2008 article on disproportionate impact of “abstinence-only” sex ed programs on students of color.
A simple point is just that most black people still live in the South, where abstinence only rules.
Thanks for that!
Even if every single black person vanished from the South, I still think they’d teach abstinence only sex education there. It’s religious ideology that explains this, not racial animus.
I’m still reading through that link, but I suspect if I traveled throughout the South and asked people if they knew what condoms were and what they were used for, I think almost all people would know the correct answers.
That being said, I can’t believe abstinence-only education is still a thing. Did we learn nothing from Bristol Palin?? 
You’re probably right that they are aware of the existence of condoms. But the question that’s important to me is: does teaching the topic of safe sex in schools statistically increase the likelihood that teens will actually use them?
I should hope so, or else why would we be doing it?
I have sympathy for those children too. I have considerably less sympathy for the ones primarily responsible for introducing them into a dysfunctional family environment. Namely, their parents.
Given that all groups experience negative impact from single parenting, it is not a stretch for me to think that blacks are experiencing the impact from that rather than racial injustice that happened fifty or a hundred years ago.
It changed over time, obviously. And as racial injustice receded, those who were kept down by it advanced.
The black illegitimacy rate in 1960 was much lower than it is today, even though racial injustices like Jim Crow and overt racism decreased. So, as racism decreased, the other factors affecting blacks increased. It is difficult to see why a factor that decreased is primarily responsible for phenomena that increased, when other factors that explain the difference also increased.
No, an extra year of life in prison isn’t going to make all that much difference to someone who is going to prison anyway. That’s what I am going with.
No, I’m not kidding. I don’t believe that those who go to prison for two years contribute all that much more to society and to their families than those who go for three. Convince me otherwise, if you like.
A certain former President disagrees, and Politifactbacks him up.
No, I don’t think it significantly does increase it. I don’t have figures on how many convicts are being good fathers to their children, but an extra year in the pen causes the family to fall apart altogether - if you do, feel free.
I certainly understand how going to prison in general tends to ruin your life, but I doubt an extra year or two is going to make all that much difference.
Wow - all the way from “what difference does an extra year Inside make” to “they are all scum” in just a few paragraphs.
You haven’t shown that they increase the amount of single-parent households for black kids.
As I mentioned above, I have compassion for innocent children. For criminals, irresponsible parents, and their whiney excuses for why it’s society’s fault they are poor or in prison - not so much.
Regards,
Shodan
It would be nice if every government program had a solid scientific basis proving its effectiveness. That’s not where we are today.
I am not following you - how do the black men impregnate women when they are locked up?
Regards,
Shodan
Well, because of this thread, I learned about the Federal Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program (TPP), which is a “national, evidence-based program that funds diverse organizations that are working to prevent teen pregnancy across the United States”
(bolding mine)
You do understand the historical reasons why most Black people live in the South, right?
The fact that some bad thing is the result of past racism rather than present racism doesn’t mean it isn’t still the result of racism.
Wait, are you saying that a majority of the South teaches abstinence-only education because a majority of black people live in the South? I would have thought that a majority of the South teaches abstinence-only education because the people responsible for educational standards are morons, not because they are racist.
Shodan, you don’t think your antecedents of fifty or a hundred years ago had an impact on how you were raised? Leaving aside genetics. I certainly think mine did, and going back much further than that. Massively disrupting a culture for hundreds of years and then expecting it to sort itself out in fifty? Not realistic.
Yes, the slave trade brought their ancestors there hundreds of years ago. I don’t deny that. However, I don’t see how viewing this problem through a racial lens helps anything in the present moment. Like I said earlier, even if every single African-American magically vanished from the South overnight, the schools would still be teaching abstinence only education. Remove the variable of race, and the practice still continues. Remove the variable of religion through increasing secular humanist values, and a more sensible education system would emerge.
What are you implying? That that’s a “black people thing?” Yikes.
Are people 100% responsible for making bad choices? Yes. Yes they are.
Most people figure out that blaming little Timmy for what they did isn’t going to get them far, by the time they’re in kindergarten.
And you are CERTAINLY are going to make better choices if you believe that, rather than perpetually looking for someone else to blame for your problems. One you have* direct* control over, the other you’re just waiting for some people, somewhere, you don’t know who, but they must be there, and they’re probably lacking melanin, to change things for you. Yeah, well, good luck with that. I think we’ve hit the point of diminishing returns there. Slackerinc talks about reparations? Ha. Good one. That’s a pipe dream, I hope you know.
I see a bit of talk here about factors like “well, it could be this, or it could be that”. Oh, well, that’s helpful. I can point to SPECIFIC things ANYONE, white or black or green, can do to maximize their chances of making it the world. Statistically proven ways to mitigate against perpetual poverty. You can do them, or not.
Will the white guy have it better in the end? Perhaps. Should you still do them regardless? Absolutely. Graduate highschool, get a job (and no, that’s not an unreasonable ask considering current black unemployment rates), and don’t have kids out of wedlock. I wish “don’t commit crimes” was a given and blatantly obvious, but it looks like I have to add that too. Do those things, and you have a VERY good chance of not living in permanent poverty.
It is far more likely that black people addressing these problems as individuals and as a community will result in real change, than waiting for some conspiracy of oppression to dissipate in god knows how long. We’re using 50 year old quotes here, maybe we should just wait until everyone alive now is dead. Maybe that will fix it.
And I’m telling you that your non-violent victim-less crime of marijuana possession is very rapidly becoming less and less of a concern to would be non-violent criminals. Because it’s been decriminalized in 21 states, and growing every election cycle.
The violent ones? Well, I’m going to have to side with a solution that, if anything, gets white people behind bars for just as long. I don’t really want to be around any more ex cons with a history of violence than I have to. Of any color, thank ya very much.
If nobody wanted me to say this, then they shouldn’t have told me to go live in some foreign country as a historically persecuted minority. Then I wouldn’t have said it.
White males can’t even get their own thread on the SDMB without it devolving into a treatise on Black oppression. And that’s the problem.
Whether or not they are born privileged, they still need a sense of identity. However, in the world of identity politics, being a straight, white, Christian male is the one identity you can’t have largely because they have been demonized as the perpetrators of all oppression. Any problems, issues, or concerns that white males face are dismissed as racist, misogynist, or weakness. To give them a voice weakens the assertion that they are the root of all problems faced by humanity as a whole.
wow. Someone feels like a victim…
If the question is “How do we solve teen pregnancy?” then I agree that the racism angle is not the primary lens I would use.
If the question is “Why do black communities face higher rates of certain problems, is it just bad teen choices or is there still racism?” then I don’t agree that we should ignore the ways in which the country’s history of racism continues to play out today.
I would also add, however, that the reasons that large parts of the South are ruled by anti-science conservatives is totally intertwined with the history of white supremacy. In very real ways, racism is what caused the South to be what it is today, in terms of industrial development, social spending, quality of public schools, etc. (I realize this is changing for the better, especially in the last decade. But there are still long legacies of these issues.)
Bolding mine. I identify as every single one of those traits. Here’s the rub, and why I’m not constantly harassed by friends, co-workers, or random noises on Twitter - I don’t try to blame any of my issues on those traits. As a straight, white, Christian male, I have one hell of a voice and influence in many social circles. I don’t use it to be an asshole.
Crying about white oppression is what the chinless turds in Charlottesville were doing. Do you actually read what you write?