Octuplet Blacklash

By Steven Mikulan Fri., Jan. 30 2009 at 7:30 AM

Categories: City News, Community

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It had to happen. Immediately after the birth of the Bellflower octuplets, TV anchors cooed and newspapers trembled with feelgood reports of the miraculous C-section. It wasn't long, however, for the births to reveal the fear and anger about immigration and race that simmer just below the surface of American life. A sample of online comments responding to the L.A. Times' updated story of the births disclosed how many people assumed the births were an act of welfare fraud or worse.

One reader named Skip wrote: Does anyone know if the mother is "Legal"? I still remember the last story the Los Angeles Times ran about the illegal alien mom who used fertility drugs and ended up with 10 kids, all at California Taxpayer expense.

Barb in Akron replied: I heard she's an illegal and we the taxpayers are gonna foot the bill. For the rest of their lives!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Other comments from the Times:

ED: I will bet my house that this person isn't even in the country legally and that she had planned from the start to use this brood for monitary [sic] gain.

Lawyer24: This is not a gift from G-d because it is unnatural for humans to produce "litters" they are not dogs, cats, etc. . . . even horses only have 1 or 3 max . . . large mammals do not have natural litters. so don't confuse fertility treatments with the work of G-d.

Such comments echo louder and angrier, the further you move away from the paper of record and to the darker corners of talk radio and the blogosphere. On the anti-immigration site Americans for Legal Immigration, the octuplet story provoked "Proud American and wife of a wonderful LEGAL immigrant from Ireland" to report on her Internet research on the mother's need for fertility treatment:

"I am reasonably certain she is Middle Eastern and not Hispanic. . . . maybe her husband/boyfriend was no longer around to get her pregnant again. Maybe he is in club gitmo."

From there it's a short hop and a skip to the overtly white-supremacist Web sites that have exploded with predictable vitriol -- although at their heart, their reader comments are not much different from those of the Times' readers.

"Nighted," a poster to Stormfront, was even annoyed by the racial makeup of the Kaiser Permanent staff who delivered the eight babies:

"Wow, no one has mentioned that most of the hospital staff aren't White. Also, the 3 doctors in the first video are ALL bLACK! (Yes, I count the bugeyed indian as black.)"

At the even more virulent ChimpOut site, "aryangirl" drew comfort from the murder-suicide deaths of the Lupoe family that had claimed seven lives in Wilmington:

"Those octuplets are niggers. At least the murder/suicide yesterday somewhat maintains the nigger balance."

So much for the new, post-racial America.

[Note: An early version of this post erroneously identified the mother as Angela Suleman, which is her mother's name. The octuplets' mother's identity has since been revealed to be Nadya Suleman.]

