MJ Interprets For the Herd

Bachmann Signs Pledge with Questionable Slavery Reference. Rep. Michele Bachmann is the first Republican presidential candidate to sign the Family Leader pledge disavowing gay marriage, premarital sex, and porn. But perhaps the most outrageous part of the pledge is the section that implies that maybe slavery wasn't all that bad for black families.

Declaring that "[u]nmistakably, the Institution of Marriage in America is in great crisis," the document states:

Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA’s first African-American President.

Maybe they should get a bit of credit for acknowledging that slavery was "disastrous" for black Americans. But that passage seems to suggest that maybe things actually were better for black Americans then. Yes, being kept as property, forced into marriages arranged by slave masters, and raped by those masters was great for black people. As Jack & Jill Politics also points out, breaking up families to sell off slaves was hardly pro-family values. It's an insensitive comparison that ignores history.

------- Bachmann is not to my liking if for no other reason than she's dull as dishwater. And although I wouldn't call her a bimbo as some do - one would think she knows that politicians cannot voice an honest opinion about gays, free love, porn, or minorities - unless it's endorsement. She gives her opposition so much to work with here. Homophobe, racist, bible thumping gun clinging prude, prig ... gosh, whatever is she thinking ...everybody knows gays are normal and premarital sex is hunky dory, especially for teens, porn is just adult entertainment (ask Ted Bundy) and it's mass incarceration that takes away baby daddies.

Bachmann's "pledge" does not imply "that maybe slavery wasn't all that bad for black families." Before the day is over someone will say her remarks are "code" for racist white folks, if they haven't already. Bachmann is right about black children and two-parent households.

The marriage rate for black Americans has been dropping since the 1960s, and today, has the lowest marriage rate of any racial group in the United States. In the 2001 census 43 percent of black men and 42 percent of black women in America had never been married, whites were 28 and 21 percent. Black females are the least likely to marry in America. " ... a black child was more likely to grow up living with both parents during slavery days than he or she is today" according to sociologist Andrew J. Cherlin.

Why buy the cow when the milk is free - and more often than not "the Man" is paying for the stable and feed, and vet bill. Isn't freedumb wonderful...