Problem, Absent Fathers or Procreation?

For sometime now we have heard about the problem of inner city black children who have no father in their lives. Of course it's probably a good thing those particular absent fathers aren't in these kids lives, but I shouldn't infer that all are bad. Kay Hymowitz's piece Dad's in the 'Hood in the urban-policy magazine City Journal is an interesting update on this topic. However, I think the root of the problem is the seminal event itself not being considered fateful by both the male and female participants. This is of course not just an inner city black problem but the numbers there do speak for themselves. In thinking about my own upbringing I don't recall even a single lecture (pop, correct me if I'm wrong) on the seriousness of procreation and the ultimate responsibility of it success. So why did I understand that producing a child would be a lifelong responsibility that nothing short of death could break? Was it that I had two parents that loved their children? Was it that we weren't dirt poor? Was it that I went to school? Was it that we were taught daily about right and wrong and the value of hard work. Or maybe all of the above.

I fully believe that people like Jesse Jackson, Kweisi Mfume, Julian Bond and most of the Congressional Black Caucus don't want this situation to improve! Their hateful and racist propaganda serves to keep the myth that a racist white population and government are the cause of all that ails the black population. After all if that weren't true many of these so called black leaders would be out of a job or even less significant on the national scene than they already are. I like a quote from Hymowitz's piece by Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates :

"Are white racists forcing black teenagers to drop out of school or have babies?"

While my own childhood didn't include hyper focus on education (high school and college) I think that it is the key to reversing some of the damage for those already under the inner city fatherless handicap. For each child we rescue we hopefully create a desire not to just gratify primal sexual urges but to create a life out of love, to experience the joy of guiding your own flesh and blood to be and do better than oneself. That's a feeling that is, I'm sure, completely void from the mind of the bastard creating men and women of the inner city.