Statistics
stated on talk shows such as The Oprah
Winfrey show and news programs such as Nightline
state that seventy (70) percent of
Black women are single. And in on shows like this we see scores of Black women
from all classes of life making statements such as:
“I can’t get a man.”
“Where are the good Black men?”
“Ain’t no good brothers out here”
Why
are all these Black women single? Why can’t they find single Black men to get
married to?
According to the mainstream media
for the past twenty years there has allegedly been a shortage of educated
professional Black men in the community. The way the media and single Black
women have been telling it in news stories, a majority of single Black men in
the community are unemployed, drug addicted, in prison, and uneducated. Not
father material or husband material.
Other single Black men are
alleged to be pursuing romantic relationships with women of other races. Or they’re
homosexual and pursuing relationships with other Black men. Unavailable for a relationship
with Black women.
However,
this is not the case. Nor was it ever the case.
The
truth is there is a large pool of single, eligible, educated professional Black
men who want to have relationships with Black women and marry Black women.
There has always been a large pool of single eligible Black men available to
Black women.
Unfortunately
most Black women can’t see those brothers. Thanks to the way they’ve been
socialized, a majority of Black women today have learned a series of approaches
to life over the last 40 years that prevents them from having a successful
relationship with any Black man.
Over
the last two generations this paradigm of behavior has become a system of
values that has been passed down from generation to generation of Black women
leaving their daughters and granddaughters just as miserable as their mothers
and grandmothers and in some cases their great-grandmothers. If Black women
take a closer look through their family histories at their mothers, aunts,
grandmothers and even their great-grandmothers, they’ll oftentimes see the same
pattern of multiple failed relationships, broken homes, illegitimate children
and women sitting in apartments single, bitter and alone in their old age.
Can
a Black woman break free of this vicious cycle today? Yes, she can! All she has
to do is take a long hard look at herself and her approaches to life and why
they don’t work. Once a Black woman realizes how self-destructive her behaviors
are she can finally start moving forward and having great relationships with
great Black men.
Chapter 2
The Paradigm of failure
A
majority of Black women today often wonder what’s keeping them single. Some say
it’s her attitude. Others say it’s her behavior. A few believe that today’s
Black man just can’t handle a “Strong independent Black woman.”
All
of those are just symptoms of the problem.
What’s
really keeping seventy percent of Black women single is the fact that they’re
unconsciously following a dysfunctional life paradigm over the last 40 years. A
life paradigm that’s been passed down from one generation of Black women to the
next.
This
model for behavior taught to them by their single mothers, aunts, sisters and
in some cases their grandmothers has proven a failure for each generation of
woman that has applied it to relationships with the men in their lives. And
unfortunately, instead of Black women learning from the mistakes their mothers
and in some cases their grandmothers made in their relationships with Black
men, they continue to apply more of the same failed approaches not
understanding doing more of the exact same things does not yield a different
result.
How
does this paradigm turn into a vicious cycle?
ACT
I begins with the way Black women are taught to think about Black men. Black
single mothers teach their daughters negative ideas about Black men and about
having relationships with Black men based on their past negative experiences.
In these single parent homes Black girls learn from their mothers that:
·
Their
fathers are “no good”
·
Black
men are “evil”
·
Black
men have no value as human beings,
·
“Good”
Black men are made for them,
·
“Good”
Black men are made to serve them,
·
“Good”
Black men are supposed to fit into their lifestyle,
·
“Good”
Black men are supposed to follow their lead,
·
“Good”
Black Men are supposed to submit to their will and do whatever they say.
At
the end of Act I, girls from single mother households grow up to become
adolescents who go out searching for a “good” Black man.
However,
their definition of “good” is not a man of strong moral character and moral conviction.
Who is “good” for the single Black woman from a single mother household is a
Black man who will submit to their leadership and do things on their terms.
ACT
II begins during the adolescent stage and ends in the first years of adulthood.
In this stage Black women look for
relationships with “good” Black men. Again the definition of “good” for the
single Black woman is who is “good” for them. Men who will allow them to take
the lead of a relationship and allow them to have power and control over them.
To
this end, Black women seek out Black males from their communities who actually
are lost, broken and disconnected due to the fact that they grew up in
households with single mothers like they did. Males such as players, thugs,
drug dealers, and ex-convicts. Males who appear strong on the outside, but are
weak on the inside due to the fact that they never had relationships with their
fathers. Males who single Black women can easily leverage control over in a
relationship. Men who are “good” for them. Ironically, these are men just like
the “no good” fathers their mothers told them about.
Act
II ends with the Black woman forming a plan to turn the broken, lost and
dysfunctional Black male she involves herself in her community into the
idealized image of a “good” Black man. However, her idea of a “good” Black man
is a man who is good for her. A man who will submit to her leadership. A man
who will do what she wants on her terms. A man who will allow her to maintain
the economic power given to her by White Supremacists.
