Sunday, June 08, 2008

This is not a perfect 10.





I hope reporters Susan Snyder and Rita Girodano, from my hometown paper, the Philadelphia Inquirer, don't think that I am fooled. I read their latest article about a family who moved to Philadelphia from New York, and it was disguised as a piece about dealing with the oppressive heat here in the city. But come on now......folks, please go to the link, read the article, and come back to my post.



Did you read it? Good. Okay I will bite, I don't want to, but I must, because I have to keep it 100% with you folks. Cynthia King is 37 years old (unless there is a typo in there somewhere) and she has TEN yes I wrote TEN children. All from ages 5-19. Notice how the reporter made sure her age and the number of kids she has got into the story? There is a reason for that. This story isn't about a family coping with the heat wave. It's about this woman with no job, no support from a significant other, and having to depend on Catholic charities to get by with TEN children.


Now I rarely talk about my day job, because one, I don't want to lose it, and two, as an attorney, I have a certain obligation to the people I serve and I am guided by certain rules and an oath that prevents me from disclosing certain things. But if I told you that in my fifteen years of working in this business, I have seen and dealt with 27 year old grandmothers, 26 year old mothers with seven children, sperm donors who see themselves as lotharios fathering as much as twelve children with eight different women, being prosecuted for child support for all of them, and yet not one single dime is collected because they have no job; would you believe me?

Of course you wouldn't. You would think that just I made the shit all up for effect right? Just to make this story a little more interesting and to drive home my point.


Sooo.....do you believe Susan Snyder and Rita Giordano's story, or do you think they just threw in Ms. King's age and the number of kids she has for dramatic effect?


I was just wondering. Hey, you folks who comment here are a lot smarter than I am, so maybe one of you will have the answer as to why this type of shit happens, because I sure as hell don't. I mean, well, I have some ideas, but what did Jack Nicholson's character, Nathan R. Jessep say again? Oh yeah, "you can't handle the truth".

83 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow. ten kids at age 37? i guess the woman thought that getting government assistance outweighs the overall and lifelong responsibility of having these children. it simply makes no sense to me.

Your driver said...

Actually, what I got from the article is that everything, even the weather, is harder when you're poor. How did this woman end up with ten kids? I'd imagine she did it the usual way. Maybe she went to a high school that had an abstinence only sex ed curriculum. It's none of my business. How did she end up poor. Probably the usual way too. Nobody got indignant about the number of kids in the Brady Bunch, but they were white, and they could afford a white maid.

CoyoteFe said...

It's a convergence of two problems, isn't it? People have a tendency to build lives similar to those around them. We are creatures of habit, after all, so whatever surrounds us is the repeatable pattern. That's the power of "normal".

Then, we have a few (if any) relatively weak voices offering alternatives, and a choir voicing suspicion about those alternatives. Against the strong normal,the alternative are barely a whisper. It's so much easier to follow the normal. Only when the choir sings the alternatives can that become the new normal.

? said...

Nobody wants to talk about it but the biggest problem we face now and in the future is overpopulation. No one should be having ten children, even if they had the money and the time to take care of them. We wonder why the price of everything is so high simple, too many people, too few resources. Birth control people, learn to use it.

Anonymous said...

I think we are also missing a third and fourth point of the story beside the 10 kids and her age.

3rd---Being poor does not mean you have to be dumb...life insurance is a penny on a dollar for someone that age..her husband died but I bet no carried any life insurance..a Happy meal for each of those kids would have been enough to coverage for one man..life insurance is for the living peacefully after a luv one pass on.

4th---safety...having the front door open at all kind of night is dangerous..not only for the safety of those minor kids, DFAC definitely need to be call and those children remove before they become another victims..

Sound like this woman is a fool for even given the interview..it is a shame the undercover tone of the reporter.

Anonymous said...

i lubs when you post shit like dis. all of us highfalutin negroes {{{cuz we’s don’t know nobody like dis and dis will never happen to us cuz we’s so purrfect}}} can act white by showing our disdain and hatred for these shiftless ass negroes while pretending to point the finger and tsk tskin’ at da journalists. z Bravo! z Bravo! z Bravo!

Anonymous said...

Why is this happening? It is happening because of the growing disregard for marriage in the black population. Too many black people seem to have forgotten about commitment and family values, self-pride and respect for others. Too much has devolved to be just about sex, forget committed marital relationships and building a future, life should look like a BET video. The perfect person is some singer/video queen/ other pretty girl but not you child’s mother.

The disintegration of the black family is not because of a past of slavery, or racism, or poverty, it is because we accept anything and any kind of behavior, and we back it up with the support of a certain class of crass and vulgar black pop music. So what is marriage in the eyes of our children? A joke for the weak and simple fools, people who aren’t real men and women.

There is nothing wrong with having a lot of children. There is nothing wrong with being at the moment unemployed. There is nothing wrong with being poor. These are just aspects and circumstances of life to be dealt with. There is something wrong with kicking marriage away if favor flagrant sexuality without responsibility.

When a person commits to someone and something they will go very far in life. Get married. Two people working out life together are better than one.

Missy said...

