Week
of
11/24/97:		 During this past May, sextuplets were born to a family in Washington, D.C. No media blitz resulted and no corporation stepped up to cover any of this family's expenses. Shortly after birth, one of the sextuplets died. Should this family be bitter about the attention received by the McCaughey family in Iowa?



Name:
Email: lanece@juno.com
Response: Of course this black family would be hurt by the media attention given to white families over blacks.It's a fact that the news media looks for and only reports negative print concerning blacks.It's not fair,but it's up to us and our black news printsto give us information concerning what's happening in the black community.I'm sorry, but it will never change unless we create a market for ourselves.


Name: Cheryl S. Lewis
Email: cheryl_lewis@mail.amsinc.com
Response: To all of the respondents to the Thompson Sextuplets....My name is Cheryl S. Lewis and I am the chief operating officer of Sisters In Touch. Our organization met the Thompson family 3 weeks after the babies were born. We saw Linden Thompson appear on a local television station in DC discussing the births of his 5 babies and the misfortunate death of one. He expressed how much he needed help and he was asking the community for support. None of the babies were home from the hospital at that time. Linden was attempting to get help from the community before the babies would be discharged from the hospital. Sisters In Touch contacted the family and attempted to get additional information regarding the needs of the babies. We found that no other organizations had stepped up to help them and that they needed whatever help we could give. We got together and put 8 bins of clothing, toys, shoes, bottles, and 2 cribs together and scheduled an appt. with the family to deliver the goods. It was not until we arrived at their place of residence that we realized that this problem was more serious than we thought. They were living in a 1 and 1/2 bedroom apartment that really was structured for 1 person. They had no money, although Linden was working two jobs. We sat with the family to find out what all the needs were and made assumptions on our own (i.e, house, vans, diapers, clothes, and money). We immediately started a letter writing campaign, appeared on many local news channels literally begging the community to support the family. We started getting calls in from the community to donate clothing, bottles, toys, etc., but no real money was coming in. We, then realized that we needed to take this story to a national level and write letters to corporations, both black and white, to get assistance for the family. The 1st set of babies were able to come home from the hospital and we then realized that before the last set comes home, we have to get them into a better living arrangement. Now, keep in mind, all of this is happening and we are right in line with our mission. However, we had to drop all current projects that we were working on including our own families, to tend to the needs of the Thompson family. We appeared on a local radio station and told our story. A call soon came in and the DC Housing Finance Agency was able to help us move the Thompson Family into a 3 bedroom duplex. This wasn't what we had originally planned for their housing arrangement, but it was 10 times better than where they were. So, we took it. We (SIT) hired a moving company to move the family into their new temporary home. Meanwhile, we were still attempting to get national help for the family by fundraising, calling churches, and other organizations. It was not until the McCaugheys septuplets were born and one of our members appeared on the Tom Joyner morning show that got the attention of the "black community". We (SIT) received over 5000 calls from that one interview from all over the world. The black, german and french media started calling...wanting the "story". The national syndicated morning news shows started calling wanting the "story". But, at this point, the "story" had a new twist to it. It wasn't the fact that a family in DC needed help after giving birth to 6 babies without fertility drugs. It was "how can we (the media) make this black and white issue increase our ratings. I firmly believe that at this point, a hidden agenda was being manifested. Even some of our black leaders didn't come to the aid of this family until the Iowa story broke. Why? Because when we get slapped in the face is when we try to take action. We (the black community) could have been proactive in ensuring that this family got what they needed some 7 months prior to the Iowa births. But, no, we want to wait until someone else step up to the plate and then we get mad and want to blame everybody else for what we could have done ourselves. The lesson in all of this is....what media channel should one use if the story needs to get out? and the minute you ask the general black population to help....they will! A special thanks goes to the Tom Joyner Morning Show, Radio One, Inc. (Lisa Mitchell and CMiles), 93KYS (Russ Parr), and WHUR-FM (Rene Nash) for all your support to Sisters In Touch. Peace and Many Blessings


Name: Kate
Email: Angel1015
Response: I think it's sad that we live in a time when a family has 6 babies they cannot possibly afford recieve presents, a car, college scholarships, monetary help, etc., yet a scared young woman has one baby she cannot afford or handle and the baby is left to die in the ladies room at Disneyworld. I think it's great that everyone was willing to help out the family of the sextuplets, but there has to be help for desperate people who don't get help because their problem doesn't make national news or just isn't big enough.


