Shirlee Smith | Parents, If Black Lives Matter…

 

I can’t help but wonder why the Black Lives Matter movement hasn’t included in its target of eliminating deadly force against “the people,” The Maury baby-daddy Show.

While the show doesn’t depict cops with blazing guns or dead bodies of young black men laying lifeless in the street, the message portrayed on the show is just as much a death blow to the African-American community as is the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson Mo and so many other black young men.

Death to a once-respectable group of people, African-Americans, now has a new rain of bullets fired at them every time Maury introduces every one of the LaToyas who slept with five different men but is pointing the finger at a Hosani who appears on the TV set stage with his pants below his a–, swinging his fingers and declaring , “I ain’t nobody’s baby-daddy.”

For sure, I’m not writing about blood and guts gushing from the body of a lifeless young black man the cops gunned down. But doesn’t anyone, other than me, recognize our daughters and our sons are being set up to kill, wipe away for good, what was once a proud and honorable culture.

The DNA test proving which of the multitude of men Maury’s wronged female guest slept with is actually the “baby daddy” is a foot-stomping audience-yelling pleaser.

The parading of false fingernails and eyelashes and too much store-bought Chinese hair twisted into various styles coupled with inappropriate wardrobe choices is figuratively killing our young black daughters.

Not only do Black Lives Matter, but because our lives are made up of pride, culture and respect for ourselves, we don’t matter once we’ve lost hold of who we are.

The police are killing our black sons, our black brothers, and our black male friends. The rallying cry is Black Lives Matter.

Maury Povich is providing a viewing platform for our young daughters and our young sons of color to degrade themselves and at the same time sending a message to others that a valueless lifestyle will get them their 15 minutes of fame.

Where are the protesters outside the Rich Forum Theater in Stamford CT where the show is taped? Where are the bullhorns declaring Maury is killing our young people?

Why haven’t the stage doors to the studio been blocked to keep the sex-craved young women from entering and to confront the multiple baby-daddy contestants

If the movement Black Lives Matter really believes our lives matter, they’ll put Maury in the unemployment line while he shops around for another TV show.

 

Shirlee Smith is a former Pasadena Star-News Opinion Columnist. She is a Los Angeles Press Club first place awardee and author of They’re Your Kids, Not Your Friends and the Spanish edition, “Son Tus Hijos, No Tus Amigos.” Smith can be reached by email at talkaboutparenting@gmail.com.