Peace,
There is a saying in the Nation Of Islam that goes as such: "A Nation Can Rise No Higher Than Its Woman."
Someone in an NOI sisters group I frequent posed to us the question: "Why do you think this is so?"
ANSWER: For the same reason why a nation (actually all nations) can rise no higher than its men and children, and that reason is interdependency. The level of a nation is dependent/predicated on the level of its men, women and children, not just its women. That quote, however, suggests that a nation's prosperity is solely, or at least mostly, based on the level that its women are on. If it's indeed true that a nation's prosperity is solely or mostly based on the level of its women, then the Black nation in America should be one of the most prosperous nations/groups on earth, because of how prosperous Black women in America are. Black women in America are the only women who are more prosperous than their men, and the results of the Black woman rising above the Black man, in America, are below.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 83556.html reported: "There are roughly 1.4 million black women now in college, compared to just 900,000 black men. By graduation, black women outnumber men 2-to-1. Among graduate-school students, in 2008 there were 125,000 African-American women but only 58,000 African-American men. That same year, black women received more than three out of every five law or medical degrees awarded to African-Americans. Black women who do marry often end up with black men who are less accomplished than they are. They are more likely than any other group of women to earn more than their husbands. More than half of college-educated black wives are better educated than their husbands. The prevalence of relationships between professional black women and blue-collar black men may help to explain another aspect of the racial gap in marriage: Even as divorce rates have declined for most groups during the past few decades, more than half of black marriages dissolve."
Lack of marriage and failed marriage oftentimes lead to children being raised without fathers being involved in their upbringing. Fatherless households have shown to increase crime and, therefore, incarceration rates, within our nation.
http://inkarcerated.intrasun.tcnj.edu/w ... stics.html reported: "78% of the nation's jail and prison inmates grew up in a fatherless household, even though only 15% of today's adult population grew up without a father... African Americans are nearly 5 times as likely to be incarcerated in jails as whites and almost 3 times as likely as Latinos"
Being fatherless doesn't just bring down male children of a nation.
http://www.fathers.com/content/index.ph ... iew&id=391 reported: "In a study using a national probability sample of 1,636 young men and women, it was found that older boys and girls from female headed households are more likely to commit criminal acts than their peers who lived with two parents."
When men are on a low-level, they do low-down things that bring women down. For example, when a low-down man abuses women/girls, that low-down act oftentimes bring women down.
http://inkarcerated.intrasun.tcnj.edu/w ... stics.html reported: "About 80% of women prisoners have been s*xually or physically abused before being incarcerated".
When men rise up in knowledge, it benefits their women and children; for example,
http://www.fatherhood.org/media/consequ ... statistics reported: "Fathers’ knowledge about breastfeeding increases the likelihood that a child will be breastfed. Children who fathers knew more had a 1.76 higher chance of being breastfed at the end of the first month and 1.91 higher chance of receiving maternal milk at the end of the third month."
These facts lead me to conclude that the collective-level of men is at least equally as vital as the collective-level of women, in impacting the level of a nation. Clearly, men impact the rise/prosperity of women. Some say that the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world, but I say that the hand that builds the cradle rules the world.
Peace!
Posted By: Siebra Muhammad
Friday, April 27th 2012 at 12:39PM
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