Name: Glenyse Thompson
Email: wowglenyse@hotmail.com
Response: I read an article in which the mom stated that "I am not bitter, nor angry" about the other children. She infact was happy for them, because all the whole family was doing well. I have no plausible reason to be bitter towards the media or anyone else; we can turn this any way we want and it still points towards the fact that the media reports on what IT thinks WE want to see. If no one read the articles, watched the coverage, in general paid attention to this whole subject, it would not have been news. Beyond that whole scope, I noticed the media (at least in Chicago) never mentioned the race of the two lead, female, black doctors that delivered the septuplets. Isn't that amazing in itself?


Name: Tracy L. Smith, Jr.
Email: tlsmithjr@worldnet.att.net
Response: The "birth-event" in Iowa became big business very quickly. That's the American way. We, as Black Americans, should not shy away from playing a similar game. Black businesses have an opportunity to be associated with an event, the first ever (known) birth of six babies to an African-heritage mother in America. Makes for great publicity and creates "warm & fuzzies" when people see a business reaching-out. Go for it Black business community!


Name: James Webb
Email: semaj@gte.net
Response: This comes as no surprise. Things like this are meant to keep us apart. Like the things one group of people do is so extrarodinary and the other is unimportant or trivial.


Name: Christi
Email: ChrisB4@aol.com
Response: As I read all of the responses, all I saw was anger at the "white world", anger at the "black world" for not "stepping up to the plate", anger at the media for "once again" showing discrimination. One thing that was said only a couple of times that deserves repeating is that the media shows what the public wants to see. Without eyes to watch, and ears to hear, there would be no media to criticize. It is useless to blame the media, for they are only puppets, or mirrors better yet, of what the society wants and is. Therefore, if the media is wrong, then you can only blame society. Which brings us to the white population. People such as myself have no say in what is printed or aired on the local news channels unless I personnally go out and say, rob a bank. I will admit that I watched the McCaughey's stories with a lot of interest, but only because I am a mother myself who has been through the birthing process. It is amazing to imagine having SEVEN babies at once. And, I will also say that I never had a clue that another set of parents had sextuplets previously. That doesn't make me party to a guilty class of "white folks" just because I didn't know. And for the determination of guilt placed on the black population, blacks have no more of a say in what is printed, etc., than I do, so what kind of logic is that? We just need better media coverage, period. Even in what alot of the responders called the "white world" media, its not news. For instance, Janet Reno just refused to appoint an independent counsel to investigate the president and vice-president. But what was the top story on Nightline? Some story from overseas. Its not news folks, its politics, its all about money and power, and it covers the globe, ethnically, racially, morally, and indiscriminately. Whites will always be different than other races. Blacks will always be different than other races. Just like salt tastes different than pepper. But they can come together harmoniously to create a new flavor. My opinion is that we are getting too caught up in the issue of race these days that we are ignoring the roots of the problems, which number many. By working on fixing the race issue, we are only reapplying the same bandaid over and over again, but doing nothing to heal the wounds that eventually kill us. Don't we all want to find a permanent solution?


Name: Betty Richardson
Email: betty.richardson@att.com
Response: I am not surprised that we did not hear anything from the main stream media but I am surprise that it was not covered by Jet, Ebony, Essences etc. I feel that if any energy is expressed it should be directed towards the lack of interest displayed by the black media.


