Black Men for Black Women?

UPDATED DECEMBER 20, 2011 7:06 PM

DEBATERS

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  A Shortage of Eligible Black Men

  RALPH RICHARD BANKS, STANFORD LAW PROFESSOR
  Marriage has declined throughout our society, but more so for African-Americans, and in particular black women.
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  A Shortage: Maybe, Maybe Not

  ANGELA STANLEY, KIRWAN INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF RACE AND ETHNICITY, OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
  If a black woman happens to be single, it is not necessarily a commentary on black men as eligible partners.
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  Education and Income, Not Race

  IVORY A. TOLDSON, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY, HOWARD UNIVERSITY
  If black people dealt with the facts, instead of the news media's 'battle of the black sexes,' they'd find healthy love in one another.
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  Blacks Need to Reinvent Marriage

  DALTON CONLEY, SOCIOLOGIST
  The dearth of 'marriageable' black men assumes that marital roles are inflexible, and that blacks only marry blacks.

19/03 Black women ugly? Says who?

By LZ Granderson, Special to CNN

May 19, 2011 -- Updated 1701 GMT (0101 HKT)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• LZ Granderson: His mom a fiery, caring woman who beat back life's challenges, she's beautiful
• He's offended at Psychology Today blogpost that asked why black women aren't attractive
• He questions writer's methods, but wonders at culture that abides, fosters such views
• Granderson: Some black men help damage black women's image. They must show respect

RELATED TOPICS

• Racial Issues
• Racism and Bigotry
• Hip-Hop and Rap
• Women's Issues

Editor's note: LZ Granderson writes a weekly column for CNN.com. A senior writer and columnist for ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com, he has contributed to ESPN's "Sports Center," "Outside the Lines" and "First Take." He is a 2010 nominee and the 2009 winner of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation award for online journalism and a 2010 and 2008 honoree of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for column writing.

(CNN) -- In a couple of weeks my mother turns 65.

She takes yoga and Zumba every chance she gets and if you sneeze more than twice around her, she'll cook you a pot of collard greens. My mother believes her collard greens can fix just about anything.