Mayor Bloomberg’s campaign to reduce teen pregnancy has gone too far. Particularly upsetting to some is his poster of a young black girl warning her teen mom that her father will surely abandon them.
MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry says the ad reinforces a stereotype already pushed to the limit by popular culture and public policy - that black females “are easily disposable, un-marriageable and wholly unlovable.”
It’s not that Harris-Perry is opposed to the mayor’s goal to reduce teen pregnancy, even though it’s already on the decline, it’s his labeling and shaming she and others take issue with. Of most concern is that this “shame game,“ which Bloomberg has played before with other issues, is the wrong approach.
Changing the Odds’ Estelle Raboni told NY Times that this issue is much more complicated than warning girls they’ll be abandoned if they get pregnant - that fear can’t motivate those who already feel alienated.
Tell Mayor Bloomberg to stop shaming teen moms.