I just listened (and still listening) to your Barbershop segment and can't believe my ears from the chauvinistic and archaic views of Ruben Navarette on attaching a stigma to out-of-wedlock mothers.

Let me digress a bit to tell him this post is NOT coming from a single mother or a person raised by one. In fact, I had the priviledge of been raised with a father in the home and as an adult, still a wonderful presence in my life. Not only that, because of the "it takes a village" concept, I have great uncles who are like surrogate fathers to me. So I don't underestimate the value of a present father in a child's life but see it as a model.

However, I live in the real world. Achieving such nucleus is looking more like a hope and far from reality. Some months ago, I was talking to a lady friend of mine who's a few years older than me. She expressed concerns of the slim pickings of eligible men and her desire for children before age 40. She told me a controversial way she might protect such dream.

Personally, I disagreed with such method and I told her considering her age she still had some time. She told me it was easier for me to say being younger and reminded me of a comment I made out of frustration that I will adopt a child if I reached a certain age without any prospects and what made my case for adoption any different from her method? Touche.

So Ruben to easily call for a stigma and tout it as a liberal mumbo jumbo on the increase of out-of-wedlock mothers shows the double standard of men like him and society in general. Would he call for a stigma if it was the same for out-of-wedlock fathers? Oh that image with a single father looks so accountable because he's taking care of his responsibilities, even quite romantic to the opposite sex.

But a single lady who's got a lot going for her but a decent man and wants a child is branded? Give me a freaking break! I hope there could be the same outrage with black women graduating college at a ratio of seven to one black man. I wish there could be the same stigma attached to men who blamed women for not using birth control while they themselves had no condom sense. And maybe, just maybe a woman who chose to hold the forte by raising a child while still keeping the hope alive for the right husband would not be an appauling sight but a person to be applauded.

Sent by Moji | 8:22 AM ET | 12-18-2007

Comment on "Tell me More" on "What if you're Santa ain't Pink" December 18th.

At first I thought it was a parody, and then I thought the host would challenge the guest with their racist thoughts, but she never challenged and continued in agreement.
If you replaced the panel with white women from Mississippi talking and switched where "Black" was said with "white," there would be an outcry and an affirmation of how America is racist.

I think this is a double standard that has to be addressed America before we can truly eliminate racism. We must callout racist rhetoric no matter what color of the person saying it.

A quote was "I don't want my kids to think a benevolent white man gave them anything." They also talk about covering the faces of Disney princes with photos of black children. It was also said that since Santa is portrayed as white, it is a distraction and disrespectful to non-Europeans. I am surprised they are able to pray to a Jewish (non-black) son of god.

Why is it bad if the tradition is black or white? I can see in the same parody I mentioned above where the races are switched, and the now white women say they don't let their kids play basketball, because they don't want their kids to worship black basketball stars.

When you put these types of constraints on your kids, where does it stop? I am raising my kids to idolize Martin Luther king Jr. and I will never diminish his importance or his ethnicity because I am afraid my kids might fell less relevant. All of us need to not "judge by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." Learning history is important because we learn from our mistakes, but we all must move on to move ahead and not continue to call differences to our skin color or religions. Let us all be Americans first.

Happy Holidays to All

Sent by Tyler Scott | 5:11 PM ET | 12-27-2007