Name:
Email: Ravenex@webtv.net
Response: Off hand, I'd say the majority of us believe *we* [personally] should handle our own problems. Some say that *we* should send money. Others say reprimand our African-American businesses for not contributing to the aid of the family and their seven babies. I concur with this much of what's being said; except, We cannot allow America to ignore us while they spend our tax dollars helping others around the world. America spends trillions of taxpayer dollars building war machines, the armament for these machines, and training personnel to use these machines. They have bombs that cost a million dollars apiece.....But!! This subject is *too* vast to discuss here--be advised: We are being plalyed by America. We must claim for ourselves as much as America does for others. We must use *anything* that helps us. One *thing* alone will not win for us. We need many *things* to hurtle this vast-divide. The couple in Washington must decide for themselves...we should not determine for them, it must be their decision alone......


Name:
Email: Itchibon@webtv.net
Response: The family in question should be familiar with the hypocrisies of America. After all, America was built on deceit, doublecross, underhandedness, and downright rottenness!! Still, it exist by those terms today. America thrives on clandestine activities [one of its necessary stratagems]. The brother and sister are not strangers to what America represents on *separate but unequal*...With this awareness, the family is free to choose its own frame of mind....


Name: michelle columbia,mo
Email:
Response: I agree with harris. Because we are complaning about how we did not get enough air time concerning the sextuplets but what about our magazines and our TV stations (BET) we were just as late as the world news or Time magazine. Isn't that why we have all of our magazines andtv stations, so we know whats going on in our world.


Name: ANTHONY MITCHELL
Email:
Response: I think as a whole African American society, we should make this event world known. These events are what need to be heard. So, as one of the whole we should make it known.


Name: NotOneToCravewhitefolks'Attentions II
Email: bradfo43@ccvax.mmc.edu
Response: BLACKPEOPLE: I just read on the Essence website that there are THREE addresses to which we may send our financial support to the Thompson Sextuplets. They are as follows: 1. Community Foundation of the National Capital Region c/o the Thompson Fund 1112 16th Street, NW Wash, D.C. 20036, Suite 306 2. Sisters In Touch P.O. Box 4337 Largo, Maryland 20775 3, The Thompson Sextuplets c/o Riggs Bank P.O. Box 96758 Washington, D.C. 20090-6758 Do like Nzingha said, "Everybody send a dollar". Do what you can, but PLEASE-DO SOMETHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pass this information along to someone who has a good job, and can donate a large sum of money. Go to your local car dealer in the D.C. metro area and try to work out a deal where the community can pull together and pay for a mini-van for the Thompsons at a fair price. I don't have a lot of money, with school loans, credit card bills, and what-have-you, but I personally am planning on sending the majority of whatever is in my pocketbook at the moment off to the Thompsons FIRST THING TOMMOROW! I'm sure they could use the money a lot more than I could. Hotep.


Name: Charles
Email:
Response: Instead of those civil rights organizations giving money to Sharon Taxman, the money should have gone to the Thompson family.


Name: farren
Email: farrei@hotmail.com
Response: This should be another of many wake-up calls to AA. I was disgusted. When I found out that this white couple was not the first but a black couple was the first to have sextuplets and they were not treated the same as the white couple.


Name: LLOYD BROWN
Email: LLOYDAMPOET@WEBTV.COM
Response: Anger is not the answer. Reaction is. We, as African-Americans must come to the point where we realize that we are the solution to out own problems. After over 400 years, why are we even concerned with white society ignoring our plight? Where was the African-American news media.. i.e. local newspapers, magazines, talk shows, etc? Why didn't they let us know about OUR sextuplets? And why do we still not have an address to send contributions to?


Name: Frances Murphy
Email: FrankieLou@aol.com
Response: Where was the AFRO? Right there with a front page story urging our readers to help. And they did... hundreds of them. How do you think those Thompson babies got to be six months old looking as healthy as they do without their community and their church helping them? That is not the issue. We are a part of the larger community.. we support these big companies with our dollars and we expect them to step up to the plate like the rest of us. They are doing it now. But why did they have to wait until we raised such a ruckus?? Unfortunatey, we still must agitate, agitate, agitate to get our share of the pie.


