Premature Conclusions

So, um, Yahoo! recently published an article from the Washington University School of Medicine (of St. Louis, MO...no really) that concluded, quite simply, that black women are genetically predisposed to giving birth to preemies. Yuppers! The "researchers" at this "medical school" in Missouri, no really, claim that "researchers analyzed data from a Missouri Department of Health database of all births in the state from 1989 to 1997, adjusting for smoking, poverty and other contributing factors. The data base included more than 700,000 records of births."

Other contributing factors, huh...? The stress of being black in America is something that I do not believe Louis Muglia (main author of study) and his Missouri medical school (no, it really exists) cronies have the ability or the know-how to quantify. Sadly, the March of Dimes fundsed this tripe. The fact that they may have found one white woman and one black woman who both make $72,000 a year, have advanced degrees, have been married for 5 years and live in the suburbs don't tell us the complete story. You know it, I know it and any reputable research facility/school is keenly aware of this as well, which is why ridiculous conclusions such as the one made by the Washington University School of Medicine (and Gas Station Engineering) of MISSOURI has come out with the kind of conclusion that only a school of its low-caliber could sh%t out.

Beah Richards...the Voice of Many

“A Black Woman Speaks of White Womanhood, of White Supremacy, and of Peace”

It is right that I, a woman black should speak of white womanhood. My husbands, my fathers, my brothers, my sons, die for it. They said, the white supremacists said, that you were better than me, that your fair brow should never know the sweat of slavery. They lied. White womanhood, too, is enslaved. The difference is degree. They brought me here in chains. They brought you here willing slaves to man. You bore him sons. I bore him sons. No, not willingly. He purchased you. He raped me. You were afraid to nurse your young, lest fallen breasts offend your master’s sight, and he should flee to firmer loveliness, and so you pass them, your children, onto me, flesh that was your flesh, blood that was your blood, drank the sustenance of life from me, and as I gave suck, I knew I nursed my own child’s enemy. I could have lied, told you your child was fed till it was dead of hunger, but I could not find the heart to kill orphaned innocence, for as it fed it smiled and burped and gurlgled with content, and as for color, knew no difference. Yes, in that first while, I kept your sons and daughters alive, but when they grew strong in blood and bone that was of my milk, you taught them to hate me. You gave them the words, “mammy” and “nigg&$” so that strength that was of myself turned and spat upon me, despoiled my daughters, and killed my sons!”

Fabulous.