Black men have long been portrayed by racists as sexual beasts incapable of controlling their animalistic instincts.

Now comes Travis Henry and Desmond Hatchett.

Henry is a former Denver Broncos running back who fathered nine children by nine women… by the time he was 30. Hatchett, unknown to most, recently made headlines when he told a Knoxville, Tenn., judge he couldn’t afford child support for the 21 children he fathered with 11 women… by age 29.

In a BlackAmericaWeb.com commentary, writer Tonya Weathersbee takes them both to task.

She writes:

I see a man like Henry who achieved money and fame – and a means of directing his life in ways that many other black men can’t – but who turned the reins over to his impulses instead.

I see a man like Hatchett who has no money, but who has apparently decided to seek his manhood not through improving his economic status, but by making babies. Over and over again.

I see women whose self-esteem is so low that they’ve decided that being a baby mama is the best they’re ever going to be in life. Having babies makes them feel real.

She concludes:

And while they may not care about making a lot of taxpayers unhappy, what they ought to care about is making a lot of racists believe they are right about black men and women: that they are animalistic, oversexed creatures who can’t control their impulses and who therefore, shouldn’t be allowed to control anything bigger. Like a company.

Or, for that matter, a country.

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