I'm loyal to a fault. I have been drinking the same coffee for over 12 years. I live 30 minutes and work 5 minutes from the city I grew up in. I have had the same morning routine for over a decade which consists of listening to The Tom Joyner Morning Show, the funniest morning show ever. However, recently I heard an interview on my favorite morning show that actually made me want to turn off my radio in disgust.
Every week, there is a piece called Inside Her Story with Jackie Reed and normally I find these stories heartbreaking or uplifting yet always emotionally charged. That all changed when last week I had the misfortune of hearing again Crystal Mangum telling yet another story. This time she wasn't falsely accusing some lacrosse students of rape or blaming her boyfriend for her antics. This time, she was pointing the finger at Durham, North Carolina.
As a Durham native, a woman and a Black woman I find this latest finger pointing from Ms. Mangum another poor excuse for a poor excuse of a woman and person. According to Ms. Mangum, Durham is to blame for her current state of sad affairs because there are no 'resources'. In typical Mangum fashion she was noticeably vague. Was she inferring that there were no resources for women? Maybe it was Black women? Or perhaps it was low-income women?
I admit, I'm confused. Is Ms. Mangum intimating that Durham is to blame for her falsely accusing young men of rape? Or maybe Durham is to blame for her making it more difficult for actual rape victims to be heard and believed? Perhaps Durham is to blame for her setting fire to the home she shared with her boyfriend? Maybe it's the fault of Durham that she has temporarily lost custody of her children?
It appears Ms. Mangum has been too busy stripping and setting fires so allow me to try and educate her. Here is just a sampling of the resources available in Durham and by extension to Ms. Mangum:
Every week, there is a piece called Inside Her Story with Jackie Reed and normally I find these stories heartbreaking or uplifting yet always emotionally charged. That all changed when last week I had the misfortune of hearing again Crystal Mangum telling yet another story. This time she wasn't falsely accusing some lacrosse students of rape or blaming her boyfriend for her antics. This time, she was pointing the finger at Durham, North Carolina.
As a Durham native, a woman and a Black woman I find this latest finger pointing from Ms. Mangum another poor excuse for a poor excuse of a woman and person. According to Ms. Mangum, Durham is to blame for her current state of sad affairs because there are no 'resources'. In typical Mangum fashion she was noticeably vague. Was she inferring that there were no resources for women? Maybe it was Black women? Or perhaps it was low-income women?
I admit, I'm confused. Is Ms. Mangum intimating that Durham is to blame for her falsely accusing young men of rape? Or maybe Durham is to blame for her making it more difficult for actual rape victims to be heard and believed? Perhaps Durham is to blame for her setting fire to the home she shared with her boyfriend? Maybe it's the fault of Durham that she has temporarily lost custody of her children?
It appears Ms. Mangum has been too busy stripping and setting fires so allow me to try and educate her. Here is just a sampling of the resources available in Durham and by extension to Ms. Mangum:
- InStepp, Inc. offers job skills training, adult mentoring programs and employment re-entry programs just for women.
- Public Allies offers full-time paid apprenticeships.
- Project Access of Durham County links people without health insurance into a local network of clinics, labs, pharmacies and hospitals that donate their time and effort.
- Dress For Success provides professional attire, support and career development tools for disadvantaged women.
There are more programs in Durham that help than Ms. Mangum has excuses. Maybe if she got off her stripper pole every once in awhile, she could have realized the resources that were easily available at her fingertips.
Ms. Mangum did conclude her piece on The Tom Joyner Show by saying that she would like to move from Durham as soon as she can financially do so. One can only hope that those are the first true words ever uttered out of her mouth.
Ms. Mangum did conclude her piece on The Tom Joyner Show by saying that she would like to move from Durham as soon as she can financially do so. One can only hope that those are the first true words ever uttered out of her mouth.
