Anna Marie Smith,
"Sex Scandals, 'Responsible Fatherhood' and the 2008 Election Campaign:
When 'Sex Talk' Trumps Race and Class"
(page 6 of 7)
Obama's Responsible Fatherhood Campaign
There are less obvious but equally important places where the Obama
administration could be pressed to stand up for gender justice, the
inclusion of LGBT people, and the rejection of the religious right and
its conservative "family values" agenda. As a black leader in U.S.
society, President Obama is vulnerable to criticism that he is too
"soft" on the African-American community where it appears they only have
themselves to blame for their unequal standing. In particular, the idea
that poverty is caused by black women and their sexual recklessness and
inferior parenting is particularly virulent in the United
States.[19]
Every black politician must negotiate a treacherous path; even the most
controversial white contender will never be exposed to the same type and
degree of scrutiny and moralistic criticism. Will the black candidate
cater to the special interests of his or her own people, and thereby put
the general population at risk? Will he or she fail to ensure that black
criminals receive the rough justice of retribution? Will he or she fail
to punish the welfare queen for her sins? Will he or she make sure that
the governmental rewards that do flow to the black community are
channeled exclusively to the hard-working blacks from the middle class
who are maintaining impeccable moral standards by getting married and
staying married?
The African-American politician's burden is made all the more
difficult with the sensationalistic corporate media standing ready to
pounce on virtually any scandal. Illegal drug use and sexual immorality
have become branded, thanks to America's racial legacy, as stereotypical
black behavior. The two failing wars abroad and the collapsing economy
at home only intensifies the apocalyptic thirst for more scandal. A
social justice-oriented media would begin with a principled assessment
of the real reasons for poverty in general and the poverty of the black
families headed by single mothers in particular; this would include our
substandard public education system, low wages, the business lobby's
successful disempowerment of the labor movement, gender and racial
discrimination, and inadequate child care—and it would explore the
possibilities for building creative political alliances. Instead,
neoliberalism wins out again and again, as scandal coverage swallows up
almost every bit of mainstream news coverage, and criticism of economic
inequality, militarism, and social exclusion are pushed to the margins
of public discourse.
It is therefore understandable that an ambitious black politician
might want to situate himself or herself favorably within the American
political terrain by seizing upon a moral issue and making it his or her
own. President Obama, for his part, has made responsible fatherhood a
signature plank of his political agenda. From the perspective of
feminists and LGBT activists, this choice will, at best, yield ambiguous
outcomes. At worst, it could become a vehicle for the pursuit of policy
objectives that ultimately contradict social justice principles.
On the campaign trail in 2008, President Obama returned several times
to the theme of "responsible fatherhood" as an integral dimension of
sound anti-poverty policies. In his Father's Day speech, which he
delivered at Apostolic Church of God, Obama praised black men who act as
strong father figures. He continued:
If we are honest with ourselves, we'll admit that what too
many fathers also are is missing—missing from too many lives and too
many homes. They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys
instead of men. . . . We know that more than half of all black children live
in single-parent households, a number that has doubled—doubled—since we
were children. We know the statistics—that children who grow up without
a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime;
nine times more likely to drop out of schools and twenty times more
likely to end up in prison. They are more likely to have behavioral
problems, or run away from home, or become teenage parents themselves.
And the foundations of our community are weaker because of
it.[20]
Feminist social scientists, such as Judith Stacey, have long debunked
the right-wing idea that single parenting causes social pathologies;
given half a chance, single mothers can do just fine raising
children.[21]
There is a consensus among social scientists that "child outcomes are
affected by a large number of factors other than the number and types of
parents present in a child's household. These factors include, inter
alia, the overall quality of parenting as reflected in parental
love, warmth, involvement, and consistency; pre- and post-natal care;
adequate nutrition and health care; whether the child was planned or
wanted; the mother's age at conception; parental socioeconomic
resources; quality of neighborhood and schools; influences of peers and
siblings; and the child's own abilities, temperament, attitudes, and
psychological resources. Moreover, research reflects wide variation in
child outcomes even for siblings residing in the same
family."[22] While
single mother-headed families have a higher rate of poverty than the ones
headed by a single father or by a married couple, this difference
reflects the extreme wage inequality endured by working mothers, rather
than problems intrinsic to the single-mother family form. The poverty
rate for the families headed by single mothers (for every racial and
ethnic group) is double that for families headed by single
fathers.[23]
One study found that as many as 49% of all low-income children live with
married parents.[24]
Other research suggests that the vectors of
causality move in many directions at once. On the one hand, divorce or
separation can lead a non-poor family to fall below the poverty line; on
the other, economic instability can contribute to family
disruptions.[25]
Obama's child welfare outcomes-based argument against single
parenting therefore lacks support in the social science literature. The
call for responsible fatherhood is also problematic insofar as it has,
embedded within it, a mandate for governmental marriage promotion.
Drawing once again from the racial slurs against the welfare queen, the
right has attempted to persuade voters and policymakers that poverty is
caused by poor single mothers who are irrationally avoiding marriage. If
these women would just march down the aisle, the argument goes, we would
have less poverty and could reduce our poverty programs.
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