“Happy now, bitch?”
– Bunk Moreland, “The Wire”
Last year I wrote a column about NFL star-running back Adrian Peterson, making the case that the violence he visited on his toddler-aged son was by no means an isolated event but part of a long chain of such violence that is the norm in Black America – and that it has its roots in Baby Mama-led homes.
Indeed, in that same piece, I strongly asserted that the major defining feature of Baby Mamaism that is now the default setting for family formation in Black America, is its ungodly levels of violence, often starting with said Baby Mamas themselves. This cycle of violence then spirals out to the children, male and female alike, and easily confirmed a thousand ways to Sunday via social media like YouTube and World Star Hip Hop. Social science surveys and researchers have also confirmed this, but of course, researchers are often reluctant to openly say so. Political correctness and all that.
Reaction to my argument was strong; I expected it to shake up foes of the Men’s Rights Movement, but I had to admit that I was taken aback by the pushback from a few fellow travelers, who felt that my missive was a bit of a reach: in their eyes, the connection I made between Peterson’s actions and Baby Mamaism, was a stretch at best, an outright falsehood at worst.
Indeed, in a later and more recent column where I examined the misdeeds of “Empire” actress Ms. Taraji P. Henson I was once again upbraided for daring to come at such a strong and brave single mother, whose son was already showing early signs of antisocial behaviors and going off the rails. This enabling is commonly part and parcel of Baby Mamaism (and puts to bed the Big Fat Lie that Baby Mamas who are well-to-do have nothing to worry about). Where was my compassion?
Well, Ms. Toya Graham, has changed all that – and in so doing, has vindicated all that I said.
“America’s Mom,” Ms. Graham, will forever go down in history as that brave heroine who just happened to be on the scene last Monday, when she spied her 16 year-old son among the protesters hurling rocks at the Baltimore police in the wake of the death of 25 year-old Freddie Gray. Her onscreen antics – which included not just physical, over-the-top violence and outright child abuse but a goodly bit of pottymouthism to boot – have been hailed by the Cathedral Media as the actions of a loving, involved parent who is bravely fighting against all odds to raise her six kids(!!!) right.
Of course, there is no mention of a Mr. Graham and when Fox News host Bill O’Reilly pointed this inconvenient fact out, he was excoriated by none other than one of the famed Martin Luther King clan, Alveda King.
Nevermind that, had the roles been reversed, and it were a Black dad, married or no, out there whupping up on his daughter, he wouldn’t just be vilified by the press but he’d very likely wind up in the same place as young Mr. Gray. Nevermind that this kind of pelting by the media has indeed happened not just to Peterson, not just to Rev. Creflo Dollar, but to everyday American citizens who just happened to be dads straightening their daughters out.
No, those cases are different. Here, the key difference is that Graham is just trying to save her boy, don’tcha know – a brave, single mother fighting against all odds, who is deserving of all our compassion and empathy!
You just cannot make this stuff up.
Indeed, I think Baltimore itself is a case study in what happens when we get “A Woman’s Nation” – if no one’s noticed, it is ruled top to bottom by women – in this case, Black women. It has a Black woman as a mayor (its second; its first Black female mayor, Sheila Dixon, was ousted for corruption). It has a Black woman as its chief prosecutor (barely a month on the job, part of a strong police family – hmm). One of the officers under potential indictment for the murder of Freddie Gray, is a Black woman who just so happens to be a Sargeant (her subordinates in the case happen to be white male officers; Ferguson, this ain’t); and of course, there’s Toya Graham, decked out in Wookie Weave and very much acting the part of stereotypical Baby Mama (I’m convinced she was the inspiration for “The Wire’s” Delonda Brice).
Baltimore is not just a de facto matriarchy – it is a de jure matriarchy. As I’ve said so many times before, wherever de facto matriarchy is the order of the day, there too shall you find violence, disorder, chaos, pestilence, poverty and anarchy. Baltimore, anyone?
And look at the real world results: Graham uses violence against her only son (the other FIVE kids by multiple Baby Daddies are girls!) that, by her own admission, she has used before (proving that it doesn’t work); Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has called the protestors/rioters – largely Black boys like Graham’s son – “thugs” and her lead prosecutor, who hails from a strong police-family, is already being met with extreme suspicion by Baltimore’s public.
It will be very interesting to see what, if anything, the Black Feminist Brigades will have to say about all of this; whether they will continue to bang on about “Black male privilege” in the face of the facts above.
Perhaps they will repeat the same strategy they exhibited in the recent domestic violence case of WNBA stars Brittney Griner and Glory Jonhson, keep their silence about all of this and act like whatever else they were doing was more important.
That, I must admit, would be a welcome change.
But what is clear is that Black men have no friends in a Black woman-led nation – they certainly don’t in Baltimore, a matriarchy in which Black women are above reproach.
The evidence, broadcast before the world to see, speaks for itself.
Freddie Gray is dead. Toya Graham is a heroine.
And the band plays on.
