AB.Com Guest Post - Just Do Better: CNN.

[Editor's Note: I'm not too crazy about the prospect of CNN's Black In America too, either, but more on that later. My homegirl Ebonie just had to get this off her chest.]

I don’t know what’s going on with CNN lately, but for the following two stories alone, the network gets a big fail, boo, and Do Better.

First, we have an update with Michael Jackson’s former chimp, Bubbles on Anderson Cooper’s AC360 show.



Yes, this was a real “news” story on AC360. Boo CNN. So this is what ya’ll are coming up with to keep talking about Michael Jackson when you don’t have anything news to report? How did this get onto the news station? Hollywood Access or Entertainment Tonight might have even taken a pass on this one. Do Better CNN.

Next, we have a story that’s part of the upcoming Black in America Series Pt. 2. One of my journalism friends forwarded this one along. It’s about black women choosing to adopt because hey, black women have no choice but to be alone or find some ne’er-do-well to shack up with and have a whole bunch of babies by. Why not just avoid all that and adopt? Yes, that’s pretty much a wrap up of the story. Here are a few priceless gems:

Kaydra Fleming, a 37-year-old social worker in Arlington, Texas, is the mother of Zoey, an adopted eight-month-old girl whose biological mother was young and poor.

“Zoey was going to be born to a single black mother anyway,” Fleming says. “At least she’s being raised by a single black parent who was ready financially and emotionally to take care of her.”

Aww lawd. And this.

Becoming a single mother means a “complete lifestyle change,” Caldwell says. “You might have to give up getting your nails done."

Yet there are some single African-American women who are not emotionally ready to adopt an African-American child who is too dark, some adoption agency officials say.

Fair-skinned or biracial children stand a better chance of being adopted by single black women than darker-skinned children, some adoption officials say.

“They’ll say, ‘I want a baby to look like a Snickers bar, not dark chocolate,’ ” Caldwell, founder of Lifetime Adoption, says about some prospective parents.

“I had a family who turned a baby down because it was too dark,” she says. “They said the baby wouldn’t look good in family photographs.”

NOT emotionally ready to have a dark child?!! Sooo rearing a child with a darker skin tone takes more of an emotional toll? Shaking my head at this story on that alone. But then I read the Snickers bar comment. Aww lawd again. Who approved this story?

Because of course, other black women considering adopting need to know that their nail salon days might be over if they choose to adopt. That could be the real deal breaker. Forget that child! I need my nails done!

And the conclusion to the story doesn’t get any better:

Duren says she still wants to be married. But in the meantime, she can barely wait to get home to see Madison.

Her life is now shaped by purpose, not regret.

“I have someone to hang out with. I can never say I’m lonely,” Duren says. “She lies across my stomach every night, and I just stare at her.”

Sooo, what we’re supposed to get out of this is that black women are adopting because they are no black men for them and they don’t want to be lonely? But as a warning to those thinking about it, be warned that your nail salon visits may have to stop?

I can’t wait to see the second part of this Black in America series later this month. No telling what’s coming after this story – and last year’s part one.

Do Better CNN.

Question: Just how silly is this black women adoption story?

Single black women choosing to adopt [CNN]