Black Women and the Family; Iola Harding

seed seed fb i loathe it is a counselor el dorado high school she also has her own counseling practice of adolescence and family she's the mother of two daughters and the universe and mr weinstein and received a bachelor of science degree in kentucky and a master's at the university of kentucky and her doctorate at the university of new mexico law thank you and then asked to speak this evening i really do always appreciate

being asked him how to stay i am i'm a black woman and i worked many many years so i think that qualifies me to speak on the subject which is the black working woman's perspective on the black family i also a mother so i think yeah that is a little pretense to mind being able to speak on the subject on the family several years ago when i put together course here in this camp was called the black family and since that time i've really been intrigued about the black family as a separate entity and then i thought of the family as the family and that there was some kind of amorphous thing all the family whatever that was but in preparing that course i came to see that the black family had some very unique features which made it quite different from other types of families

so we talk a little bit about that from that point of view yeah like marcia i'd been trained in sociology is so and so what i say we'll have sort of a sociological perspective and i'm presently working in counseling and psychology so some of what i have to say will be coming from an orientation so hopefully i can wear the two points of view and make this rather meaningful to you i think in america we have two nations we have happening as it relates to blacks and we have had those two nations since the first blacks were brought over and because the games down at that time they were not slaves they were indentured servants and redevelop those two sets of people are two sets of values two sets of standards there was that everyone got and although the umbrella of the one government did not always shout their equally the black population as if the others

now america is made up of many as we all know many people from many many different parts of the world and america had sort of a theme of the melting pot and although he melted a number of people said allow them or excluded from coming into the pot and consequently there have always been those two nations side by side are not side by side one sort of the others were like a letter inside with and then in the late sixties and seventies something happened there was what was called a revolution and many people spoke about the great american revolution in which black people were working for their freedom and many of us can say that we want that those battles we want them because we achieved unprecedented rights and religious responsibilities which we lived up to

end or admirable way but something happened at the same time that we were winning those battles and that's what this is what i was just this evening i think we neglected something i think we neglected the home front and i want to talk about the home front and the effect that the home front as having upon a continuation island nation that was key to her that was written during that period of time and you'll see the word the nation and applied to black people in a number of weight that was considered a nation with animations on people even talked about it's establishing boundaries for a nation and government etc etc etc and those two and violence at the time when we came together in integration we've got to get it people who have lived here understand the same government

would share the same land and yet i had a number of different points of view so that when we technically brought the blacks were integrated into anglo america we brought people together who had a distinctly different historical background so it was necessary to have to begin to teach the history of the black people and history was placed into the school systems and history was taught in school systems and this is a true indication of a collective people when there is a unified body of history that's taught in a structured way so that people can learn about some sense because without our history we're doomed to the great philosopher santiago if we do not know our history we're doomed to repeat it so black americans in july from that period for years in some places five in others the history being taught alongside american history in hope to the public schools

other groups also had history placed into the curriculum on the public schools and something happened something happened that night they are tar of earlier times sojourner truth one of the historical ladies from our history we said the constitution was a great document but inside the constitution there was a little mini measles as she called she was talking about a boll weevil gets inside the cotton and eats away from the interior so they're from all outside appearances it looks like you have a perfect bowl where until you opened up and looking at you see the needle has eaten it up well to me for my point tv and that is what is that is what is happening to a black woman and that is what is contributing to what i call the death of the nation

is that number a little weasels that have somehow gotten inside and had eaten away at the core of what this whole movement was all about and i think the family and the direction with the family has taken is tantamount to what's taking place in the total national perspective we want revolution we lost the battle on the home front and how do we do think the statistics show us that there are enormous changes taking place in america her period some terrible things are happening to our young people the statistics are just appalling whammy when we read that there are over a million youngsters run away every year allan poe war on the streets alone moment that implies over a million teenage mothers and an overwhelming one or willing but a

disproportionate number of those teenage mothers are black girls under the age of fifteen and teenage motherhood has a number of implications and certainly doesn't carry with it a semblance of strength for the future of black mother you teenage black motherhood can look forward to contributing to the development of youngsters without the act went home environment and which we come to serve think that the child needs in order to grow up to become a responsible at all these young mothers are unable to provide the environment that are needed for the answer is they are unable to provide the flu clothing and shelter are biological research scientific research has shown that the first two years of life of the youngsters did kind of governors shouldn't there is inevitable brain damage which then interferes with the ability to warp so if we're not providing that kind of development for

young people we cannot expect to have a strong generation to follow researches further showing that young children who are deprived of the trends that the love and the nurturing that goes with a family that has a mother and a father and other people to provide that kind of emotional support there something that is lacking that allows us them to grow up insecurity without direction a sense of purpose a true self esteem and identity teenage mother that carries with it the implication that youngsters will be deprived of two of the very things that are necessary to help them to grow and to become and assisting suicide five hundred thousand teenagers in this country attempt suicide each year somewhere between ten and fifteen