I think the article does little more than proliferate and highlight the already overabundant stereotypes of the everyday existence of being black woman.
Here's what I took from the story: basically this is the life of a poor, overweight, "hinted at" hyper-sexed black woman with no job and no husband, who is depending on charity for her and her children's very existence.
Oh yeah...it's hot has hell.

GrannyStandingforTruth said...

I noticed that they put the part about her husband died and left her a widow almost at the end of the article. The reason they made it a point to put down 10 kids and her age is to make it look like she just laid up, had children, and couldn't afford to take care of them. In addition, that she is dependent on aid to take care of them.

Funny, how they never stated what her husband did for a living before he died. In other words, black women having babies with no fathers in the home. Now they want to system to take care of them.

The woman stated that she and her daughter were looking for work, so all she really wants is temporary aid until she can get on her feet. However, since she is black, they want to penalize her character. She is forced to live in a substandard house with poor ventilation. When all she wanted to do was escape a gang infested neighborhood and move to a better environment for her children.

Instead she winds up in a house with improper ventilation. Evidently, she lost what she had in the fire. She lacks an education because of the type of job she is looking for. The woman start having children when she was around 19 or 20. She married at a young age.

The way I see, it the woman fell on hard times. However, anyone can fall on hard times regardless of how many children they have. You could have one child and get caught up in the same circumstances. Nobody knows what hand life will deal them from day to day. What goes up, comes down.

The thing is that their looking at 10 kids takes a big chunk out of a county budget. They feel like she is a burden on taxpayers. However, if she was white, they would be raising money and having a fundraiser for her. Her children's sad faces would be plastered all over the news stations. Money would be pouring in and msm would be giving us one of those tear jerker reports.

In essence, what's happening is this story is leading up a story about socialism. The political games have begun. It's the same old game Ronald Reagan played to get into the White House.

Kellybelle said...

Sha-Queen? U-Allah?

GrannyStandingforTruth said...

BTW, because she and her child are obese. In a slick way, it implies that they're not starving. She is just lazy.

However, a lot of people don't realize that poor nutrition, cheap foods, also, causes obesity. They could be living off of a bag of potatoes, and peanut butter sandwiches, and it would cause obesity. Sometimes it's not always you eat too much, it can be what you eat that will cause obesity.

field negro said...

anon. 6:37PM,what's scary is that you probably do talk like that and you think it's cool. It's not! That's HN behavior on your part. I did not say that this particular woman was "shiftless" stop prjecting. And if you think it's cool to father multiple children with multiple partners with no sustaining income for yourself, please defend your position. If you can't do that may I suggest that you go back to smoking your crack pipe.

"Nobody wants to talk about it but the biggest problem we face now and in the future is overpopulation."

I actually agree with this position to some degree. My problem is that I don't have any kids, so folks will just chalk it up to jealousy on my part.

"Nobody got indignant about the number of kids in the Brady Bunch, but they were white, and they could afford a white maid."

I did! And throw Steve Martin and his "Cheaper By The Dozen" crew in there as well.

Missy, looks like you got journalism school 101 covered :)

Anonymous said...

I think story was about how she move her family from a gang ridden neighborhood in Brooklyn to Philadelphia in beginning of a heat wave. By the way, it is hot as hell today and summer hasn't arrived. It is 93 degrees in New Jersey and it's after 7 pm.

I think they intended to write a more triumphantly story and it did not work out that way. The story is disjointed, and as granny commented perhaps writing about her hardship in the beginning with her husband being killed in a fired and moving the family to a safer although hotter environment would been better. I think the story was going for being sympathetic towards the King's family, but managed to turn her into a statistic.

Ann Brock said...

Field were are the churches? This is one of the reasons for their existing is to take care of the widows and children. Why they take monies to build bigger building instead of during what it was design to do and that is to help the helpless.

The government should not have to step in and do what the church supposed to do. Most churches already get the tax break so, why can't they help?

I know you don't believe in
that Christian thing but I do.
If the lady is just looking to get on her feet it is obvious she don't want a hand out but a hand up.

field negro said...

Actually jjbrock, St.Vncent's..is a Catholic charity and they seemed to have been helping this lady. I know I get on the church a lot, but when they do good things I have to give them credit.

Although, what about all the black mega churches here in the city? You would think that at least one of them would reach out to this poor lady given the fact that she has such a large family. More potential tithe right? Okay, bad field Negro.

grannystandingfortruth, good point about the quality and not the quantity of the food we eat effecting our health.

Ann Brock said...

Field the Mega churches are who I am speaking of. The Mega Churches should be helping this family, shame on them.

Field you no she could have made another choice and aborted those kids but she didn't.

NSangoma said...

~
Sha-Queen??, Sha-Queen!!.

Negroe hush yo' mouph. I did not know that they still made these kind of Negroes; day-um, gott day-um!!

Let us be honest here, field. Your goal is to scream on this low, low, low-dogg, nasti-dy-dogg type of Negroe using a
left-handed technique.

See, It was not I (the field) who screamed on yall's peoples; Susan Snyder and Rita Giordano did.

Grow some gonads field, and then tell these trifling Negroes what is up. Do not hide behind Susan Snyder and Rita Giordano.

Not enough education, too much fornicating, too much food, too much too much

Not only under-arm odour, under-flab ordour, too.

