Leads to Dead-BLACK Dads
How the Child Support Laws Are Impacting Black Communities
By Tia Simmons
Note: April fourth made nine years since the anniversary of Scott’s murder. I want to dedicate this article to his memory. Let it serve as a reminder of the injustices Scott endured, of the pain his family surely still feels to this day, of the fight we can’t quit fighting, and for liberty and justice FOR ALL.
Walter Lamar Scott. How many readers are familiar with this name? I’d bet nowhere near as many as would recognize the names George Floyd, Treyvon Martin, or Breonna Taylor. But like the others, Scott was a victim of senseless police brutality, killed by a white police officer in South Carolina during a traffic stop in 2015. Shot five times in the back from behind while fleeing. It was a case that garnered a significant amount of attention at the time and fueled the fire of angry black Americans demanding we put an end to racial inequality in this country. It was a case that saw little justice, the officer who murdered Scott was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for charges relating to the murder, civil rights violations that simply gave murder a prettier name. Not enough, nowhere near enough, as I’m sure Scott’s family would agree.
Scott with both hands up in defense as he was being attacked by Slager, a police officer who shot him senselessly on April 4, 2015
Then there’s the presumption of black guilt. This is the part where the skeptical white folks always insert that same defense of the police officer’s actions. If he wasn’t a criminal, fleeing from the police during what should have been a simple traffic stop he would still be alive. He was probably high on something. Better off the streets, people like him are toxic to the community, the cop just did his job. And, as usual, they’d be wrong.
Scott was no seasoned criminal. Scott was a construction worker, a veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard, he was 50 years old, not some thug out there slinging dope on the corner. He was driving his car to the auto store; it was a 1991 model. It was 9:30 a.m. Scott was your average, hardworking, barely making it, stuck-in-a-never-ending-cycle-of-oppression, middle-aged black man living in the South. He wasn’t under the influence at the time of his death, according to the toxicology reports. He was unarmed. So, then…. Why did he run?
Like countless thousands of other men in America, Scott had an obligation to pay child support. And like so many countless thousands of other men, he struggled to make that obligation. The majority of people impacted by child support are disproportionately minority group members who are already socioeconomically disadvantaged. There is a significant disparity in gender differences among those who are impacted by child support as well, with men being most affected by these obligations. Only 18% of custodial parents are single fathers, the root of the disparity in gender.
When you combine racial and socioeconomic status disadvantages with gender, what you end up with, unfortunately, is a tremendous amount of young black men who owe child support obligations that render them slaves to the state. If they gain employment their wages are withheld so that they can’t get by financially and they are forced to make a living that revolves around criminal behaviors. These men are then eventually arrested, incarcerated, and placed at an even greater disadvantage because they now have criminal records to add to their list.
They can’t have driver’s licenses, so unless they live in a city, where crime rates are the highest, they won’t have access to reliable transportation without depending on someone else. To assume that they could get back and forth to a job is preposterous. And what jobs do they have access to? Minimum wage jobs. They can’t afford to go back to school and continue their education to receive training that makes them qualified for higher-paying jobs, either because they can’t afford it in the first place due to socioeconomic disadvantages or because they now must work 120 hours a week to make minimum wage at all after 60% of their wages are withheld for child support. When is there time to go to school?
And all of that is assuming minimum wage is a livable sum in the first place, and in most places, it is sadly inadequate, the federal minimum being only $7.25 per hour. At the federal minimum wage with 60% of their wages withheld, these individuals only make around $2.90 per hour. To believe that anyone could live on that in 2023 is incredible. This is a vicious, never-ending cycle of oppression and those impacted have a total inability to rise up from their circumstance.
Scott had an existing warrant for his arrest when he was stopped on April 4, 2015. A warrant for failure to pay an outstanding balance of $18,000 in child support arrearages, plus interest and fees. He had previously been arrested for the same problem, three other times actually. Scott’s brother, Rodney, was quoted saying that he was fed up with the child support system. He couldn’t keep a job because he was getting fired due to being arrested and incarcerated for not paying the support, but he couldn’t pay the support without a job. He recognized that this weight on his shoulders, this chip, was not going to get off him, not going to quit. And on that fateful morning, the campaign against deadbeat dads caused one black dad to *literally* be dead.
Walter Scott’s funeral in 2015, paying respect to a veteran of our country who was shot down by a man sworn to protect him
Considering that only 44% of child support cases are ever paid in full, there are an unimaginable number of people impacted by this issue! And it raises a question that must be asked, is this system we have in place that effective anyway? And who is it actually helping?
All I see is another example of the government systematically oppressing and discriminating against the black man.
It’s past time for obligatory child support laws to be reformed. This is only one of many reasons why the laws in place today are failing us. We must demand our state representatives to take action.
Thanks for reading. Take a moment this evening to remember Scott, and all the other men – and women – in our country each day who are victims of the system put in place to protect us.
About the Author:
Tia is an investigative journalist here at BLACK. She holds degrees in Political Science and Applied Economics from SNHU and she is a second-year law student at Purdue Global Law School, pursuing her J.D. She also has a certification in Human Rights from Wassmuth Center for Human Rights, in Effective Communications Across the Differences from Berkely Judicial Institute, and she recently interned for the Office of Budget and Entitlement Policy at Cato Institute in Washington, D.C. Tia is a RESULTS 2024 Organizing and Advocacy Fellow and Outreach and Partnerships Coordinator. She lives with her husband and three children in Hurricane, West Virginia.
In her free time, she enjoys contemporary art, fashion, home décor, reading, and family. Tia is passionate about protecting American consumers and corporations and is a strong proponent for open markets, human rights, and equality for all. Her current focus is slavery reparations, entitlement program solvency, and budget appropriations process reform. While Tia is not black, she supports the fight for equality and stands with BLM. She believes that unearned privilege creates a duty to act against racial inequality and injustices.
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