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GENOCIDE AND BLACK ECOLOGY                        SINNETTE

Well aware of the divisive strains within the black community, the forces for population control have not hesitated to take advantage of this disunity by pitting Black male against Black female. Part of the process involves isolating Black males from Black females around an issue in which the closest communication and broadest exchange of views are essential. In the meantime, the Moynihans, et al, continue the litany of the domineering, castrating, black matriarch. With predictable results, cleavage occurred and if anything the fissure has widened. This is not to suggest that at such time when the breach is healed on the question of birth control it will signal the automatic resolution of all opposing viewpoints between the sexes. However, if both parties are convinced that population control is a threat to black survival, the time has come for "brother" and "sister" to retreat from inflexible positions and reach an accommodation. Few would deny that for the overwhelming majority of black women the issue of birth control is no idle abstraction. The Black mother, living in a cold, impersonal, uncaring society cannot be expected to assume the sole responsibility of rearing our youth. It may satisfy the egos of some to proclaim that no Black child is illegitimate in the eyes of the Black community, but the inescapable fact remains that de facto illegitimacy is branded on these very children because they are unable to obtain adequate financial and moral sustenance from the community. Those advocating a return to polygamy display, at best, a cosmic ignorance of the conflict and problems that emerge when traditional polygamous societies are required to confront the challenges posed by the twentieth century, industrial world. At worst, this solution might well be construed as a "cop out" or ploy to evade the responsibilities and realities of survival. For survival is the crucial issue. As the struggle for survival continues, Black women will provide their own answers concerning the roles they will play. Can anyone seriously believe they will take a position that will threaten the survival of all black people?

population—a third world dilemma?

Since the international thrust of family planning is aimed directly at the pre-industrialized nations, fertility control is also a matter of concern for "Third World" inhabitants. The hypothesis that has been advanced to support these efforts is that the "population explosion," which is always proclaimed to be most severe in the poorer nations, is the factor which hinders national development. Unless, so the argument continues, these nations check their unbridled population

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-02-16 15:43:07