Prometheus 6

Sorry, this is a little off topic. I recently wrote a letter to a local radio station concerning Cosby's statements about teenage pregnancy. I just wanted to share my thoughts and provide a few facts.

On the morning of July 9, in a segment pertaining to Dr. Bill Cosby’s recent public statements, your station played a clip in which Dr. Cosby states that “Black teenage account for 70% of all teenage pregnancies.” Anyone who has a sense for numbers and the demographics in this country, as a Ph.D. should, can clearly see that this claim is outrageous. I’m writing to state that this statistic is categorically false and to express my disappointment that Dr. Cosby would say such a damaging thing about young Black teenage girls. I also wanted to provide you some accurate documented information about Black teenage birth rates. These statistics are readily available on the Centers for Disease Control website, at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr52/nvsr52_10.pdf for use by anyone who cares about our young women enough not to make up numbers to serve their own purposes. The latest numbers I could find were for 2002.

All Teens: 43 births per 1000 teenagers (9.90 million)
Black Teens: 68.3 births per 1000 teens (1.49 million)
White Teens: 28.5 births per 1000 teens (6.35 million)
Hispanic Teens: 83.4 births per 1000 teens (1.53 million)

With these birth rates in mind, Black teens account for around 23% of all births to teenagers, while White and Hispanic teenagers account for 42% and 30% of births to teenagers respectively. We should acknowledge this rate is still too high, is higher than the overall average, and that the percentage of births is out of proportion with the Black teen population, which is 15% of all teens. But it is a far cry from the borderline fantastical claim that they account for 70%. Birth rates for Black teenage girls has fallen a whopping 42% from 1991 to 2002, and will continue to drop for Black teens as well as all teens if they continue to utilize abstinence and birth control.
Black teens are achieving the greatest gains of all races in the area of teen pregnancy. They should be applauded for their increasing sense of responsibility, and so should their parents. If we don’t acknowledge these improved behaviors amongst our young women, no one will. They are not social pariahs incapable of improvement nor are they worthy of such harsh scorn. I keep hearing from many Black journalists, whose job is to research and comment based on facts, that Bill Cosby’s statements are true, and I certainly understand the impulse to not to paint him as a liar. However, all of his statements are not true, and he needs to be called to task for dissembling about Black teenage women in public forums where there are no knowledgeable experts to defend them. Now, young Black women are challenged not only by rappers who spread misogyny and misinformation about our sexuality, but Dr. Cosby’s overblown exaggerations as well. Dr. Cosby is not only embarrassing himself, but is embarrassing these young women all over the country by not valuing them and his own education enough to ensure that he is communicating statistically accurate, relevant, and reality-based messages.
We are part of an intelligent concerned community with access to incredible resources in this information age, and we need to depend on facts -- not stereotypes, lies, or wishful thinking -- to establish where we are and what our collective goals are for reducing teen pregnancy. If you continue to play clips of Dr. Cosby’s statements, I ask as a listener that you take 5-10 minutes to research any statistics he presents to find out if they are coming from a credible source, because he has proven that despite his high attainment in education he cannot be taken at his word alone.

No problem, Chrissy. Off-topic is okay as long as it's not an evasion of the issues, and you're not evading.