actually achieve that and that is the only thing that the larger population they lack of his nomination for the black nation we see something that's overwhelming areas than a hundred thirty percent increase in suicide in the large majority of people they just people in general but that is something like three hundred percent in the black population are teenagers are killing themselves are rapidly and in the early sixties we both really mcclain suicide was not a black problem and suicide is exploding in our young families suicide but some of the hour their minds is a tragic loss suicide is a tragic loss in any situation but a small number of people living inside of the land that has been

hostile to be a suicide of our young people are something that we can and for another statistic homicide is the number one killer among black males under twenty one years of age vehicular homicide is a number one killer of young males and young white males and twenty one so that we can see that there is a general trend of things that are taking place with our young people there is a decline in something and while i deploy that decline wherever it affects people were talking about the black population we can least afford that we've put everything we had into that revolution and when the revolution with hundreds of years of preparation we mean with people had had that single minded this sunday we shall overcome and now they're wearing a generation far along that reality

its history and we no longer teach that has to blacklist is no longer taught in the public schools they can do that we do get is that is to be an immediate know there's nothing wrong with it except in an intimate talk about one other little thing i want all that together look at what is being shown on television and you'll see the black people being depicted again as victims another weasel out of that weasel off that are thinking of victim as a person who has happened is a victim of the person who perceives themselves as i'm able to change the course of events around them he now blaming the victim was a great book it showed us a perspective that we had overlooked that we weren't where we were by choice by day delinquency on our part

that had constructed things in such a way that we were never allowed to reach our full potential and that was a revelation but when a people accept the syndrome of victimization of people gives up the whole reality that we have any control over our lives that we and in fact tensions control our futures and along with that we would have to give up that there's a better tomorrow because we're waiting as a victim waits for something to happen well the first thing that we do with victims of any kind is that we try to get back to a sense that they do have some control over their lives the fear that goes with being a victim which i find ways to help person eliminate or at least control that if we have accepted into our whole way of

thinking collectively that we are victims and we cannot begin to take control of our lives we cannot have a generation that would carry on we shall overcome we would lose that which has been a vital part of our strength as a people my grandmother used to raise daffodils and xi raise them and sayings by every year and the ladies would come by midnight after the event and she say thank you and i can see them next year but with the statistics as they are growing and the effect that they're having upon the black family will be able to say that next generation will be better that has been something that has now died in line and a source of comfort and strength to the black peoples collectively it's coming in the future it'll be better for the next generation you do it

in two and eliminated some of the things that we run and that battle field that revolution another weasel it came in around black history does one use this as an illustration to show a little tiny times than any other in and then sort of undermined and destroy something very valuable that has been achieved his dream is taught and somehow we were given the idea we were black we knew that his fast why do we teach history american history to everybody from the time we start school and our time we graduate from college for many events in history is so important as part of the school curriculum from the time the kid starts to school until a time of graduates at least from high school and how could we as a black people know our history when it's been hidden from us when i was a graduate student i

went to schools are segregated time there was no electricity available has written books and so it's a lot of math yes the enormous i will live there is an archive of state and i wanted to go into the archive to do some research and they say you have to be registered in going here i said i am registered but did you have to bring something to change a red state that normal party from our current prisoner that i was allowed to the archives and then i discovered something that i never knew existed there are discovered book after book after book that contain the history of my people i had never laid eyes on in all of my life my <unk> have been relegated to the archives and yet when as a result of that revolution we pull that history only are contemplated under the curriculum we as black people right for our children that they knew their kids i've lived it and

nobody lives in history our history is a story that is told so that we can remember and we are so that we can collectively have an identity and without that there isn't anything the we came here and we allowed it to move around and we lost another battle on the home front because without their history and children will never know martin luther king was lessin was a great reality is part of allies we were there we knew what was going on with the young people today martin luther king is a name that will appear history books without that history book really nothing all the other great people who made great contributions will die away without that history and we allowed that we were where we were worried that when we meet their hearts

we had empty bones because the little weasel and army end and we didn't recognize land land was something that we as a people are picked up at the end of the civil war and up until that time and we cherish that way it means something to us in the depression in nineteen twenty nine when cities is with us along to the cities we checked back the land back to the land and grandparents were able to eke out a living while some of us remain in the cities and how to find some kind of income to send back but today we can hear that land the end of nineteen twenty nine with the land to black people now only last seventy percent of what would we get if need be we want i know my