That woman is so corpulent, that it is dubious that she can wipe her own anal orifice.
`

girl6 said...

Since this woman is accessing the services of St. Vincent De Paul and Catholic Charities, she *might* be Catholic. The Catholic church has specific instructions about birth control.

And when I say "instructions", I really mean that the pope is all like, "Ya'll stop fuckin' but be fruitful and multiply, 'cos birth control is a sin--including the use of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV and President Bush agrees."

Let's assume this good Catholic girl, likely educated in under-funded public schools, got married and had her first child at 18, took classes at some point to be trained as a nurse's aide while she raised her children, then lost her husband and main source of income and safety, left a bad neighborhood and moved to be closer to family in another city, accepted aid from her church and the government while she *and* her daughter looked for work in this fucked up economy.

That sounds more "Grapes of Wrath" than "welfare mother" to me.

Even if she's not catholic.

I don't buy what Ms. Girdano and Snyder are selling. I will not internalize this racist bullshit.

I will be out in the field, getting blacker in the sun, swinging low, hoeing my row, praying for cheap/free and easy access to birth control for poor people and sex education in public schools.

Coming for to carry me home.

And yes, she's fat. But that's a whole 'nother bitch about the root causes of health inequities and a government food pyramid for people that is the same formula used to fatten cattle.

I looked over Jordan/and what did I see?

Corn + $45 for 1 month of birth control pills = fat and 10 kids.

GrannyStandingforTruth said...

jjbrock:

Granny giving you a big hug for the point you raised. I've been saying that same thing for years, I have even stood up in the front of church and said it. Well, you know they didn't want to hear that and some even got a little hot behind it. Not that I cared, because the bible, also, says "the truth is the light, and it shall set you free." I didn't take it back either. It's a wonder they didn't stone me. Some of them probably wanted to.

The bible does not tell them to collect tithes and offerings to buy the pastor a mansion or a new luxury car, or Amani suits for every day of the week, or diamonds. Nope, it said to take care of the poor, widow, and fatherless with it, not support the pastor's luxurious desires. This is the very reason why so many people avoid church. "That preacher just want your money. I'm not giving that preacher my money." Is what they always say. Why should they be barely eating, walking or riding the bus, living in a old raggedy dwelling, and pay for their pastor to live better than them. I can't blame them for that.

It used to be a song out a long time ago called, "Stealing In the Name of the Lord." I call them modern days den of thieves. A lot of these pastors have made church out business ventures that profit them only, and have forgotten about the poor, widow, and fatherless. And helping bring folks to Jesus. When someone in church falls on hard times, they have just about take out a credit application for $5. When they giving something to the poor, widow, and fatherless it's a hand me down or some stale bread that one step from a mold display.

Granny is radical you think? (smile)

Field, the Catholic Church has always helped the poor. That's one good thing about them, the priest live modest lives and the money they collect goes to helping the poor. But when it comes to those other denominations, it's about building buildings, and sometimes make you wonder if their in the wrong calling and should have taken up the contracting business instead.

isonprize said...

I say the whole issue starts with education. There are forces larger than you and I that keep black folk from getting a decent education. In two words, institutional racism.

I definitely agree that these megachurches (I call them 'stadium' churches) are derelict in helping and educating real people.

I also think that as black folk, some of us look down on poor black people, especially black women, as not knowing any better.

In addition to teaching them how to read and think, we have to educate our boys to stop stickin' their dicks anywhere they feel like it.

In addition to teaching them how to read and think, we have to educate our girls to honor themselves and their bodies by keeping their legs closed.

And of course, failing that kind of sex education, pass around the condoms and show how they are used.

I realize that my public school gym teacher could have gotten fired for the lessons she taught us. (yes, she passed out condoms and cucumbers...)

girl6 said...

@grannytruth

Amen and so say we all.

GrannyStandingforTruth said...

izonprice:

Amen, amen, and amen again!

field negro said...

girl6,great comments! Clever too. I like clever.

grannystanding.....do you go to church now? And if you do, what does your pastor think of you? I bet if there is one, he is sick of you:)

isonprize, I am involved with doing some volunteer work with some of our young boys, and the ignorance when it comes to the subject of sex education is amazing. But you are right,there has to be sex education given these kids in some form or fashion. Adults are too afraid to interact with these kids, and to talk to them about shit that they are already talking to their friends about.

BTW folks, please notice the comments after that link that I provided. You will see some real brotherly love there I am sure.

GrannyStandingforTruth said...

Field:

Yes, I do go to church when I'm feeling up to it. Believe it or not, I have a good relationship with my pastor and the other members, they respect me.

Anonymous said...

Let us be honest here, field. Your goal is to scream on this low, low, low-dogg, nasti-dy-dogg type of Negroe using a
left-handed technique.


Nailed it.

And if you think it's cool to father multiple children with multiple partners with no sustaining income for yourself, please defend your position. If you can't do that may I suggest that you go back to smoking your crack pipe.

Read the first comment FN. You know you just want to talk about folks. Just like NSangoma said, you use left-handed techniques to do it. You want to keep it 100%. Talk about her fat ass like you really want to. Don't act like the journalists is bad for doing what you ain't man enough to do. Get real.