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I will not attempt to write my few viewpoint in a biased forum where they are likely to be misrepresented and skewed anyways. I agree that raising this many children is horrendous. I also feel race should be left out of this. I would remind "aryangirl" that the people of the world are /all/ responsible for crimes committed by their cultures and societies. I would remind her again that the very concept of nihilism was codified by a European. I would remind her that the very idea of "Aryanism" was coined and keystoned by a man who participated in barbaric purges equaled in his own time by Joseph Stalin. I am sadly impressed you choose to embrace and glorify a culture that has become obsessed with personal profit to the point that we readily destroy the world upon which all humans live, not to mention go into other nations endowed with resources and take them by force. I am astounded that you can repel even a semblance of discussion by so carelessly dehumanizing others to the point where what cruelties we inflict upon them seem irrelevant. The same will go to MonkeyGroin. You show a sad lack of appreciation for the many socioeconomic factors that change people's lives. To the both of you; I'd get your eyes checked, because it's time to wake up and see the new America. After all, the idea that democracy encompasses /all/ humans has been around for awhile.
If you're still on the fence: grab your fingers thru the yellow pages and make an apointment with a doctor and see which treatment sounds better to you, and which makes you smile more. Then you'll know which is right for you.
"I am the "aryangirl" quoted in the above article. I just wanted to clear something up. We at Chimpout.com are not white supremacists and Chimpout.com is not a white supremacist site. The writer of this article should know his facts before slandering us at Chimpout.com the way he did. We have a very diverse membership with people from all over the world. We are Jewish, we are Chinese, we are Hispanic, we are Austrailian, we are native American, we are Russian, we are Hindu Indians, we are Mexican, we are Pakistani. We have one common thread:We are sick and tired of the barbarism and nihilistic lifestyle of the negro. If you take the time to look at the site instead of jumping to the conclusion that we are a "white supremacist" site you would see that we welcome members of all races, creed and national origin, with the exception of negroes. Our site is there to inform and educate about the "african american" problem- the violence, the 37,000 rapes of white women per year, the rampant drug use, the abuse of the welfare system, the cause of the breakdown of civilization. We welcome ALL humans of any race, colour, age or sex, again, with the exception of negroes. We are sick of having "black culture" rammed down our throat, we are sick of being victims of violence, we are tired of the utter destruction of once beautiful places, we are sick of the sense of entitlement and having us taxpaying humans foot the bill for their 8 children by 8 different "babydaddies", If you want to see the truth about negroes that the main stream media will not show you, you are welcome to drop by our site and have a look. I hope this comment gets posted- not only to clear our name as "white supremacists" but to inform and educate. If this comment goes unposted then we will know that you here are hypocrites and even bigger bigots than you believe us to be. Thank you." To the spirit of Adolf Hitler, who inhabits this twisted ofay c*unt: We killed your ass before, and we will kill you again. If you think this is just bluster, ask those Germans who survived World War 2. Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for your time. P.S. We will kill your Chinese, Hindu, Mexican and Pakistani slave eunuchs who do your dirty work with even more relish, because they don't have the sense to know who their real enemies are.
Funnty how I have not heard anyone address who paid for the fertility treatment and care. If the mom is unemployed, already has 6 children, receives disability and food stamps for some of her children, then how could she afford these treatments?
Hey Big Bill: California pays more in taxes than it gets back in services. We get .78 cents on the dollar back from Washington while Oklhahoma gets back 1.36. If we stopped subsidizing the midwest and South along with the Wall St bailout and the war we wouldn't be in this mess. The rest of the country uses California as an ATM machine. We're tired of it! The midwest and the South (especially the South) need to start pulling their own weight.
You post a bunch of racist comments from low life websites and talk radio losers and try to convince us that this is representaive of the opinions on this topic. Get real. That's a lazy way to create a thread. Suleman is being attacked but I don't think race has anything to do with it. She's single and poor and people need to put a human face on the economic crisis we're in and instead of blaming the CEOs on Wall St who have robbed trillions of dollars from us and wrecked our economy, it's easier to blame the old stand by: the single mother. Furthermore Suleman is part Arabic and part Lithuanian. Misogyny and sexism are alive and well in this country.
Nadya Suleman went on workers compensation disability back in 1999 (at age 23) due to a work-related back injury and collected $165,000 in disability payments between 2002 and 2008. She told a workers� compensation Judge in 2001 that she spent most of the day in bed and had been unable to care for her first child. For the past 10 years though she�s been receiving disability payments and is unable to work (or even get out of bed), she�s been able to endure several IVF treatments and have 14 children. This woman has been living off the system for most of her adult life and will continue to do so at taxpayer�s expense.
