Wednesday, August 17, 2011

The Wall Street Journal Fix.




Just recently, an article published in the Wall Street Journal by Dr. Ralph Richard Banks has created sort of a buzz among the various so called “Black Women Empowerment” fanatics as well as a bit of unease between some of them. One of the main ones embracing this article is Christelyn Karazin.

The premise of the article is the idea that if black women ‘date out’ more, it could/would motivate black men to improve in order to compete with the added competition. It’s an interesting premise because historically, this basic premise has been one that the BWE group has repeatedly shunned on the basis that it places responsibility on black women for shaping the behavior of black men.

But lo and behold, when the idea of black men’s behavior being influenced by black women involves black women dating and marrying non-black men, it is acceptable. It really goes to show how much BWE/IR bloggers are agenda driven.

Consider that for years, black men have pointed out and complained about the disproportionately strong trend of black women seeking relationships with bad boys. It has long been argued that this trend heavily influences the behavior of black men and has been supported through research under the theory of sexual selection. Even the dreaded Satoshi Kanazawa touched on this:



“In reality, however, women do often say no to men. (In my experience, they
always do.) This is why men throughout history have had to conquer foreign
lands, win battles and wars, compose symphonies, author books, write sonnets,
paint portraits and cathedral ceilings, make scientific discoveries, play in
rock bands, and write new computer software, in order to impress women so that
they will agree to have sex with them. There would be no civilization, no art,
no literature, no music, no Beatles, no Microsoft, if sex and mating were a male
choice. Men have built (and destroyed) civilizations in order to impress women
so that they might say yes. Women are the reason men do everything.”

Polow Da Don stated:



“If every Black woman got together and said, "We're not gonna date guys unless
they have PhDs. We're not gonna date guys unless they have a Master’s [degree].”
Guess what? In due time, n****s will stop selling dope and they'll start going
to college.”


He was attacked relentlessly for this statement. Such a statement has been repeated over and over by black men criticizing black women for routinely sexually rewarding bad behavior, yet black women’s response has overwhelmingly been critical indicating that this notion places responsibility on black women. Yet, as we see with Karazin and others like her, if this basic idea is expressed in a way that promotes black women dating and marrying non-black men, it is quite acceptable. There are more than enough quality black men out there to put pressure on trifling black men to clean up their acts, yet this will never happen until these quality black men begin getting the attention that they deserve.

Plus, there are the flaws in this argument. One of the biggest ones is the fact that marriage rates are declining for all ethnic groups in the United States. At least 40 - 45% of white women are single at any given moment and 50% of all American women are single. There are a total of 4 million more white women than white men and 6 million more women than men in America overall. So it begs the question of exactly how much success do the IR bloggers expect black women to have competing against those 40% of white women and other non-black single women for the very men who have repeatedly placed black women last on their dating radar?

The next flaw is the discovery that the white men that black women marry are on average less educated than the black men that black women marry. Thus, the so-called competition would not be based on personal quality, but instead entirely on race and since no black man can change his race, such added competition would be meaningless. It’s much like the high level of marrying out done by Asian women. Asian American men have outdone white men socially and economically for decades, yet Asian women still marry out at a higher rate than any other group of women. Asian women simply want white men, period and the ONLY thing that Asian men could do to compete is to become white, which is impossible.

Lastly, history doesn’t support the notion. Since 1980, interracial marriage involving black women has tripled, yet within that same timeframe, the single rate for black women has increased by 20%. Thus, a major increase in interracial marriage for black women has coincided with a major decrease in marriage overall for black women. It is clear that marrying out is no solution. Interestingly enough, one of Karazin’s commenters pointed this out and was attacked and seemingly banned for doing so. Clearly such women are motivated by personal agenda and personal disdain as opposed to truth and reality.

Much of what I state above is addressed in this great article by Ivory A. Toldson, Ph.D., and Bryant Marks, Ph.D.