GrannyStandingforTruth said...

Anonymous:

Maybe, you should go back and read the article that Field wrote on this topic, because it don't look like he was mincing words to me.

In fact, some of what he said was being pretty hard on the woman. It, also, sounded like he is fed up with those types of situations.

field negro said...

"You want to keep it 100%. Talk about her fat ass like you really want to.."

Why would I do that? Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. Again, you are projecting.

Trust me,I don't have to "left hand" anything [although I actually AM left handed]. You will know exactly where I stand at all times. Now if you don't like where I happen to be standing, well, that's on you.

Bob said...

I've met all those kinds of people you mention, Field. I've met their white versions, too. In New Jersey. But one also can head out to Central PA, & then start driving south down the western side of the big valley. All the way to Northern Alabama. You never lose sight of them.

GrannyStandingforTruth said...

What people overlook is that this problem exist in other races as well, white, black, latino, asians, and native american. However, they tend to shine the spotlight on black's problems to make them look bad and feel inferior.

Anonymous said...

This would have never happened if she were white. End of story.

isonprize said...

FN

I skimmed the comments. Fat, black, 10 kids? She's an easy target.

But I also agree with _____ who said to drive out to H-burg and hang a left. You will definitely see poor white folk in equal measure.

Now as for the comments about marriage, that's whole different talk show. In this sister's case, how does that help her, if her husband died?

Please PLEASE introduce me to the man who is looking to meet (let alone marry) a woman with ten kids.

BLACK CHURCHES? HELLO? crickets...

Marriage, in my opinion, is an ancient patriarchal construct. Even as a legal contract, it is not binding.

You simply cannot make people do what they don't want to do. We have to WANT to take care of each other. period. And marriage ain't got shit to do with that.

Also, caring for each other (with a fine-tuned public system of support) would save DHS a ton of money, but that's also another talk show.

Anonymous said...

As someone who raised 2 sons alone, and someone who for a short period of time was on foodstamps and got free food... whose sons are both grown and college educated and productive....
What strikes me about this woman is the courage it takes to take care of her kids... trying to keep them safe as best she can... and doing her best to make the best of a bad situation. By her own words, she sees her situation as temporary. I I cannot imagine losing my husband in a fire, and being responsible for ten children. I think she should be given a little credit here.....

Anonymous said...

Thank you isonprize and jody for saying what I was about to say. I admire Ms. King for moving to a new city to keep her children safe. Bad luck can happen.

robbie, what wouldn't have happened if she was white? The newspaper story? Field's blog? Or her being poor with 10 children?

Anonymous said...

I think they went after a story about the weather and found the King family and went with that instead. At least they didn't do the obligatory fireplug story. Everything in big cities is illegal, just a matter of time.

NSangoma said...

~
Yall just love these Sha-Queen, Shaquanda, Shaquandra, Shaquana, type Negroes: Five will get you Ten, an' 'nother HunDed pounds
`

Anonymous said...

nsangoma, Yes, I do love them. Because I know that treating people with dignity and respect moves people to believe that maybe, just maybe that can be worthy of love and respect. And that changes lives. Treating people with contempt and scorn only reinforces a lack of self respect... that, by the way, is another piece of "what it wrong."

Think Mps said...

I took away that it's a sad situation... but I thought the tone of the article was kind of strange.

Field, I liked what you said at the end, about the truth. Wait, it seems right if it's Truth. That's better. So, stories like this, this is an extreme angle on a common story, they're the Truth but it challenges how people view themselves and their country so...
...they write the article to suggest it might be HER fault
...they latch on to those little suggestions
...they say she did it on purpose
...they say this is rare, this isn't how it really is, this isn't Truth
...and etc.

Easier to rationalize than to actually act or change your own way of life.

Anonymous said...

Ok, I'm a journalist and even though I haven't done newspaper style writing in quite some years, here's my take:

The story is simply badly written and poorly organized. The mention of age is a standard newspaper writing thing. The mention of the number of kids would be kind of hard to avoid given the nature of the story.

Given the poor structure of this storyt, though, it is quite impossible to truly discern whether this was intended to be: an object lesson about people caught in poverty; a thinly veiled attempt to portray the woman as a welfare queen or other stereotype; a weather story where the human interest angle got overstated; a human interest story that tries too hard to find a news angle (the weather); some or all of the above; or something else.

As a side note, my wife happens to be acquainted with a fair number of white women who proudly keep popping out kids even though they are poor as shit and who have no intention stopping the process. They feel entitled to have as many kids as possible and complain that the govt. doesn't help them enough. Granted, none of them have 10 kids yet, but I wouldn't put it past them to try to get there.

changeseeker said...

As a former welfare recipient for five years (that's right) until I drug my kids behind me through eight years of college, believe me, it is not all that hard to wind up in a surplus cheese line for all kinds of reasons.

On the other hand, as a former journalist, I can't help but wonder how these two writers found this woman and her kids in the first place and why of ALL the folks they could have chosen, they picked her.

