Half-Assed "Solutions" for Being Black in America

I don't know, guys, after watching parts and pieces of CNN's Black in America: What's Wrong With The Black Woman and Family last night, I was worried.

I mean, I'm single, educated, and a mother. I felt practically doomed.

But! CNN has the solution for the problem I didn't even know I was: marriage. Yep.

See, marrying would mean that I wouldn't be a single mom anymore. And, it would magically mean no more poverty for single moms! Never mind that

1) Many single moms (like me) have arrangements that work for us and our children. I am single because I'm not married, but I'm not raising my child alone.
2) We refuse to adequately address pay equity and the devaluation of women's work which contribute to the impoverishment of women and children.
3) We've stigmatized and rendered thoroughly inadequate any system of social provision.
4) Marrying a guy who does not work or who works in low-wage labor won't solve much of anything.
5) What about single moms who don't want to marry? Is that not a valid option when you're poor?
6) What about single moms who don't want a heterosexual marriage because they're lesbian or bisexual?

Marrying would also solve my over-educated-but-lonely dilemma. This time, I'd have to cast my net wider, consider interracial marriage. Actually, lots of black women already suggest that, especially on some blogs, but that's not a panacea, either. I am especially troubled by the emphasis on white men--not because of any problem I have with white men and black women dating and marrying, but because the focus of some women seems not to be questioning, challenging, erasing white men's privilege but securing for themselves and their children the benefits of it.

I swear on one blog I read a story, the moral of which was, see, marrying a white man can get your biracial children into private schools, etc, when other children of color can't. And I thought to myself, "Alice, how do we get out of this hole?" Much like marriage in general, marrying a non-black man won't fix everything, either.

I just felt like the special could've done more--if it was over a year in the making, especially--than re-hash what always gets hashed. There are many black women who have significantly different experiences and lives from those portrayed.

I'm much too afraid to watch the one on black men. I'm sure I'd want to crawl under something and die afterwards.

For an analysis from a different angle that doesn't have ME, ME, ME at the center, see Renee's post.