Marriage is for white people or "he just my baby daddy".

Why the title "Black & Bible Beautiful"? I've already referred to the fact that I'm a black woman of the 1960's, when "Black & Beautiful" came into vogue as the watchword of black dignity--(pride I should say.) The notion that "black is beautiful" is positive sounding, made to-order for our new enfranchisement, after living under a social order that systematically denied our personhood and history. The problem is that when we put aside our straightening combs and relaxers, that was not enough.
We needed a moral framework to inform what was truly beautiful. "Say it loud I'm black and I'm proud". Proud of what, and by the way what does being proud mean? And so when I say I'm "black and Bible- beautiful", I'm thinking in terms of a moral vision, the Bible-based values that were good enough for our mothers and fathers....
I'm reminded of the recent column in the Washington Post (Joy Jones, 3/26) about the moral perceptions of black grade-schoolers, who say "marriage is for white folks". I need not cite the statistics, the massive failure of the black family over the last 35 years. The plague of social pathologies resulting from it, are the stuff of our everyday lives. In my opinion the legacy of the 1960's civil rights generation is crystallized in the understanding of marraige expressed by the black children in the column. Read it and weep: "Marriage is for white people". For a parallel translation from the language of the 1960's see:"I'm black and I'm proud". A condition of spiritual nakedness.
vashti