Black women working outside the home: contributor to broken homes?

Kevin McCall, the controversial singer, composer, music producer, and former fiancé of America’s Next Top Model Alum Eva Marcillè made headlines again for his recent post that iterated that the breakdown of Black families is attributed to the Black woman working outside of the home.

He stated: “Women, y’all need to stop putting this white man and this job before yourself, before your destiny, before your children. And then you wonder why ni**as can’t really rock with you like that cause you trying to do our job.”

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 38.7 percent of African-American minors live with both parents as opposed to 74.3 percent of White minors – a stark difference.  More than one-third of Black minors live with unmarried mothers.  Certainly, family dynamics have altered drastically from the 1900s to the present.  The Moynihan Report of 1965 by sociologist and Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan concluded that the destruction of two-parent households would greatly affect the Black family structure.

The reasons for the demise of a relationship vary. Abuse – which can occur in the forms of physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and financial; death, and imprisonment come to mind. Now let’s take a deeper look. During the slave trade, African-American families were deliberately separated to emasculate the male and sever the family bond – all in the name of discrimination and cheap labor.

African-American men, women, and children were raped in front of family members to further the emotional and mental damage.  Blacks were psychologically broken down by the before mentioned and dare I say, manipulated by the use of religion. Slave masters were known for using Bible scriptures to control the behavior of slaves. Basically, “compliant” slaves were told that obeying their master was the way to heaven.

Yes, many Black homes are in trouble. Conversely, to lay the blame solely on Black women is way off the Richter scale and grossly misinformed.  Women are documented as being the most educated group in the U.S.  The U.S. Department of Labor reiterates that Black women are great contributors to the American workforce.

African-American women work twice as hard simply because they have to; if they are left to raise their family then they will do it well.  Even more, Black women are emerging from the hum-drum and once bleak future predicted for them and are striving to break the glass ceiling, to become successful entrepreneurs, breaking ground in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields (STEM), mining, becoming lead figures in the military, politics, aviation, sports – the list can continue for an extended period of time.

So, Mr McCall, before you spew words from an obviously wounded place – your social media antics surely vouch for this, please be well-conversant and realize that African-American women are powerful and shine beautifully even after being shamed by our male counterparts, white counterparts, and sadly our Black men.

What some of you are posting about this spectacle on Twitter: