Filed under: Celebrity News, Dr. Boyce Money
According to court documents filed in the Los Angeles County Child Support Services Department, Jackson won't be allowed to drive again until the child support is paid in full.
Back in September, Jackson told the courts that he can no longer afford to pay $3,000 per month in child support for his two sons, Jaafar and Jermajesty. He has asked the judge to cut his payments down to $215 per month, arguing that his ex-wife makes more money than he does.
Currently, Jackson lives with his mother, rent free. He married Alejandra in 1995 and divorced her in 2004.
I am certainly the first to challenge the draconian nature of child support laws in America. Non-custodial parents who can't afford to come up with money every month risk being sent to jail or being publicly humiliated. I am an 18-year veteran of the child support system, and found myself consistently frustrated with the magnitude of my payments, as well as the lack of accountability regarding where the money was going every month. Additionally, the child support courts don't put nearly as much energy into keeping families together as they put into collecting money you may not have.
But when it comes to the case of Jermaine Jackson, there appears to be a serious problem. First, the mere comedy of a 55-year old man living with his mother rent free is incomprehensible. One would hope that his family would demand that he grow up at some point. Secondly, $215 per month is the amount of child support I paid when I was a 20-year old college student earning minimum wage on a part-time job. Oh yeah, that was just for one child, not two, and that was nearly 20 years ago, when the cost of living was a little more than half of what it is today. I also lived in Kentucky, where the cost of living is much lower than it is in California, where Jackson resides. Doesn't Jermaine Jackson belong to one of the richest and most powerful entertainment families in the history of the world? I'm just asking.
Finally, there is the broader lesson about having children for whom we cannot afford to provide. While I'm sure Jackson took great pride in giving his children creative names like Jermajesty, audaciously implying that they are the sons of royalty, one would hope that he would realize that being a true king means making a sincere effort to provide for your family. Jackson arguing that he should pay a ridiculously low amount of child support just because their mother earns more than he does makes him look that much more pathetic. The amount of money he's proposing can't even cover half the food they eat every month.
It almost seems that, like so many other entertainers and athletes across America, Jermaine Jackson has trapped his mind in perpetual childhood. He seems to exist in a world where a man can live with his mama until retirement, spending all of his time hanging out in the studio waiting for his next big break. Jackson is not alone in this mentality, for there are hundreds of thousands of other former ballers, singers, dancers and actors living with an unfulfilled entertainment dream, refusing to wake up to the realities of adulthood. It's ironic that one of Jermaine Jackson's greatest hits was a song called "Let's Get Serious." When I read this story about a 55-year old man from an entertainment family that's earned hundreds of millions of dollars living with his mama and trying to pay just $215 per month in child support for two children, I want to write a song called "Are You Serious?" Perhaps it's time for Jermaine to get serious and start taking care of his kids.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action Resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.