I agree with the points Girl6 made. I mean, since when is it wrong to be (1)African-American, (2)a widow, (3)under-educated, (4) overweight, or (5)fertile? But without coming right out and saying anything directly "racist," these two so-called journalists managed to choose their interviewees and write this "article" in such a way as to communicate their personal perspective and apparently the perspective of the editorial staff, a perspective I find both sad and disgusting. What scares me worst about it, however, is that they MAY not even be completely conscious of what they did. Sigh.

isonprize said...

Change - you hit it! There are plenty of middle class black folk (and white folk too), who aren't all that far from 'the cheese line' as you put it.

With gas at $4, (I'm dreading the electric bill already!!) many folks are one paycheck away from it. Which is why I'm always suspect of folks who slam the "Sha-queens and LaTanyas" of the world.

I think they know that 'there but for the grace of God, go I'

(And God ain't all that graceful sometimes - no respecter of persons, and all that shiggety)

(GrannyStand - don't get me...)

Thembi Ford said...

As a Philadelphian it just reminded me to stay out of Kensington this summer.
Hot niggas = angry niggas = stray bullets. And U-Allah will be strapped any day now.

isonprize said...

Oh just Kensington? STOP PLAYIN'

You know damn well that could happen anywhere. Even the 'good' hoods have been gettin' shot up lately.

GrannyStandingforTruth said...

Bad stuff happens in ALL neighborhoods even non-black ones, they just don't broadcast theirs. Unless, they are rich and famous.

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

I can't wrap my head around 10 kids regardless of one's economic status. It would be hard to give each child the attention they need even if you were paid.

And yes one can be poor and fat. In many poor areas the supermarkets do a terrible of job of making fresh food available. People fill up on junk food, don't get regular check-ups and tend to not exercise. I used to volunteer with a Boys & Girls club chapter in L.A. and one of the things we spoke about was nutrition. It's hard to do well in school, when you are hungry all the time or eating crap. If you don't do well in school, your employment opportunities are limited. It's a vicious cycle.

re: The Bradys
I never thought the Brady's were weird because remember Carol and Mike each had only three kids. Unlike that crazy Cheaper by the Dozen, 12 kids, in 2004 on a coach's salary living in a huge house. I know there is movie logic but that is crazy.

Anonymous said...

Lisa -- The mention of her age and the number of kids she has.

Unknown said...

although i am stunned that anyone would or even could have have ten kids i have to applaud he woman in the article..
her partner died and her life took a downturn.. i am assuming her life before this was as comfortable as she could make it...
when the lives of her children was threatened she decided to make them safe...
she moved them out of a situation that none of us would want our kids to be in..
she and her eldest daughter are out trying to find work...
she is trying.. and staying +ve in spite of the hardship she is facing..
i really do not thinks she wants to sponge off the state... 10 kids or not.. she sound like she has pride..
i applaud her family and her church in this too.. other families and churches should take note on how this is done quite frankly. this woman is one of a million or more...
i hope someone out there offered this woman a job..
my heart went out to her actually...

Anonymous said...

Although someone mentioned abortion, I'm glad that no one went so far as to push eugenics.

I've said this before. This topic comes up from time to time.

Children are never the problem. The problem is that we see them as belonging to the person that birth them, rather than an indispensable asset of society.

These kids are our kids. They are society's kids. And ultimately society will have to get involved either at the front end or the back end.

Too often we wait and deal with them at the back end. But we can't build enough prisons to house them all.

As assets, we, every member of society, have a stake in how these children develop and how they turn out.

We have to do a better job reaching out early and often to intercept parents and children at risk, and give them the means: education, and assistance where needed, not to make them dependent, but to help them make better choices, and live productive, self-reliant lives.

If we continue with the system that's in place now, hoping that people will figure it out all by themselves--then we'll continue to have some that will, and yet others who'll follow what their parents did, or what they see their neighbors do.

Anonymous said...

The article and the accompanying photo successfully depicted the woman as a welfare queen though it is factually incorrect. When a poor family loses the parent who was the main breadwinner and has no insurance it will devastate them financially. That's the tone the article should have taken.

NSangoma said...

~
nsangoma, Yes, I do love them. ...
jody 11:10 PM

jody, what happens to us as a people if the best educated of us, the brightest of us, who should happen to choose marriage, heterosexual marriage, have 2.2 children or fewer;

while the lowest of the low of us are relentlessly, persistently, steadily, unyieldingly pumping out babies.

Tell yah what jody, since you lub dhese Negroes so tough, buy for them at least 3 notebook PCs (2Ghz, 2GB memory, 200GB disk), internet access, and pay the electric bill. That way, when all these babies hit their local school district, mayhap they won't decrease averages on the standardized test scores too, too much.

But oopz jody; you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.

jody, you may have to monitor (live with) these Negroes to make sure that they use your notebook computers for study and not watch cartoons and movies over the internet you are paying for.

Hmmm, how about sum fat greasely leftover Qopeyes fried chicken for breakfast; it is white folks fault that I am not having some oatmeal instead.

The oatmeal would push the fat and crap through my gutt and out my butt (which I can't reach to wipe and clean); I might even lose some of this flab.

But then I would not be a po' pitiful gordo Negroe.
`
`

Christopher said...

In the article there is no mention of the father(s)?

This is something I don't and I will never understand about straight men and I don't care if you're White, Black, Hispanic or Asian and I don't give a ratz ass who I offend.

