I have been accused of being a hater, a half-congratulator, mean-spirited, jealous, and down right vicious when it comes to talking about Beyonce with my associates and friends. Admittedly I am not the superstar’s biggest fan, and to that I hold no regret. But while Beyonce’s bold announcement at the 2011 MTV video music awards may have been overblown, the underlying message is an important footnote in Black pop culture.
For years, Black women have come to accept that out-of-wedlock children are a typical occurrence in life. While once a stigma to have a baby without the father present, it has now become normalized and sometimes even favored to be a single independent parent. And the numbers don’t lie. Over 25 years, the rate of out-of-wedlock pregnancies born to Black mothers has grown an astounding 64 percent or more, according to a Brookings Institute analysis. You can blame reality TV, pop culture, or the economy, but the statistics are dismal. Black women, as single mother’s, have the lowest income rate, and have a higher rate of depression among other emotional disorders, that directly affect their children.
Take a walk around Jay-Z’s old BedStuy, Brooklyn neighborhood on any given day, and you can see scores of young mothers pushing strollers inside and around the perimeter’s of Marcy Projects. It’s a sad scene indeed. These same people are the ones who idolize their hero. They blast his and his wife’s songs, where his clothes, and the women adorn themselves in House of Dereon, eagerly following their idol. Beyonce. But unlike her, they are young, poor, and unmarried. The gap between these two groups of people, the incredibly wealthy, and the dishearteningly poor is a gaping hole whose magnitude cannot be discussed here.
So while many of us were turned off by the over-the-top announcement, the basic truth of the matter is that she did it right, when so many of us–myself included–did it wrong. I don’t mean to degrade the honor of the hard working single mothers who, despite failed relationships, maintain life do everything they can to provide for their children. But I won’t be patting my back anytime soon for the way my daughter’s life with will be altered due to the lack of her father in her life. Maybe, as a married couple, Beyonce and Jay-Z will finally encourage more of us to get on the right track and build families that are financially and emotionally rewarding.
To that I say congratulations, and good luck.