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“Alice Walker blasted in essay by her daughter” and other links…

Native Son, a film directed by Jerrold Freedman Via LiberatorMagazine.com: “You see, my mum taught me that children enslave women. I grew up believing that children are millstones around your neck, and the idea that motherhood can make you blissfully happy is a complete fairytale. …In fact, having a child has been the most rewarding experience of my life. Far from ‘enslaving’ me, three-and-a-half-year-old Tenzin has opened my world. My only regret is that I discovered the joys of motherhood so late—I have been trying for a second child for two years, but so far with no luck.”

When you search (and seriously research) this Blog, you will find me suggesting that Alice Walker is a Pollyanna, pigeon-toed kid from the rural south who’s opinion of Black men is in no small part influenced by her older brother blinding her in one eye as a child—and her sexual attraction probably started with the psychological missionary position Howard Zinn (her former professor) inadvertently put her in… But it surprises me completely that her own daughter would critique her like this in public. When I complain about people I often hope the hope of the captive that my observations are profoundly, demonstrably incorrect so I can be young again and learn something new about people. So far, same old shit…

Divorce and children

The Economist: “Children have a right to two parents. Poisoning their mind against one of them is ‘stealing’ part of a child’s ‘natural physical, emotional and spiritual inheritance’, she argues. Some contact with even the most awful, addicted or inadequate parent is usually better than none at all: it helps the children make sense of what has happened. Very few parents, Ms Evans notes, have absolutely nothing to add to the lives of their children.”

Neuroscience and social deprivation

The Economist: “Dr Evans’s and Dr Schamberg’s study does not examine the nature of the stress that the children of the poor are exposed to, but it is now well established that poor adults live stressful lives, and not just for the obvious reason that poverty brings uncertainty about the future. The main reason poor people are stressed is that they are at the bottom of the social heap as well as the financial one.”

Of course now that “we” are in the 21st century, “we” don’t need to mingle the impurities of “race” into this scholarly discussion. The great news about this new-age, high tech discovery is that Black writers like Richard Wright and James Baldwin (in the 1960s) successfully captured the intimate effects of such stress.

“Nice & Simple Explanation of the Credit Crisis”

Mymoneyblog.com: “Well, here’s one more by Jonathan Jarvis, which also happens to be excellent. If anything, it surely has the best animation and graphics of them all.”

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