Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- From the outside, Johnny and Shanna Woodbury looked like the perfect couple. They had been married 13 years, owned multiple properties and were successful managers. They also had four beautiful children -- a son and a daughter fresh out of college they had prior to getting married and a 12-year-old daughter on the cheerleading team and an 8-year-old son on the honor roll.
Reading this type of articles makes me think we need to begin teaching our children to critically evaluate the type of "news" found on the interwebz.
Take this "fluff piece" for example: Start the article with a anecdotal story about a couple with marriage problems (who happen to be black). Throw in a couple of quotes from some so-called experts, (but don't include the context of their quotes), and follow by the finding and writing about some organization who has made it their goal to highlight the problem and are trying to raise awareness of it. What isn't apparent is that you can probably find an advocacy organization for pretty much ANY societal problem (Jewish marriage awareness day, Circus performer marriage awareness day, etc., etc.,)
Voila.....ALL black marriages are in serious trouble. Upload article to internet.
What I'm about to write is sure to cause some here to be upset (what else is new), but There are some experiences (outside of daily life such as paying the mortgage, bills, and child rearing that most married couples experience on a normal basis) that African-American couples go through that their White counterparts don't have, nor have not had to experience. I'm trying to convince or sell an argument here I'm just stating that there are differences and that those differences do make it more difficult to maintain African American marriages.
Reading this type of articles makes me think we need to begin teaching our children to critically evaluate the type of "news" found on the interwebz.
Take this "fluff piece" for example: Start the article with a anecdotal story about a couple with marriage problems (who happen to be black). Throw in a couple of quotes from some so-called experts, (but don't include the context of their quotes), and follow by the finding and writing about some organization who has made it their goal to highlight the problem and are trying to raise awareness of it. What isn't apparent is that you can probably find an advocacy organization for pretty much ANY societal problem (Jewish marriage awareness day, Circus performer marriage awareness day, etc., etc.,)
Voila.....ALL black marriages are in serious trouble. Upload article to internet.
You left out the incredibly inflated statistics, which applies to just about any sensationalized story.
Case in point. When I worked at the newspaper in the early 80s as a cub reporter, I remember the FBI releasing the statistic that there were as many as 1,000,000 (Yes, that's the right amount of zeros) abducted children in the United States. One million. Well, imagine the total panic that ensued among parents.
So all these articles began running on the plague of child abductions sweeping the country, and our paper was going to follow suit and a buddy of mine was assigned to write the article. So as he started working on it, I asked Sam, "One million? C'mon." I went to the newspaper's library and pulled down the latest census and we whipped out a calculator. For the FBI's statistics to have been true, something like 1 in every 50 children would have to be abducted. So, in your average elementary school, that was one in every other classroom.
So when I read a story like this, or anything of similar tone, my BS detector typically redlines. For most stories are written under pressure with flimsy research and a very tenuous grasp on the facts. In fact, most news organizations basically rewrite the press release from whatever organization that issues it. Makes you wonder about all the frenzy over global warming on a day when my city is experiencing record lows for this date.
What I'm about to write is sure to cause some here to be upset (what else is new), but There are some experiences (outside of daily life such as paying the mortgage, bills, and child rearing that most married couples experience on a normal basis) that African-American couples go through that their White counterparts don't have, nor have not had to experience. I'm trying to convince or sell an argument here I'm just stating that there are differences and that those differences do make it more difficult to maintain African American marriages.
What exactly are those differences? Please list them.
When I read the article yesterday, the main problems I saw for the couple were that the wife was doing too much in the marriage (running the rental property business they both shared without any help from him), and the husband not doing enough helping raise their family and coming home from work tired and just wanting to unwind quietly while watching tv, but it wasn't a black thing. What a strange title for that article.
What exactly are those differences? Please list them.
When I read the article yesterday, the main problems I saw for the couple were that the wife was doing too much in the marriage (running the rental property business they both shared without any help from him), and the husband not doing enough helping raise their family and coming home from work tired and just wanting to unwind quietly while watching tv, but it wasn't a black thing. What a strange title for that article.
I read the same article and thought the same thing. There's not a bit of difference between the troubles suffered by the couple in question and a couple who is white, Asian, Latino, or green with eye stalks.
What exactly are those differences? Please list them.
When I read the article yesterday, the main problems I saw for the couple were that the wife was doing too much in the marriage (running the rental property business they both shared without any help from him), and the husband not doing enough helping raise their family and coming home from work tired and just wanting to unwind quietly while watching tv, but it wasn't a black thing. What a strange title for that article.
whoa, whoa, whoa....you just aren't going to accept the fact that there are difference because somebody on CD said there were?
I was going to post the exact same comment....I'm not sure why someone would go to the trouble of posting a comment stating that differences exist, but not give an example of said differences.
You left out the incredibly inflated statistics, which applies to just about any sensationalized story.
Case in point. When I worked at the newspaper in the early 80s as a cub reporter, I remember the FBI releasing the statistic that there were as many as 1,000,000 (Yes, that's the right amount of zeros) abducted children in the United States. One million. Well, imagine the total panic that ensued among parents.
So all these articles began running on the plague of child abductions sweeping the country, and our paper was going to follow suit and a buddy of mine was assigned to write the article. So as he started working on it, I asked Sam, "One million? C'mon." I went to the newspaper's library and pulled down the latest census and we whipped out a calculator. For the FBI's statistics to have been true, something like 1 in every 50 children would have to be abducted. So, in your average elementary school, that was one in every other classroom.
So when I read a story like this, or anything of similar tone, my BS detector typically redlines. For most stories are written under pressure with flimsy research and a very tenuous grasp on the facts. In fact, most news organizations basically rewrite the press release from whatever organization that issues it. Makes you wonder about all the frenzy over global warming on a day when my city is experiencing record lows for this date.
Very interesting. Again, everyone should consider the source. Does the FBI benefit from inflating child abduction statistics?...you could certainly make the case that indeed they would benefit from inflating such statistics. If their job is to stop crime, what crime is easier to stop than one that doesn't happen in the first place?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
