years. She is president of the Frederick Douglass Foundation of NJ and is an unabashed advocate for entrepreneurship, fiscal conservatism, enterprise zones, educational choice, free trade, Civil Rights for the unborn, and policies that help lift people out of poverty as opposed to perpetuating pernicious cycles of government dependence. Vanessa has a Master’s Degree in Clinical Counseling and an Undergraduate degree in Psychology. She is currently working on a second Master’s degree in Political Economy. Vanessa can be reached at Vanessa@afroconservative.com!

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