Why "Precious" Didn't Win Best Picture

Carl Chancellor, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has been writing about social justice issues for decades, is a columnist for Change.org.

There are probably more than a few people who are upset that the movie Precious failed to walk away with an Oscar for Best Picture. I'm not one of those people.

I knew Precious didn't have a chance because it was nominated in the wrong category. It should have gotten an Academy Award nod as a documentary film. That's because the gritty drama set in an urban ghetto, which captures the dysfunctional lives of an abusive mother who terrorizes her 16-year-old daughter, herself a mother and pregnant with a second child, is all too real.

I understand that Precious, based on the novel Push by Sapphire, is a fictional work, but the harsh world the book and the movie depict is the stark reality that far too many children in America awake to everyday. To be precise, the number is 13 million children.

That's the number of children who live in poverty in this country. And like the titular character Precious, they face the toxic impacts of living a life unduly stressed by poverty. Many of those damaging impacts were touched on in the movie, including domestic violence, sexual abuse, obesity, homelessness, crime, underachieving schools, HIV/AIDs (somebody needs to cue up the orchestra here because I could go on like an Oscar winner's acceptance speech). However, I will highlight just one of the issues raised by the movie -- teen pregnancy.

Upwards of 750,000 teens between 15 and 19 become pregnant each year in this country and some 57 percent of those pregnancies end in birth. Three out of ten American girls will become pregnant by age 20, which represents the highest rate of teen pregnancy in the industrialized world.

Last year, according to the March of Dimes, nearly 415,000 babies were born to teen mothers; that's 11 percent of all births in the U.S. The vast majority of teen mothers, and by extension their babies, live in poverty.

Just like Precious, the likelihood of a second birth among teens that have already had one baby is five times greater than those who haven't yet give birth. Many of these girls (about 25 percent) will have a second child before reaching the age of 18, most within 24 months of giving birth to their first child.

For African-American and Latino girls, the numbers are particularly sobering. The Children's Defense Fund has estimated that 51 percent of black and 53 percent of Latino teenage girls become pregnant at least once between the ages of 14 and 19.

What does it mean to be a teen mother?

Although teenage mothers today are more likely to finish high school or earn their GEDs than in the past, still just one-third receive a high school diploma and only 1.5 percent will earn a college degree by age 30.

Teen mothers are more likely to end up on welfare (nearly 80 percent of unmarried teen mothers receive welfare). More than 25 percent of teen mothers live in outright poverty while in their 20s and early 30s compared to seven percent of women who postpone childbearing until at least age 20. The younger a teen mother is the more likely that she will live in poverty.

Teen pregnancy is linked to single parenthood, which remains the most important reason for increased poverty among children.

What does it mean to be born to a teen mother?

The children of teenage mothers are more likely to be born prematurely, have lower birth weights, have a 50 percent higher rate of infant mortality, and have an increased risk of health problems, including blindness, deafness, chronic respiratory problems, mental illness, cerebral palsy and mental retardation.

Children of teen mothers are more likely to perform poorly on standardized test, 50 percent more likely to repeat a grade in school and are more likely to dropout before finishing high school.

These children are also at greater risk of abuse and neglect. One recent study found more than twice as many such incidents (abuse and neglect) reported to authorities in families headed by teen mothers.

The sons of teen mothers are 13 percent more likely to end up in prison. According to the CDF's Cradle to Prison Pipeline campaign, one in three black and one in six Latino boys are at risk of imprisonment during their lifetimes.

The daughters of teen mothers are 22 percent more likely to become teen mothers themselves.

What does it mean for you and me?

According to the CDF, teen childbearing in the United States costs taxpayers at least $9.1 billion annually, largely stemming from the costs associated with health care, foster care and incarceration of their children.

In accepting her Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as Precious's abusive mother, Mo'Nique noted that it's important to "do what's right."

In the case of teen pregnancy, doing what's right is giving young girls a choice that Precious didn't have.

Doing what's right means using the buzz created by the movie to spark a national conversation on teen pregnancy and child poverty issues.

Doing what's right means advocating for programs and policies that address birth control, safe sex, prenatal care, child care, day care, parenting classes and increased educational opportunities.

And, doing what's right means finding out how you can become involved in the National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, which will be held on May 5.

Photo credit: Dave_B_