I don't doubt she is legal, that is not the problem I have, I have a problem with her reasoning to have these children "I was a lonely child"...that is not a reasonable adult thinking, it is more like a 14 year old thinking and her doctor should NEVER have done this. Who is he/she and why are they not up on charges now? Unbelievable that they would implant that many embroyos into one woman unless he is getting payola off this too. I am still on the fence about whether or not she saw this as a cash cow to her in advance, ie millions of people would send her free stuff and buy her a new car and house etc which is what usually happens when people "abuse" the system and have these multiple births! Well, regardless, get ready Calif, more of your tax dollars will be spent to raise these kids because she is not going to be able to that is for sure. I hope family services is going to keep a close eye on the situation because this is just too many kids for her living arrangements...a small 3 bedroom house, 14 kids, 3 adults...nope, I think she is planning on "society" paying for their living arrangements and kids all the way!
The 18 white Duggers who just got a TV show bcuz of the many kids they have are independently wealthy and need no help with the litter they have, and still creating. Do you think they have not recieved assistance from the state of AR. Every time she has a new baby, she's on every TV show, showing off that brood. Do you think they are supporting themselves on his salary alone? Don't point fingers, four point back @ you. I don't agree with all those kids, but not bcuz of the color.
This 33 year old single woman (Nadya Suleman) was unemployed, had 6 children under 8 (one of which has autism), was already receiving Welfare and lived with her bankrupt parents. She then intentionally had 8 embryos implanted in her. Her mother stated that she went to Mexico to have this procedure done, which probably would be the case since the supposed Sperm Donor wouldn't give his consent to use the embryos after he got married last year and she would have needed his consent in the U.S. Who did Nadya think was going to pay for her 14 children???? The taxpayers of course. She shouldn�t be rewarded by anyone (Social Services, the public or Media outlets etc.) for her selfishness and arrogance. She's a selfish spoiled brat who wants to use the Welfare System the way she used her parents all these years.
This 33 year old single woman (Nadya Suleman) was unemployed, had 6 children under 8 (one of which has autism), was already receiving Welfare and lived with her bankrupt parents. She then intentionally had 8 embryos implanted in her. Her mother stated that she went to Mexico to have this procedure done, which probably would be the case since the supposed Sperm Donor wouldn't give his consent to use the embryos after he got married last year and she would have needed his consent in the U.S. Who did Nadya think was going to pay for her 14 children???? The taxpayers of course. She shouldn�t be rewarded by anyone (Social Services, the public or Media outlets etc.) for her selfishness and arrogance. She's a selfish spoiled brat who wants to use the Welfare System the way she used her parents all these years.
Hey Big Bill, FYI... California is the Eighth largest economy in the world, by itself. We're the biggest producer of agriculture in the U.S. and we're also the hotbed of every high-tech industry on this continent (Silicon Valley, the aerospace industry in the Southbay of Los Angeles, to say nothing of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the top medical centers in the west coast at USC and UCLA) how dare you call this state a deadbeat. -AT
I am the "aryangirl" quoted in the above article. I just wanted to clear something up. We at Chimpout.com are not white supremacists and Chimpout.com is not a white supremacist site. The writer of this article should know his facts before slandering us at Chimpout.com the way he did. We have a very diverse membership with people from all over the world. We are Jewish, we are Chinese, we are Hispanic, we are Austrailian, we are native American, we are Russian, we are Hindu Indians, we are Mexican, we are Pakistani. We have one common thread:We are sick and tired of the barbarism and nihilistic lifestyle of the negro. If you take the time to look at the site instead of jumping to the conclusion that we are a "white supremacist" site you would see that we welcome members of all races, creed and national origin, with the exception of negroes. Our site is there to inform and educate about the "african american" problem- the violence, the 37,000 rapes of white women per year, the rampant drug use, the abuse of the welfare system, the cause of the breakdown of civilization. We welcome ALL humans of any race, colour, age or sex, again, with the exception of negroes. We are sick of having "black culture" rammed down our throat, we are sick of being victims of violence, we are tired of the utter destruction of once beautiful places, we are sick of the sense of entitlement and having us taxpaying humans foot the bill for their 8 children by 8 different "babydaddies", If you want to see the truth about negroes that the main stream media will not show you, you are welcome to drop by our site and have a look. I hope this comment gets posted- not only to clear our name as "white supremacists" but to inform and educate. If this comment goes unposted then we will know that you here are hypocrites and even bigger bigots than you believe us to be. Thank you.
The doctors responsible for allowing this should also be responsible for paying all costs related to raising these children.
The doctors who allowed this should be responsible for paying all bills related to raising these children.
