#284. Child Support

It is a well-known fact that Father's Day is a date that passes without much fanfare in the Black community. With the rate of out-of-wedlock births approaching 75 percent for Black people, absenteeism on the part of the father is an unfortunate reality on not only Father's Day, but the remaining 364 days of the year as well.

Black people find the usage of birth control an impediment to the motto of "keeping it real" and thus regard the notion of safe sex as any encounter that the CDC won't keep track of for statistical reasons.

The usage of condoms or other preventative measures to ward off unwanted pregnancies are generally considered nuisances in the Black community (though abortion is an unusually high methodology utilized by Black people for birth control), thus the means more often than not produce an unwanted end that Black men abandon.

Child support is a term that rarely crosses the minds of Black males mid-coitus, for the long-term effects of their actions are clouded in the short-term fantasy that whatever comes of the encounter can be raised through the generosity of Black Run America (BRA). The state will take care of their progeny through free lunches, welfare and food stamps, but if these actions fail, the route of Michael Oher is an attractive option available to more and more Black males.

But it is child support that must be provided for the unwanted product of a momentary copulatory session, and it is this notion that Black males find untenable and a burden of great significance that must be avoided at all costs:

A deadbeat Chicago dad risked his life Tuesday to avoid paying child support.

Ronald "Boobie" McIntyre broke both of his legs trying to escape the police, who were pursuing him on an arrest warrant for leaving his children in the lurch, NBC Chicago reports.

McIntyre, 35, owes $5979.66 in court-mandated support for his kids.

Chased by police to an apartment building near his home, he jumped out of a third-story window to get away, landing on the ground below.

When police arrived, a woman at the residence told them McIntyre had disappeared.

But during their search of the apartment, a child directed the officers to an open window, which led them to their suspect.

They "looked down and saw McIntyre lying on the ground below," the sheriff's office told the Chicago Tribune. "Though it appeared he landed on grass, it was actually artificial turf covering concrete."

The police ran to McIntyre, but even in his crippled state he shouted expletives at them and tried to wriggle away.

Paternity tests present Black males with much consternation (and their female counterparts as well), for the more they have spread their seed, the more they pay for what they have sowed. Former NFL player Travis Henry produced nine children with nine different women and failed to pay the court-ordered child support. He was jailed for his insubordination, though the fate of legs being broken in an effort to elude police seems pleasant in comparison.

Evander Holyfield wasn't put in jail for his refusal to pay child support, but he is still fighting at the age of 48 to pay for his brood.

One study shows that the majority of "dead-beat dads" not paying child support is a phenomenon that non-whites partake in 58 percent of the time (Black males 41 percent and Hispanics 17 percent).

Many Black rappers see themselves above paying such monies to care for their unwanted progeny and help out the mothers of their children. Those that do pay find ways to protest the amounts required by courts and attempt to be niggardly with their money.

One idea being discussed is a move to remove the idea of child support from the vernacular of Black men completely:

Professor Frances Goldscheider teaches sociology at Brown, where she came up with the idea that, she says, has made her question some of her deepest, most long-standing beliefs: "While I thought I was a feminist all my life, when I started studying the family and fatherhood in general, I realized that I was really an egalitarian. I want a level playing field in the family for men and women."

If it were law, a financial abortion would allow a man -- one who has specifically said to his partner before intercourse that he doesn't want to be a father -- to void all monetary responsibility for any pregnancy. Without question, the woman could carry the child to term, but she and the law could then never come looking for the dad for child support. It sounds harsh -- so much so that Goldscheider admits it will probably never be more than a dream theory -- but proponents believe that such a policy could very well make a huge dent in the nation's scourge of absentee fathers, especially in the African-American community.

"I think it would primarily benefit men who do not want to be fathers," Goldscheider says, "and that's mostly those who are not ready, whether financially or whatever. And given the structure of inequality in this country, it should disproportionately benefit young black men."

Raising children isn't cheap (though Black Run America does help fit the bill), but to Black people the idea of having and caring for a child seems to be a general nuisance, and that the idea of being burdened with child support is an even greater nuisance:

Many men feel as if they are being entrapped, stigmatized and even criminalized, when it comes to current child support laws. And many black women want their children supported. But because nearly 70 percent of black children are born out of wedlock, there needs to be a happy medium if the community is to thrive.

Whereas in the past, child support was seen as more a moral issue -- men who make children should always be responsible for them -- it is now more about economics, even if it's not politically correct to say so. After President Bill Clinton's welfare reform bill, the government (and tax payers) began aggressively shifting the burden of support to fathers, where many claim it should be.

Yet, in a recent New York Times article on the perilous state of black men ('Plight Deepens for Black Men, Studies Warn,' March 20, 2006), Georgetown University economist Harry J. Holzer said that after incarceration, "the stricter enforcement of child support" policies is the largest factor in keeping young black men tethered to poverty. By keeping young black men overwhelmed by debt and therefore outside of legal employment, support obligations "amount to a tax on earnings."

Stuff Black People Don't Like includes child support, an idea that Black people find repellent and a general burden that warrants jumping out of the third-floor of a building to avoid paying. Child support is offensive to Black people, as is the draconian and archaic notion that they should care for the by-product of their sexual encounters, especially when those who fund Black Run America will constantly be there to pay the bill for their unwanted kids.

And if not, the Michael Oher Act can finally be introduced to Congress.

In Black Run America, Black people must never be held accountable for their actions. Thus, child support is an idea that Black people scoff at and see as just another tactic of white people to forever ensnare them in shackles.

If Black males don't care about their own children, the obvious should be "why should anyone else?"

#155. Paternity Tests

Nothing is more insidious to black people then having to look at the results of paternity tests. The fecundity rate of black people is astounding, as evidence by former NFL player Travis Henry. Recently jailed for failing to pay child support for his ten children, through ten different wives, Mr. Henry is an example a black person who dislikes paternity tests.

This clip, from a popular television show, depicts the horror black people are confronted with after evidence of their progeny is conclusive.

Black people are horrified of the results paternity tests and will continue to deride and ignore the results of sound science.