If you don't want to wait for famous folks to come clean, read the comments here.
Hey, credit where due.
Don't hold your breath waiting for the conservative folks that leaped all over that 70% number to recant. And the fact that Dr. Cosby HAS cleaned it up shows the separation between him yelling at us and them yelling at us. It's not a race thing as much as an honor thing—honoring his own integrity as well as those he's talking about.
COSBY ON TEEN PREGNANCY: 'Fatherhood' author clarifies stats on African American girls getting knocked up.
(Jul. 13, 2004) Comedian Bill Cosby wants to rectify a few of the data he cited in recent rants about the crisis of African American teen pregnancy.
He had previously said that 70% of all teen pregnancies are to African American girls. According to 1997 stats, African Americans make up about 27% of teen moms.
But considering that African Americans make up a smaller percentage of the US population, the rate of black teenage pregnancy is still through the roof.
Zeroing in on African-American teens aged 15-19, the pregnancy rate is almost double that of the white population. However, the data also points out that African Americans had the largest decline since 1991 of birth rates for this same group, falling 42% compared to the previous data. Cosby, however, doesn’t feel the decline translates to optimism.
Posted by P6 at July 13, 2004 07:05 PM
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Comments
"Cosby, however, doesn’t feel the decline translates to optimism."
Huh? How can you argue that when things are getting better rapidly, rather than getting worse, that it is no reason to feel optimistic about the future? If 42% less girls are having kids, that directly translates into girls who won't have to drop out and will be able to go to college. I say celebrate, and tell as many teenagers as possible to do more of what they are doing to keep that rate going down. If we can keep the rate declining like it is, the Black teen pregnancy rate will be right around the current White pregnancy rate in a decade or so. It will probably not be equal, because White teen pregnancy will continue to go down as well. But why chase a moving target? We should set independent goals, so we can at least know when we've reached that goal, and when we will be allowed to feel optimistic by our entertainers/educators/critics. When is it no longer an epidemic? If we are going to make social commentary, we should at least think ahead and set specific, achievable, challenging goals in the area of teen pregnancy. Should our birth rate be 30/1000, 10/1000, 1/1000? Whatever White girls happen to be doing that year? What are our expectations?
I'm disappointed, because Cosby is not sorry for lying about young Black women, and I used to be a teen Black woman (at least I was in 1997, where he got his data from, when there is much more recent data available which shows more improvement) so I almost feel like he was lying about me and my peers, personally. They deserve an APOLOGY for being underestimated. I crunched a few numbers, and the claim that Black teens have 70% of teenage birth translates into nearly all Black teens having multiple births while still in high school to maintain such a rate year after year, and I would have to go so far as to say it may be physically impossible considering gestation lasts 9 months.
Posted by Chrissy at July 14, 2004 12:19 PMI think he was wrong, bought into that 70% figure that's been floating around. There's a difference between "wrong" and "lie," though. That difference is enough for him to keep my respect for his intent.
Posted by P6 at July 14, 2004 02:27 PMLie or innocent mistake, he should have known because the info was available, and if he is purporting to be the man with the answers, then he needs to be the man with the answers! :)
The 70% figure that's been floating around is actually that 68% of all Black children are born to single mothers. This is the TRUTH. Only 27% of Black women are married, and I think around 40% if Black men are married. This is a complicated issue that people tend to harp on, and it certainly affects Black children in a serious way. It is difficult conversation to have, because there is no consensus in this country that an individual adult woman choosing to have a child is objectively a bad thing, i.e. the Murphy Brown debate. It seems to have a lot of causes, but not a single real solution I can think of that isn't long term.
Posted by Chrissy at July 14, 2004 06:16 PM