Nice try with all the "racism" stuff, Steve Mikulan. It brutalizes white folks--Americans-- and keeps them paying, and paying, and paying. Bottom line, the liberal attitudes and deadbeat of America.generosity (with white folks' money) expressed here have bankrupted California. Y'all want the rest of America's hearts to bleed for your insane immigration and welfare policies in California because you don't want to pay for them. We aren't going to bail you out, understand? You are deadbeats. You can have a welfare state or open borders. You can't have both. Isn't that obvious by now? Feel free to pay several million dollars for bankrupt refugees who squirt them out eight at a time. Go ahead and open your wallets to feed, clothe, educate and medicate your millions of illegals. Be our guest and let your welfare wet dreams run wild. Blame it all on us white racists if you like. But as your schools, hospitals, businesses and government collapse under California's grotesque and exponentially multiplying load of the worlds peasantry, don't dip you hand in our pocket. California's bleeding hearts and diversity have made it America's deadbeat. You have created a racial nightmare, face a race war and it has taken you just 35 years! My hat's off to you and your liberal buddies, Stevarino!
And I hope you psychopaths who spew your hatred on this response list would stay in, oh I don't know, Wyoming or something while you tend to your own insecurities. Do you even realize how absurd your comments are? Would you have as much problem with these babies if the mother were a French Canadian immigrant? Are these kids even human to you? Go pick on someone your own size, you cowards!
I hope this irresponsible, opportunistic and SINGLE, UNEMPLOYED mother of 14 stays in CALIFORNIA so she and her brood can suck off California welfare.
Just for clarifying some assumptions. This woman had all of her children via IVF and at one time she was employed, had 2 homes which were included in the bankruptcy. Her mother has never agreed with her choices but said that she had been obcessed with having a large family since a teenager. The mother also says she will not be there when the babies come home from the hospital...she is done! The Octuplets mother worked as a psychiatric attendent..but have not heard it was a fertility group. Interesting comments..and varied.
I think these cranks from the message boards need to be answered. Said the unidentified M: "The only issue is that this idiot of a woman - with 6 children under the age of 10 - decided that she needed more children and went in for fertilization treatment. Why she felt the need for fertilization treatment is beyond me since she is, clearly, VERY fertile. And who is going to be taking care of these 8 additional "blessings"? Her? Her parents? Nope. It's going to be you and me footing the bill. If you think otherwise, you're delusional." Of course, M, because we will all be conscripted into shifts to care for the extra infants. I wonder if you can get Conscientious Objector status for that? I would like to ask the American Right, how do you folks balance that stringent stance against reproductive rights with this silly invective targeting a woman whom, though perhaps unwisely, had more children? Isn't that what you guys like to see happen? And let me ask you, this, M. Let's say the new mother does need welfare. Should be punitively cut off to teach her a lesson? Shall we cripple her and by extension her children for having been born? What utter nonsense. As I scrolled further down the comments section, M was hardly finished, in fact, she was just getting started: "Also, it's time to outlaw these fertility super drugs. Who on earth can handle a life with eight or ten children? Who is wealthy enough, or has enough hours in the day to raise that many babies? That is the center of this story, and it's a disgrace." Who on Earth indeed? Why with your wisdom and the time you clearly have to post onto the Weekly's message boards you are clearly depriving the world of your intimate understanding of Medical Ethics. If you've not yet started your MD, please don't hesitate, because hospitals around the world could benefit from your sage advice. Shame on the rest of you for dumping hate and bile onto this woman. She may have erred, but is no less deserving of forgiveness and acceptance than any other person on this planet. She's not a criminal and to proscribe her as such, and injecting that even with putrid racism, is abhorrent.
A list of qualifications should be devised prior to allowing a person these fertility treatments. A few of those should be financial stability, mental stability, number of children prior, and support system. Race not having any bearing on the issue.
Steve Mikulan used to be a terrific critic of theater and culture? Oh man. I've been too hard on the guy. I thought he'd been a dolt from the start of his career. My apologies, Steve.
I agree that it is ridiculous to describe a 1 pound baby on life support as "fiesty" Anyone remember the Fugasy children about 25 years ago? I believe they were the first sextipulets (6) to survive. They were all over the news for a couple years. Then the story disappeared. There was a brief story when they were 8 years old. Here is how they turned out. Everyone of them was either deaf, blind or both. All had !Qs in the 40's. 100 is normal. 89 is high level retarded. Below 70 is extremely retarded. IQs in the 40's meant that at best, these kids might be toilet trained and able to feed themselves by age 18. Other problems were holes in their hearts. All of them had a form of ceberal palsy. Let's hope the octuplets turn out ok. LA Weekly never misses a chance to spew hatred and disdain of whites does it. It's interesting that LA commie/porno weekly ran another "evil non Jewish White people at the same time youran an article bemoaning the fact that middle class aka non Jewish whites have been blasted out of California by affirmative action and mass immigration from the most corrupt, disfunctional and criminal asian, latin american, middle eastern and african countries in the world. What will LA Weekly do when the last person who can read English leaves Los Angeles. I guess they can always look at the porno ads. LA Weekly: 200 pages 50 pages of articles and 250 pages of prono and prostitute ads.
The hospital bill is now at $3,500,000... we have a right to be pissed off at this family. It's time to change the law and make being born in America to illegals no longer a free pass for citizenship.
