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Who Run the World? Black Girls

February 14, 2018

February 14, 2018

Reflections of a proud father: My daughter Kathryn, declared after graduating from Kindergarten, “Girls can do anything dad. One day, I’m gonna be a doctor!” I responded incredulously, “You go girl!” I will revisit this premise again at the close of this article.

“Girls can do anything dad. One day, I’m gonna be a doctor!” I responded incredulously, “You go girl!”

One needs only look at the race for the Alabama Senate in October of 2017 to see how powerful Black women are. The seat was vacated by Attorney General, Jeffrey Beauregard Sessions, pitting Doug Jones against suspected child predator, Roy Moore. Exit polls showed that 98 percent of Black women cast their ballot for Jones, and many election observers credited his surprising win to Black women voters. The majority of Black men also voted for Jones, but two-thirds of white women and nearly three-quarters of white men chose Moore.

Black Females Saved America

The narrative that Black women “saved America” by blocking Roy Moore from the Senate with their votes was picked up in media circles across the country. Political strategists and journalists alike rapidly moved to dissect what Alabama’s performance might mean for political contests in 2018 and 2020. The rise of the “Be all that she can be,” rescuer narrative obscures another forbidding truth that Black women are a crucial voting bloc capable of winning close contests. They are sorely understated vis-à-vis seats of political power.

Employment of Black Women

Statistics show that most Black women provide services for other families, yet cannot pay for the exact same services for their own families. In addition, they have the highest probability to be fired. In 2015, the unemployment rate for Black Women was 8.9 percent which is one of the highest rates of all races.

Methods of Advancing the Situation of Black Women

My daughter Kathryn said that “Education appears to be a key to unlocking the doors of adversity for girls.” And what she is right. While there are a growing number of Black women completing their college degrees, in general, the number of Black women entering the threshold has not matched the number of Black women who have already obtained their Ph.D.s. I feel much better today knowing that the world will soon be saved by the likes of Kathryn, a Ph.D. graduate from the University of Maryland and her band of aspiring friends. I’ll borrow a catchphrase from the world-class singer Beyoncé: “Who runs the world?…GIRLS!”


Stanley G. Buford is teacher, entrepreneur, author and father of two, Terrence and Kathryn. He is a winner of the National Leadership Award in business, Executive Director of the From Boys To Men Network Foundation, Inc, and former Co-President of the Oak Park Ill, based, and African American Parents for Purposeful Leadership in Education (A.P.P.L.E.).

After reading; Not All Teachers Are Parents, But All Parents Are Teachers! Former President Barack Obama remarked: “Thank you for your interesting book on parenting.”  Email: terkatinc1@aol.com

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