How is it that straight men can knock up a woman and then breezily walk away from their kid(s)? Doesn't it weigh on their conscious that they produced a life and then just walk away? Men who do this should get their asses kicked.

And please, spare me any flaming. I would this about ANY man who behaves so callously.

Monique said...

She knows the real reason why she left NYC is because there is no apartment that can hold all those kids. With 10 kids and a low income wherever she lives there are going to be gangs. People don't move from NYC to Philly for a better life, the do it for a lower cost of housing

SagaciousHillbilly said...

Yea, yea, another fucked up racist "lifestyles" piece in an urban trash talk rag.
Beyond that, this woman is the product of a fucked up system. It's a system that instead of addressing the root of the problems, supports the symptoms of the problem. When this woman started pushing out babies at the tender age of 15, it should have been stopped. When this woman quit school (probably) at the same time, it should have been stopped.
Previous poster is right:
corn (crap food) + $45/month birth control pills = absurdly fat w/ 10 kids

What's the solution?
The same thing it has always been and the thing that the power mongers don't want you to have:

GOOD EDUCATION

Anonymous said...

From Robbie:
Lisa -- The mention of her age and the number of kids she has.
-----------------------------

With all due respect Robbie, that's BS. As I've noted, mentioning the age of a source is not at all uncommon. And anyone with 10 kids running around is going to have the number of kids mentioned. It catches readers' interest, for better or for worse, and the writer is going to jump on it regardless.

Now, would the writer have been so gung-ho to want to INTERVIEW a white person in a similar set of circumstances? Maybe not. So race might have motivated the interest in pursuing the basic story. But to say that if the story was about a white woman then the age and number of kids wouldn't be mentioned is pure malarkey.

La♥audiobooks said...

Granystandingfortruth, thank you for everything you said. I get so tired of people pointing fingers and making judgments on others in these situations. Why must we always fall for the smoke screening, and not deal with the deeper root causes.

Anonymous said...

Regardless of weather this woman is Catholic, shame on the Catholic Church. They preach no birth control and abstinence only and it has horrible effects on not only the poor here but all over the world. Entire countries are sinking under huge populations and following Catholic doctrine by having large families. The church has stiffled progress on family planning everywhere it goes. Now there is a root cause.

Don said...

Of course you wouldn't. You would think that just I made the shit all up for effect right? Just to make this story a little more interesting and to drive home my point.

The Great Field.

I personally think the word 'accountability' has no meanin in this society anymore. It's not like the media hammers that point home, anyways. It would probably change the dynamics and thought process of millions of good-hearted and open-minded Americans.

Jeffery said...

If she's very Catholic and very devoted to her faith 10 kids makes sort of bizarre sense. Why anyone in this day and age would have 10 kids is beyond me.

I was one of 8. My mother was a devout Catholic. My father committed suicide when she was 6 moths pregant with the 8th kid. That was 47 years ago. It was tough to make it then. I can't imagine what she's going through now.

Your driver said...

I wasn't going to say anything else, but then I happened to hear the country song 'Teenage Immigrant Welfare Mothers On Drugs'. It's about idiots looking for someone to blame, you know those bitter heartlanders that Obama mentioned? If country singers from Texas can see their way past blaming how come I'm not seeing more love for God's children here? Is all of this acrimony really about class? Like as in, "Don't you dare imagine that I'm in any way the same as those shiftless low class..." Just sayin'

Thembi Ford said...

@isonprize
Kensington is not a black neighborhood - its mostly working class white and latino and is one of our city's grimiest, although it's becoming gentrified. It contains actually the only pieces of the city I'm really scared of.

Anonymous said...

Field as a journalist and former editor who is always making calls to the local Big business press to point out their biases I deal with this all the time.

There is no such thing as an objective journalist. I used to tell everyone when I wrote and edited black weeklies that I am not objective I have a worldview and now that is out of the way I am going to present the facts as best as I can, which includes both sides and let the reader figure out the truth. But many of these middle class folks come to news rooms with their unconscious class and racial biases and write biased crap and try to hide behind objectivity when they get called out.

I recently called the Miami Herald's executive editor on the carpet in a public meeting where his paper had the nerve to be talking about improving community relations. I pointed out that they could help by not reinforcing negative stereotypes, which they and the other Big Business press do on a daily basis.

The writers very shrewdly injected
information into a feature about the weather that clearly if not purposely reveals the writers biases. What I thought should have been the focus of the story was the fact that the power company is turning off the electricity on poor folks in the middle of a heat wave.

But that's America for you, it was much easier to pick on this poor woman and delve into her business, which had little to do with the heat wave. Its easier to do that than to suggest that folks help there lesser off neighbor.

Yes it is problematic that the woman has all these kids and it is sad all around. But its not a sideshow in which to sell papers. This is kind of sick, this woman's troubles are amusement to some. But of course there is a reason for kids having children too early and there is a reason for the low self esteem and bad self image that contributes to folks sometimes just having baby after baby.

But that of course is beyond the point as someone said about the woman's children, "these are our kids, they are society's kids."

Field there were some great and heartfelt posts by granny, missy and girl6. If we could get together with folks as forward thinking as are most of the folks who respond to this blog we could make some real changes.