This is shamefully bad reporting. The Weekly has now completely fallen apart. If a story like this would have even made the pages in the old days, it would have been about the use/overuse of fertility drugs/embryo implants, etc. Or, it would have been about the pathology of a woman obsessed with giving birth and some actual investigative reporting would have taken place. Ugh - Steve Mikulan - once terrific critic of theater and culture, why have you debased yourself.
Good job! It takes an article like this (and the anonymity) to bring out the ugly underbelly of L.A. Hey, these kids are here! Who cares what "race", left-right-handed-ness, or belly-button-orientation they are? Let's welcome them to the rest of humanity... and let's go build our future together!
Life, regardless of race, is sacred and children are blessings, however, parents have a responsibility to provide for their children emotionally and financially. According to the USDA, in 2001 the cost of raising a child for a dual parent family earning between $39K and $66K per year was approximately $9,500 per year from birth to age 18. Today, the cost per year per child is estimated at $11K. It is unlikely the mother of 14 children will find the time to feed, bathe and diaper her offspring while at the same time earning the $2.15 million per year she will need to financially support them. Based on the information known to date about the family and the mother, it seems the American taxpayers, not the parents, will bear the financial burden of these sacred blessings.
Why can't people of all colors-or no color-shut up and ask why would a person want to bring such gifts from God into an environment of no basic family,such as a "father and Mother" ? Single Motherhood is not the way life is supposed to be by ANYONE'S standards. Grow up, America and learn some real morality. And, yes they really do exist, I live nearby. Kaiser will do anything to anyone. I know, they killed my husband!
It's not news that Steve Mikulan thinks comments posted by people at Stormfront are newsworthy - that's expected. It'd be news if he'd missed this chance to cry racism yet again. I mean racism by whites.
Did all of the idiots from the Times come to post more comments here? You all act as if the only readers of the LA Weekly, or any media, are white. Racist whites, in fact. Everyone reads the paper. You are not talking to yourselves. Grow up and get a life.
I personally think this octuplet story is a fraud. I don't think these babies exist.There are so many indications. It couldn't be just any family ... no, this family is connected to every major American crisis: Iraq, autism, foreclosure, welfare, single motherhood, immigration, job loss, fertility/infertility, etc. During a Today show interview, one doctor described the smallest, one-pound baby as "extremely feisty" - I've never heard a one-pound baby described that way. There are no pictures of these babies. The picture of the birthing staff could have been pulled from any hospital web site. Anyone connected to the family gives "anonymous" interviews. No doctor or clinic has come forward saying they were consulted about this. (Wouldn't you think a hospital experiencing this would consult with others who've handled such situations, such as the hospital dealing with the first set of octuplets?) How convenient is it that they are now claiming the mother worked in a fertility clinic? With six kids (one supposedly autistic), she had time to work? Too many twists here ...
There will always be people out there that will make assumptions of race when they hear news stories. This is nothing new. What's new is that Steven Mikulan thinks that this is newsworthy, that this is an actual story worth telling. Pressed for a deadline Steven? Rile'em up with stories or racism and bigotry. Come on, you gotta try harder than that.
Well, even if she and her husband are illegals and they parachuted into the country in the dead of night, the babies are all new Americans, and it's disgusting to bring their race into any discussion about their legality, period. Also, it's time to outlaw these fertility super drugs. Who on earth can handle a life with eight or ten children? Who is wealthy enough, or has enough hours in the day to raise that many babies? That is the center of this story, and it's a disgrace.
Woah - now THAT'S racist (MonkeyGroin). The author/editors are to be commended for promptly making the correction. It's a rare thing for someone in their 15 minutes of fame to still be nameless at this point.
Why shouldnt race be an issue?? The only people who dont want race an issue are the people who are black or hispanic or jewish and resemble the comments. Its not my white fault blacks do what they do. I dont make them commit rape of white women at a 1,000 times the rate that whites rape black women, thats right. I dont make blacks commit felonies 7 times more than whites. I dont make illegal aliens rape and molest women and commit crime at at least 3 times the rate whites do. I dont make jews belong to communist groups seeking to destroy the democracy of america. Jews have been selling us out since the begining, if anyone hates the talk of racism its the people who are destroying this country and dont want the facts talked about.
You're right. Racism should not the be issue. The only issue is that this idiot of a woman - with 6 children under the age of 10 - decided that she needed more children and went in for fertilization treatment. Why she felt the need for fertilization treatment is beyond me since she is, clearly, VERY fertile. And who is going to be taking care of these 8 additional "blessings"? Her? Her parents? Nope. It's going to be you and me footing the bill. If you think otherwise, you're delusional.
Ok, but IS she illegal? A rush to judgment isn't quite as bad if it's true (I am NOT defending these comments, just trashing your junk journalism). You didn't even get the facts right. Angela Suleman is NOT the mother, she is the grandmother. The mother's name, for WHATEVER reason has not been publicly released. Disfavoring those who violate law is NOT racism. Is it racist to say that crack dealers are bad? They too are just breaking laws for their personal financial gain.