Name: Solomon Landers, Memra Institute
Email: Solomon@memrain.org
Response: In reference to my prior statement about the irony of the different treatment between the black Thompson sextuplets and the white McCaughey septuplets, that two black female doctors figured prominently in the delivery of the McCaughey babies: Please see the pictures of Dr. Paula Mahone and Dr. Karen Drake in The Washington Times, 11/20/97, p. A14.


Name: Harris
Email: Hfloyd@eeicom.com
Response: No, I do not think that they should be bitter! However, I do believe that we as a community have let this family down. There is no reason why, this medium (The Afro) and other black owned publications, and media such as ebony, jet, essence, sister to sister, upscale, wol, bet, and other such prominent black media nationwide could not have made their own media sensation. We could have forced the envelope and the general mass media to take notice of this event nationwide much sooner than we did. C'mon y'all our black dollar is very important to them...and if we all band together across state lines and act nationally instead of locally in little pockets we can force some issues. Now sisters in touch have done a wonderful job of beating the drum and getting the news out, but they need our support and our so called leaders support. We have organizations that can pull the kind of national publicity that we are seeking here, there should have been some sort of pulbic gestures made by the NAACP, the Urban League, the UNCF and other established historically black organizations. Oh yeah, why not a word from some of our prestigious institutions of higher learning offering scholarships, and grants..after all diapers are important, but education is vital to the survival of these children. I think that a lot of our problem is in the limitation of our own vision as to what can and should be done. The whole point is to gain help on a grand scale. This family truly needs our active help and support, we need to do a better PR and community relations job. All of the public relations professionals in all of the companies around here should have jumped on this opportunty. Without vision people perish. Let's push pass the color barrier with intelligence and understanding.


Name:
Email: beryhart@sprynet.com
Response: Bitterness is a waste of energy; it promotes lack and not competence. These children need all the creativity, love, and concern a family can provide. Thoughts and energy wasted on bitterness are not productive. Bitterness wears down the holder more than it punishes those on whom bitterness is directed. May those DC children and all children grow in a family of humor, delight, goodness, and thanksgiving for their blessings.


Name: fast eddie
Email: knickswfo@aol.com
Response: huh, go figure it is typical the the black man did not get the media attention it deserved (a media attention that would of helped the family greatly) oh well, this is because the media is made up mostly of whites. then again they are just going with what sells in america. it dumb to blame media for that reason.


Name: Rasta
Email: norm.murray12sympatico.ca
Response: IF WE ARE TALKING ABOUT THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN COUPLE IN WASHINGTON THEN.. Yes indeed they should be upset...in fact we all should be upset. However, why just stop there and why examine the issue in the past tense. There is alot we can still do. I believe a mor pertinent question would be..." what can we as African-American do for the couple, in light of..."


Name: Thomas Williams
Email: Terrado@bet.com
Response: If it were a family then yes they should be bitter. A family constitutes a marriage.