Oh and by the way I agree with granny on the church. I am a minister as well (yeah Field I'll come out of the closet) but I subscribe to the liberationist theology and the radical religion of Nat Turner, Harriet Tubman, Bishop Henry McMeal Turner, MLK and folks nowadays including Rev. Wright who are doing their thing in obscurity.

isonprize said...

Thembi. Born and reared Philly girl here. I know the 'hoods.

So, either it was joke I didn't get or she was naive in thinking that folks only get shot at K&A.

Anonymous said...

The way I read this, the article wanted to emphasize that this woman was one of the unworthy poor. I see this all the time. Then we get to say, "Well, they had it coming. I'll just turn the AC up a notch and chill out."
A lot of the poor people I know have never had kids or have small families, are widowed, separated, and so on and/or have health problems that have forced them out of jobs and into poverty. And many of them used to be well off before Bushco ruined the economy. Many of them are old women living alone. Yeah, those old women living alone. What a bunch of leeches.

Anonymous said...

It seems to me that the writer displays her bias by showing only black poor people in the heat and in contrast white middle-class people enjoying a boat race in the heat. Are there no white poor people in Philly? Or black people who like boat races?

The article veers off in many unrelated directions. It's hard to determine what the subject of this article was supposed to be about. Is this an article about how residents in Philly cope with the heat? or Is this an article about overweight black women having too many kids? Shouldn't this article have included a means to assist/donate to individuals who are not senior citizens in need? (I didn't see a phone # or contact person)?

"Cynthia" obviously has strengths and weaknesses, as we all do. She mustered up the strength to leave a bad situation. However, I think she must feel really bad about herself because of her obesity, which can cause job discrimination. I can only assume that "Cynthia" lacks education, childcare, transportation, and most of all lacking is self-esteem.

She has to be overwhelmed on a 24/7 basis and not just by the heat. It's unfortunate.

I find it difficult to see her in a health aid position when she needs so much help herself. Kids need a mom. I think this is why so many kids get in trouble because there is no father in the home (for whatever reason) and the mom is working one or more jobs to make ends meet. This is sooooo not good.

There is so much missing from this article.

NSangoma said...

~
... There is so much missing from this article.
anonymous 7:58 PM

Yeah, like a crying towel.
`

wanda loves... said...

@kellybelle,

I let the Sha-queen go, but "U-Allah"? I couldn't even call somebody that.

Anonymous said...

I think this article was framed for entertainment purposes.

I am white, I am one of ten children, my Grandmother had six children, her uncle had 16 children, yes, sixteen, and they didn't even live together.

I have so many cousins that even in NYC, in a fairly large goverment organization, I know of at least 2 third cousins who work with me. Could be more, who knows?

So many of the comments here have been on target, but I do want to add a little bit more.

The Archdiocese in NYC, headed by Eagen, is a farce. He is closing schools and churches in poor neighborhoods, and at the same time, building churches in rich areas. He is a fake. Now that is a newsworthy story.

Anonymous said...

It would help if we pruned that branch on the family tree know as the baby Momma/daddy, If your married and living with the woman you don't have to pay child support.

Jusus.

SingaporeSwim said...

Perhaps a charitable party will help her and her family once they read about their predicament and help her help herself

I live in Tejas and no AC would be intolerable and unbearable for most in these parts, although it's not a rarity.

*****

OT: I wonder how long until Obama is asked if he approves of/supports former Rep. JC Watts' Black Television News Channel which launches in 2009? How should he/will he answer this question?

In the already racially polarized political climate, won't the creation of a black focused news channel be used against Obama, some way and somehow? FOX has first dibs of course.

SingaporeSwim said...

I think this is a case of you not being able to handle the truth Field. (-: Truth hurts but never lies.

Facts are facts and writers have license to employ "drama" when it serves those facts, esp. when reporting on human interest stories.

Ms. King is 37 and has 10 kids (that alone hypes the story) and they're coping with Philly's heat wave (empathetic side of story).
If Ms. King were a 37 y.o. single woman in the same bind that would not be nearly as sensationalized ....well, unless she were a famous star.

That's the news biz for ya'.

the.spot said...

The truth hurts, and for good reason may I add.

field negro said...

"Field there were some great and heartfelt posts by granny, missy and girl6. If we could get together with folks as forward thinking as are most of the folks who respond to this blog we could make some real changes."

mellaneous, I will say AMEN to that.

And I sure attract a lot of you ministers here:) It's all good though. You all must know that I am a backsliding PK and you are trying to get me back in the church:)

And why would this poor woman leave NYC to go to K&A. As someone above mentioned K&A ain't no joke for us black folks.-- isonprize, I think I know where thembi was coming from. As a black person you do feel safer in north or West Philly than K&A. Lots of angry poor white people there--. But as someone else mentioned it could have been a housing issue with this woman. It's cheaper to live it in Philly than in NY.

But this article....I am still hoping that one of the writers will reach out to me. But, I won't hold my breath :(

isonprize said...

FN,

How do I recommend a candidate for Field Negro of the Day?

It is June 9th, 11:15 at night and Dennis Kucinich is in the House of Representatives reading articles of impeachment on the floor of the Housr of Representatives.