ACT
III usually begins with the Black woman’s plans to “change” these dysfunctional
Black male from a single mother household she involves herself with into her
idealized “perfect” man, a Black man who meets the White Supremacist standard
of “success”. But “success” does not mean job, money or education. “Success”
under the White Supremacist standard means a Black man who allows himself to be
placed in a submissive role beneath the Black woman.
During
this phase the Single Black woman:
·
Moves
the man into her home,
·
Buys
the man lots of material possessions,
·
Uses
possessions and sex as a way to maintain power and control over the man,
·
Makes
unrealistic long-term plans for a relationship with him,
·
Does
not ask the man’s input or talks to him about his plans for the future,
·
Insists
on making the man do things her way,
·
Attempts
to make a man submit to manhood under her terms,
·
And
tries to control the relationship.
It’s
during this phase in the relationship that the single Black woman is met with
resistance. Because God established the man as the leader, the Black males’
innate nature will tell him something is wrong with the relationship he is
having with this woman. He will resist her attempts to make her into this
emasculated image of manhood because he understands that he is actually
supposed to be the leader and not the one being led.
At
the climax of the paradigm of failure, many Black men realize that the natural
order of God is out of place. At this point they will try to correct things by:
Taking passive
resistance.
Males who feel frustrated about not being able to take the leadership role God
established for men will express their contempt for the woman who is
subjugating him in a passive-aggressive way. To show the Black woman that she
is not his leader he will find other females to pursue behind her back. If
these women allow him to take the leadership role God intended him to have
he’ll leave the woman trying to change him for them.
Establishing sexual
dominance. Some frustrated
Black males seek to re-establish God’s natural order by using sex. These males
will intentionally make a woman pregnant to show her who is the leader. On a
primal level, this is a passive-aggressive way to re-establish his power as a
man and to show a woman her place.
Taking active
resistance. This
is when a frustrated Black male will physically assault the Black woman he’s
involved with to establish dominance and try to get the woman to submit to his
leadership. Angry about being placed in a submissive role, these men try to use
violence to put a woman back into the place God intended.
Usually
these males will never be able to reconcile with the fact that they have been
emasculated. And as the beatings and physical abuse escalate, they lose more
and more control over themselves. Tragically, the only way some of these men
can reconcile their issues of emasculation is oftentimes by killing the woman
they’re involved with.
Leaving the
relationship.
Realizing that it’s not natural for a woman to lead a man, these men decide to
end their relationship with that Black woman and pursue a relationship with a
Black woman or nonblack woman that will allow him to be the leader God intended
him to be.
At
the end of the relationship the Black woman is left alone. And as she pursues
relationships with other Black men, she carries emotional baggage with her from
that past relationship that prevents her from having a closer relationship with
those brothers. Oftentimes projecting all of her past problems with the ex onto
the new man she dates and continuing to apply the exact same failed approaches
to relationships she learned from her single mother with man after man. This vicious
cycle continues until most Black women turn 40 or she has a bunch of illegitimate
kids, whichever comes first.
In
the aftermath of all these failed relationships most single Black women wonder
what went wrong. Why these Black men don’t want her and why her relationships
with men always fail. Unfortunately, most single Black women go to their graves
not understanding they’re following a model for social relationships between
the sexes that just doesn’t work. What’s keeping a 70 percent of Black women single
isn’t just the Black men she involves herself with, it’s the way she was taught
to have relationships with Black men from day one.
Just another black man tearing down black women, and forgetting to acknowledge that black men have helped create problems directly relating to the "issues" black women have.
ReplyDeleteBY 70 percent they mean 70 percent of black women are unmarried. Many black women have relationships with black men, wether those relationships are functional for either person is another question. Many black women are unmarried, yes that is true. But I think it is a deeper issue that affects both black men and black women and living in NYC myself I know that the racial profiling here on black men is ridiculous and as a result many GOOD black men end up with arrest records and such because of racist cops. As for single parenthood, any bad person can come of a single parent home or a dual parent home, trust me I have seen many hoes and drug dealers come out of a two parent home aka the dad is drug dealer and the mom loves him etc.
ReplyDelete70 percent of Black women won't be married because they believe they are the MAN in the relationship. and there can't be two LEADERS in a relationship.
ReplyDeleteHow about you read the book and find out why you are single? I do make comments about the Black men of the last few generations too. But the main reason most Black women are single is because they learned dysfunction for the last 40 years. And they REFUSE to acknowledge all they've learned about men and their approaches to men are WRONG.
Shawn, are you married or in a relationship?
DeleteThe Bible and God does not speak of Women submitting to their boyfriends or to their baby daddies, it says Women are to submit to their Husbands. It is also written in the Bible that Husband's are to submit to their Wives. Therefore the act of submission is a two way street.
ReplyDeleteGotta agree with your assertion that Black women continuously fight to be the 'leaders' in the relationship. It's not that men are the default leaders, but the Hair Hatted Hooligan insists on assuming a severely dominant position no matter what.
ReplyDeleteI hope you'll also be touching on the fact that Hair Hats also have a streak of violence that is extremely unbecoming to any male of any race. Good read.
Currently single.
ReplyDelete