rights in the area of economics the right to implement equal opportunity and i'm president just announced that one of the first thing that would be eliminated in this present administration will be the need for equal opportunity where will we go if the doors are also a day mostly by that battle all over again and if we do have we as the family people are we wearing our children with the kind of strength that can go back out on it now from again not add four percent are beginning to spare men with drugs not a fact it's a recount is optimistic is that they are in the things that they can handle and we are producing a generation of young people that will not have a proper nourishment law the proper direction will we have a story that we had when we went into the battle the first time the

black family has been my opinion is and always will be the strongest element that we will ever have in our life a feat of freedom in this mine and anything that takes away from that is going to diminish the ability of black people as a collective people to survive only use it and hope that leaders would have a little bit more about the lack of direction that comes the new black people are not interested in being black new black people don't identify with being anything too many of our young young black people have no identities and that's a rare steak somebody could call my hand on their work with young people every day and work with young people of the past twenty years and

i've seen the changes as they have occurred people with an identity who am i what i know about i don't have the slightest idea the family conveys that where is the nucleus of the family citizens again will tell us that there are more armed single heads of households in black families than any other group and there are a number of reason and i'm going to convey that i explain to talk about to talk about the results are when there is one here regardless of color raise three year when everyone there is one here something is taken away and laugh there's something to read when that can is both provider and nurture something has to be human and leslie have something else and most of us don't have grannies around anymore that can sit home and

provide while we're out doing whatever we need to do we need to feel that again it's it sounds the last families to the black family especially i really feel that in a moment something other than a let's keep the term originated with us let's see let's keep chilled children came home a little children couldn't we reach into our lives and this is a mother's day had to leave little stands on the doorstep so they could places to look to reach the door to unlocking get inside what is that child doing when says that child's questions that child's curiosity and who listens there were problems at that time has had for the day another weasel that came in and helped us to

lose the battle on the home front of what's needed i can stand here and give you everything's going to be like family or anything respect if you work in the public schools you are very much aware of how little respect young people have for older people not only old people and not just that we're losing good teachers large numbers because they can no longer tolerate the disrespect that's being shunned by kids those teachers who are less assertive and west brom don't last very long at all the tougher ones hang around for the time very tough and very irritable and hate their jobs in respect respect starts in the home respect can only imagine when there's somebody there to make proper corrections immediately someone who has the time to devote to children

grandchildren is a difficult job is not easy it's not something that kids can do all by themselves and now offering the solutions to how that's going to be done but i know somebody else will come along and inspire them somebody will come along would know exactly how to bring that to fruition all i can do is raise it as a proposition that somehow we need to do something that develops to respect in our homes where you know people respect themselves they respect elderly people i think it's a shame that all people are being monitored and victimize in their own communities and young black people at the perpetrators i'm not ashamed to say that i am ashamed to say that but i'm not ashamed to speak the fact and i think it's a disgrace and something that we need to address immediately when i was young you could walk in any neighborhood if you are an elderly person and you treat it with respect elderly people locked themselves inside both the doors and it's not even safe to stay

inside was the disability actually didn't always the three r's of character respect responsibility in order to teach young people how to be responsible for themselves their own behavior their communities somebody has to be there and when you as a deviation somebody has to say what you did was a responsible thing to do could have done it another way because nobody there to provide that kind of how our young people to know just condemning them as not enough how are we going to find ways to provide the kind of training that helps develop a responsible human being that ms reese reasonable world is when i respect <unk> responsibility when we're subjected to reasonable and we have a voice in those weren't and the consequences is with again that implies that somebody

will be there somebody will be present to make sure that i followed those eyes and i don't speak thirty minutes he's right out there faster than you think how would you do something like that when we start federal funds are gone and i think we have relied upon federal funds for a number of things and i think it's made a difference but i also think there'll funds started an internal weakness sunday is it's an idea that somebody else to do me because i haven't reached the generations maybe when i'm speaking from is another experience but i don't think so i think the government has a responsibility for these people but i don't think the government can ever do for us what we want and four cents maybe we need community mobilization maybe we need

simply to start to the family's sitting down and talking about how can we make this happen you meet people going to schools and say we want to develop a respect and our children we want to develop them into a responsible human beings will accept responsibility for their behavior rather than an object that or was there they did that to me and therefore pity me i know i can't be held responsible for what i'm to somebody i am sure will be take up the challenge and make that happen because unless we do we've lost our history and with it is to be lost a collective identity are dying history as a time in which nothing bad has inherited people are losing their land at a rapid rate and the first sign of extinction of any species

is an interruption of its habitat where talking about their fate but people were beginning to view themselves as victims not people of power and self direction of what has been done to the victims are helpless and hopes and they feel the loss of oil unless they can stop the flow and interaction with events that are just as blind eye to years were looking at death of a huge thankyou very ta it