A fan just shared this with me…it’s unbelievable. But read closely and you’ll see that these events don’t happen in a bubble.

Reading this, your first reaction would be to call this woman a “typical hood rat” but before you stone her, consider this. This girl’s mother had 12 kids by 38. She got pregnant at 14 by a man who was 30. That’s something we as a collective refuse to address in the black community…a girl is not a woman just because she has breast buds and a period. We aren’t, as a collective, holding the pedophiles accountable for their widespread damage. We literally have grown male predators seducing young girls hungry for male, fatherly attention, vulnerable for love and acceptance because they never had a father to give it to them. The exchange for the “fatherly love” is usually sex, which many of these girls are willing to give just because they wanted so much for their own dads to call them “princess.”

The real problem is that little black girls are not always allowed to be just…”little.” In the hood, nasty men start grooming these babies for exploitation around 11 years old, maybe even younger. I look at my own 11-year-old and my 17 year-old, and I’m grateful to all the gods in Olympus that their father (and in my oldest’s case, fathers), protect and love them. It’s that action that keeps them from being “hungry.” I know that no matter how loving and hard working I am, nothing could ever replace the value of a strong father for my girls.

I’m so sad that this is all this girl has ever known, but I have hope about this…social media allows for people who were previously isolated to connect with others without ever leaving their homes, let alone their neighborhoods.