Live on C-SPAN 1

He's up to Article 31. President George W. Bush and his dereliction of duty regarding New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina.

And he is thorough. Naming names, I mean, Kicking ass and taking names!

Field Negro behavior. indeed!

SingaporeSwim said...

Let's not forget that Ms. King had the option of declining the interview or asking that it not be printed. She made herself and her state of being fodder for criticism and shaking of heads. She apparently has no prob with the kind of attention that having 10 children and not being able to aptly provide for them attracts.

ZACK said...

That King woman had a big ole' SEXY BODY! No wonder she has 10 kids! Lawd Have Mercy!

Anonymous said...

Poor lady- losing a husband really does a lot of damage to a family.

But she's not the only one with that many kids.Hey Field! Do you remember that birthing machine out of Arkansas? The woman with 18 or 20 kids by her husband the state senator? Your tax dollars at work, indeed.

Before people start trippin' over welfare, check the stats. CORPORATE WELFARE takes up more money than Medicaid and Food Stamps combined.

Anonymous said...

This is not a perfect 10…

Field what is your point? There is little in the way of a story about the weather unless you can relate to it. I see this as a “human interest” story with a “hook”. We can all start to feel the heat on our neck when we read the account of how the family copes with the heat. We all start to feel irritated by the heat and the conditions.
All of the social issues identified by you and your readers exist and they exist very “large” in the life of Cynthia King. Each issue, poor, obese, too many children, lack of support could have volumes written about it, true. But I think Susan Snyder and Rita Giordano hoped for a different response.
I was taken by the fact that the home address was included in among the facts…why? I know how I felt after reading the piece. I need to send Cynthia some money to buy her a fan, food, what ever. I need to write her and share information about how to keep the hot daytime air out of her house. I need to tell her how to draw a tub of water for the kids to cool in and not waste water with multiple showers. I need to do something HELPFUL.

Missy said...

I had to come back to this post to read comments and catch up on what other people were saying.

You've got a crew of very enlightened commentators Field...with a tiny sprinkling of idiot for flavor..'cause there is always one in every crowd.

Anonymous said...

Great you found somebody to put down , do we all feel better now?

After slavery black families all had a lot of children to repopulate our community.

In high school blacks and mexicans were looked down on because of getting pregnant at 16, as whites secretly had abortions. Who do you think God will judge more harshly those that kill their babies or those that have them?

But thanks for this article, pls find others we can talk about and look down on, these black blogs are so uplifting! I swear I think most of black blogs are secretly run by the KKK and their just laughing look how black ppl hate on each other, look we picked an easy target, this bitch with ten kids, everybody let's dump on her

I have lived all over the country: news flash--poor whites and poor blacks act the EXACT SAME!!

Dr. Know said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dr. Know said...

Little to be said that hasn't been eloquently iterated above. But I'll summarize my particular take:

Education
Self-esteem
Community
Family
Employment

Further, I find it shocking to note the assaults currently being executed against each item listed.

As for the news piece, perhaps living in a southern city with the likes of Neil Boortz and Newt Gingrich has affected my perceptions, but yes, I believe the facts are true; but I also believe it was published as a veiled "Welfare Queen" story intended to promote the stereotype. And I saw no point in listing their partial address.

CoyoteFe said...

So ... in the Inky this morning ...
the first person brought a hose (what she wished for). Another peson brought an air-conditioner, and then another was left for the family with the church, Then the landlord brough TWO air conditioners AND a pool. The churches have been inundated with gifts to the point where they can help others as well. Not a ROOT solution, but, who cares when it's a fine day even so? There is something to be said for a mother who only needs her children's happiness to be at peace.

Locs2Envy said...

Hi,

I just discovered your blog (linked to All God's Children from my blog) and I absolutely love it. I can say that it is the first one that I have come across that holds my attention and is very informative. I haven't found anything close to my views until this. I'm going to link it, if you don't mind, to my blog.

By the way, I am a prison administrator and I see many of those children, particularly "us", of the woman who has so many babies that grandparents are attempting to raise them. I can't talk case specific, of course, but I'll even go further to say that I see mothers having babies, babies are then molested by sibling, mother continues having babies, sibling continues to molest babies and nothing is done until finally one molested sibling gets "jealous" because they are no longer the molesters "favorite" sibling and tells what the molester has been doing. Then the youth molester is sent to me for "rehabilitation" while mother continues to have babies for reasons such as religion bans contraband, and then eventually I have to release the adjudicated juvenile back to his home, and the babies, because he has no other placement, and he has completed the court ordered "treatment" program. Some of you may be wondering how a 12 year old knows of such things, so for clarification let me say that for the most part it is from being molested themselves by parents and/or grandparents. Some do it from necessity. I've been told "I was hungry". This child was eating feces from the baby's diaper and of course one thing led to another. One thing for sure, he knew where to get his "food" on a fairly regular basis.

Well I better stop now. I usually leave my work behind the locked doors (we don't have bars in the Juvie system here).

Be Blessed and continue doing what you do!

Much love, Nihuru

field negro said...

Nihuru, thanks for the kind words, and for the link. I will reciprocate as I always TRY to do.

Always feel free to check in with a shout. I welcome your perspective on things given your vocation.