Name: julie
Email:
Response: it's terrible


Name: NotOneToCravewhitefolks'Attentions
Email: bradfo43@ccvax.mmc.edu
Response: No. While it is clear and obvious that the D.C. family is not on the cover of Newsweek, People, and Time Magazines because they are Black, and whitefolks notoriously have not valued the life of a Black child, because it perpetuates a race of people they would have preferred to kill off a year within the Emancipation Proclamation going into effect, if the D.C. family is angered at anyone at all, it should be US, the Black Community, for not celebrating the event IN OUR MEDIA just like whitefolks are celebrating their event in "their" media. Why do we keep wanting, and wishing, and hoping for the approval of a people who CAME FROM US, not the other way around, when that approval will never come, and need not be an essential nor important part of our existence? Usually it is the child/offspring who seeks the attention and approval of his/her father and mother, not the other way around. Why do WE persist in being so backwards? WHY did I have to wait until I went home to the Maryland/D.C. area for the holidays before I even HEARD of the D.C. sextuplets, when I subscribe to Essence, Heart & Soul, Vibe, Todays Black Woman, Braids & Beauty and buy Ebony, Upscale, Black Enterprise and Ebony Man regularly from the newstands, PLUS watch BET EVERYday? Black media, I blame YOU for not publicizing and celebrating the D.C. sextuplets, and notifying us when one septuplet died so that we could collectively mourn. Successful, stalwart Black Businesses, like uh, JOHNSON AND JOHNSON PUBLICATIONS, BRONNER BROTHER'S HAIR PRODUCTS, etc. I blame YOU for not stepping to the plate to help this family financially, when I understand that they don't even have a house for all those children, but just an apartment. While I appreciate that Gerber FINALLY stepped to the plate and offered to provide babysitters for the family for five years, WHY did it take so long for SOMEbody to respond to this family's need for assistance with the arrival of sextuplets, formerly septuplets? The answer is because WE the Black community, sat by, waiting and hoping the the whiteman to save us, attend to us, solve our problems, help take care of our kids, take over OUR COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBITY. Like Method Man and RaeKwon said in Wu Tang's "Triumph": "If my People got my back, where the f--- you at?" Well said, and quite applicable in this situation, huh?


Name: Nnamdi Nzingha
Email:
Response: I could understand how they would be bitter, but if they are referring to the African American family, I'm sure they're not surprised. This is a case where we have to step up to the plate and "DO FOR SELF" as the Nation has always told us to do. If millions of us send only a $1.00 that would assist the family greatly.


Name: jo campbell
Email: jocee@ecotopics.com
Response: Of course the Washington children should have received a welcome from the community. Where was their church? Where was their family? Where were African-American owned companies?? Where was Johnson Publications? Where was the Afro???


Name: Nnmaddiicna Adduriania Jr.
Email: emperor2@ix.netcom.com
Response: I feel that the PROUD BLACK MAN has been oppressed over the centuries, and it is time to rise up against the white man and give him what he deserves! I think that the family in question was not given media coverage because THEY WERE BLACK.. BUT THE WHITE MAN DID!!! This is just another form of racism against our people. I think that ALL black folk should get media coverage.. no matter what they do!! Black folk have been oppressed for 2000 years in America, It is time to break loose of our shackles put there by the WHITE MAN and to pick up our lives and show AMERICA how it feels to be an oppressed black man living in AMERICA!!!!!!! THEY CAN TAKE OUR LIVES, BUT THEY'LL NEVER TAKE OUR FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Name: Joe Evans
Email: smtp:Joe.evans@wpgate.irs.gov
Response: I do believe that the Thompson family should receive just as much as the McCaughleys; actually more. I believe Pres. Clinton should get in touch with Mrs. Thompson as well. Now one more thing: Have more of the Family Tree stories. Also how about having a geneology researcher?


Name: Janeen M. Harrison
Email: jharrison@kghc.org
Response: No. They should not be bitter towards the corporations and other institutions that largely financially assisted the septuplet family in comparison to them. It is time that Black America stop looking toward White America for our due because we will be waiting forever! It comes as no surprise that White coporate America continues to ignore the large consumer economic power of Black America and its community and culture. Why be bitter and surprised now? But the Washington family should rightfully expect the Black communities, corporations and other Black organizations to provide unlimited financial and moral support. As a people we must strive to support our own in reflection of supporting ourselves. And as for those largely White represented corporations, it seems the only way they will recognize our dissappointment from their lack of support is to withdraw Black people's large financial support and consumption of their products and services.


Name: Kip Carr
Email: kipley.carr@usa.net
Response: Should the Thompson's be bitter? No. But rather than for us to merely complain when things like this comes to light, we've got to let our concerns known. I emailed the Today Show (today@msnbc.com) the Number 1 morning show, that they dropped the ball on this one. While I'm glad that help is starting to trickle in, its funny how guilt and shame can motivate people into doing things. I would encourage everyone to email all the major media, because we can't assume that they know how we feel, and I give Tom Joyner much "props" for bringing this issue to the forefront.