Comments on: Too Poor to Parent

By: toomuchcoffeelady

toomuchcoffeelady — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 16:27:37 +0000

You say “family is not a privelege”, implying you think it is a right. So then I assume you would also support government mandated insurance coverage for fertility treatments for those of us “demons” who apparently have screwed ourselves out of the “window of opportunity” by waiting till our 20s to try for children, right? Or do you propose that those of us who have squandered our teens to mid twenties going to college/establishing careers/getting married/buying homes, just keep working to pay the welfare that encourages teenage pregnancy? Why would anyone in their right mind get a job when they can get paid to be a SAHM straight out of 9th grade?

I’m also just curious to know how you could imply that getting pregnant as a teenager would EVER be the “best option” for anyone in this day and age?

By: Reform the Whole System « My Sky ~ Multiracial Family Life

Reform the Whole System « My Sky ~ Multiracial Family Life — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 15:37:06 +0000

[...] post Too Poor to Parent (emphasis is [...]

By: ck

ck — Thu, 29 May 2008 07:16:20 +0000

Has anyone read Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Motherhood Before Marriage by Kathryn Edin? I haven’t, but it looks like it applies directly to this post. I’m wondering if anyone has read it/ if it is any good.

By: Mnemosyne

Mnemosyne — Wed, 28 May 2008 06:00:17 +0000

Lastly, I just read the text at the very bottom of your website and noticed that your website features the WordPress “Mandingo” theme. Bravo there!!!!!

It's Mandigo theme, not Mandingo. Sorry to ruin your righteousness.

By: anthro.pophago.us snippets of media, anthropology, design, culture and politics.

anthro.pophago.us snippets of media, anthropology, design, culture and politics. — Tue, 27 May 2008 17:01:33 +0000

[...] Feministe » Too Poor to Parent [...]

By: MizDarwin

MizDarwin — Tue, 27 May 2008 11:43:38 +0000

Kiki–Thank you! I’m working on a project about diversity & this will be very useful to me.

By: Aura KitKatting

Aura KitKatting — Tue, 27 May 2008 01:58:12 +0000

I have absolutely nothing of worth to say, other than: Thank you for posting this. As a poor single mother in the U.S. I can attest personally to how much prejudice – both individual and systemic – there is against POVERTY in this country. Not against the state of being impoverished but about the impoverished individuals themselves.

It has made me conclude that Sociology ought be a required class for EVERY college freshman…

By: Elinor

Elinor — Mon, 26 May 2008 23:51:46 +0000

Sort of like in Japan and the national health service. You get a lot of cheap health care when you need it, but in return you’re expected to take care of yourself and not present a burden on the system more than you can help (and you WILL be subjected to a lot of nagging about diet, lowering salt in your diet, etc.) And society reinforces this.

And Americans aren’t subject to nagging? I know Canadians are. Anyway, what’s your actual evidence on this point?

By: heyhey

heyhey — Mon, 26 May 2008 23:33:31 +0000

Lastly, I just read the text at the very bottom of your website and noticed that your website features the WordPress “Mandingo” theme. Bravo there!!!!!

By: heyhey

heyhey — Mon, 26 May 2008 23:31:58 +0000

A word about Random Family: I was completely taken aback when I read that book in college. I grew up in upper Manhattan and I was horrified that peopole whould read that book and think every Hispanic person from Washington Heights or the South Bronx was like the family in Leblanc’s book. It was just embarassing, I wanted to buy every single copy of it and hide them. Growing up in the mostly immigrant, Hispanic, and working class neighborhood, I never once met a whole family where all the women were unwed teenage mothers with an 8th grade education, and were all the men had criminal backgrounds, as is the family featured in this book. I could never explain how Ms. Leblanc apparently inserted herslef in those people’s lives as a silent observer for the better part of a decade, saying and doing nothing when those people needed it the most. It always rattles and angers me when people cite Random Family as some cultural milestone that enlightened them about the true life of the urban poor. We don’t know what happened to the folks featured in that book, but we know that Ms Leblanc’s book has been forever enshrined in the annals of Racial and Cultural studies literature along with “Why Are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria” and “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”. If that’s not exploitation, I don’t know what is. What has happened with the prominence and fame of this book is that a horribly dysfunctional family who are probably the worst case scenario of all worst case scenarios when it comes to poor urban families, is presented as just another “random family.” I have yet to meet one person of color who grew up in the areas where Random Family takes place who is not terribly mortified and offended by that book. It certainly has done a lot to take away the dignity and identity of the proverbial poor urban youth, who are depicted as perpetual victims, existing outside of normal society, simple pawns in the never ending cycle of poverty, young motherhood, and crime. Citing that book in discussions of matters of class in America always tells me that, like many priviledged white folks before them and to come, the person citing the book thinks that they have now been introduced to the horrible inhumane realities of those poor brown folk, and will now feel pleased with herself because she knows how the other half lives.