Quantitative Qualification

Nov 11, 2008

 

"When dummies have children, you gone have a dummy for a child."--Unknown

I recently heard this comment while listening to libradio.com, and was immediately reminded of discourse I heard at another time on the same station. One person was making the case for the support of fertility and reproduction among black women. He was laying out statistics for the number of aborted black babies over a given period of time and surmised that the prosperity of black people in this country is contingent upon a reduction in abortions among black women of child bearing age. In a nutshell, he is pro population increase among black folk no matter what.

The other person, clearly less of a population increase enthusiast than the first, was making an argument based on the likely quality of many of the children being brought forth. He questioned whether it's worth it to be so "pro black babies" if they're gonna turn out to be what he considers low quality. He supported his position by referencing (what he obviously perceives to be) the destructive and unhealthy mentality of the mostly young folk who are having and raising babies. While I can't recall any specific examples being given. I do have an idea of the kind of mentality he spoke of.

Although I fully understand and empathize with each stance taken during the duration of the conversation, I've yet to reconcile my own thoughts on the matter. Much like the first brother, I'm pro-baby. (And for clarification, this is to say nothing in the way of the whole "pro-life" or "pro-choice" mania that often consumes the minds of many in this country. I'm simply saying that I like babies and am happy in knowing that new ones are constantly arriving.) The idea of more black babies being born makes my heart smile. :-D Yet, I can't ignore the second brother's position on what he feels is a concern where the fostering of these babies is concerned in this modern era. I mean, I personally become disheartened by some of what I see on a frequent basis in regards to child/parent relationships in my own community. Even in my despondency, I'm not likely to conclude that certain people shouldn't have children. Or that there should be a halt in reproduction until young parents are able to realize a better model for child rearing. At the same time though, seems to me that there is a cause for intervention in some cases. And I don't mean Child Protective Services. What exactly is to be done and how, I'm not sure. It's a very delicate topic and likely runs deeper than is readily discernible.

I really don't have an answer or conclusion. Just sharing.


peace