Here is an exchange from my work as friend David's Memoir editor:
October 15, 1977, Day #194
Dear Martha,
I’m almost done with my maternity ward and delivery room rotation now and I have a few reflections on the plight of inner-city black women at this point.
It’s hard not to get into sexist or racist rants in this situation. I’ve done enough deliveries on 15-year-old black women to last more or less a lifetime. Most of these women are extremely ignorant (I certainly wouldn’t say “stupid,” but in fairness, I think it is accurate to say that they usually have very little perspective on the longer-term implications of their choices). They are almost all incapable of caring for children very successfully in terms of being able to provide minimal amenities and opportunities for them. It would be easy to jump to the conclusion that they are either extremely irresponsible or just a bunch of damned fools. My perspective is somewhat different. Black culture seems to be more sexist, or at least more obviously sexist, than other segments of society. There is very little opportunity for Black men and women to be “successful” in terms of the values of mainstream society. I can’t help but feel that a great many of them suffer from an overwhelming sense of worthlessness as a result. Traditionally, though, most Black people seem to have a great deal of respect for their mothers, regardless of whether or not they are “successful” as parents. It seems to me that a lot of these women are using childbearing and marginal attempts at parenthood as a desperate attempt to gain some sense of being a worthwhile human being. I often see the despair in their faces.
It doesn’t often appear that child-rearing is tied into a stable relationship of any sort. I’ve done about 100 deliveries this month and I can count the number of relevant men (husbands or otherwise) I’ve met on the fingers of one hand. This, I think, supports the idea that the motivation for going through with it lies somewhere other than in an attempt to stabilize a relationship.
You know, it could be that I’m just raving in an incredibly racist and sexist way. Try as I might, I haven’t really been able to draw many of the patients into in-depth conversation on the subject. Well, at least let me know what you think, okay?
Love, David
Alan's editorial comment:
It might be explanatory to point out the transgenerational failure of much black parenting. It is easy to criticize idealism, but without ideals, we are almost lost by definition. We have to know what we're "aiming at" in order to aim correctly.
In the absence of common ideals -- like "thou shalt not kill" -- it's easy to attack the ideals as tools of the oppressor. Malcolm X made this mistake before his conversion to Islam and subsequent rapprochement with Martin.
There is cheap satisfaction in "getting over on whitey" just as there is cheap satisfaction among MAGAts in "getting over on libtards."
You don't have to understand (or learn) anything.
In fact, it's best if you don't even try, because then you might secure some measure of historical and pscyho-social understanding. And God knows where that will end!?!
The best advice for dimwits-and-addlepates is to avoid the 8 Ball by scotomizing anything to do with understanding-and-learning.
Just be oppositional.
Stake out your anti-intellectual turf, and flood the space with dumfu sound bites.
"Welfare Queens and their pink Cadillacs."
At all costs, "get over on people" who spotlight your personal failures, especially your failure to learn during the 12 years you had a chance - and all too often as an underperforming middle-schooler. (Notably, and I always addressed this with my high school students early in the school year: "It is immeasurably easier to just go ahead and learn, rather than spend gobs of time and evasive energy in covering up for the fact that you refuse to learn - a nasty task that will occupy the rest of your life.
I encourage you to take a look at my essay (below) on "The Republican Party" as the soco-political embodiment of Oppositional-Defiant Disorder.
Once you glance at the hypothesis, I think you'lll find it overwhelmingly persuasive.
See:
People's Lawyer Edwin Kneedler Receives A Standing Ovation From The Supreme Court: It Is All The More Painful To Realize That The United States Is Now Ruled By Underperforming Middle Schoolers Afflicted En Masse With Oppositional-Defiant Disorder
https://newsfrombarbaria.blogspot.com/2025/05/peoples-lawyer-edqin-kneedler-receives.html
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