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May 14, 2009
No Longer Silent
by Kat Noel
Renowned NY1 news reporter Dominic Carter shares the truth about his past and mental illness
 With more than 20 years as a political reporter and a career that boasts several firsts, there wasn’t a story too intimidating for NY1’s “Inside City Hall” host Dominic Carter. Among those firsts are exclusive interviews with former South African president Nelson Mandela, and Caroline Kennedy revealing her interest in running for New York state’s Senate seat. But it is only recently that the veteran journalist was able to share his most difficult story: As a child, he was sexually and physically abused by his mother. His mistreatment is chronicled in his 2007 book No Momma’s Boy (iUniverse, Inc., $19.95)
Growing up in a Bronx, New York housing project, Carter was aware that his mother, Laverne Carter, was absent from his life for months—sometimes more than a year at a time. His grandmother, Anna Pearl Carter (known as “Ma”), stepped in to raise him. One night when Carter was 7, under his mother’s care, he was called to her room. Laverne asked him to touch her breasts, thighs and between her legs, while she fondled his penis. Other than telling his wife, prior to their marriage, what happened, and his grandmother and a judge during a custody trial, Carter kept the one incident of sexual abuse to himself.
“The impact it had on me was one of tremendous shame. You know instinctively the moment you’ve been sexually abused that something terrible and bad has happened and not to tell a soul,” Carter tells Real Health.
While some victims of abuse lead isolated lives filled with violence, promiscuity and drugs, Carter chose a different path. He earned a B.A. in journalism from the State University of New York at Cortland and attended graduate school at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. He hoped to become one of the country’s top political anchors.
Eventually, Carter married his college sweetheart, Marilyn, and had two children. (The couple has been together for 30 years.). Outwardly, Carter was a success, despite harboring the traumatic secrets of his childhood. Inside, however, he was in pain. Carter refused to allow his mother into his life and rejected several attempts by his wife and mother-in-law to effect a reconciliation. “My mom never got to be a part of my success and that’s the way I wanted it, “ says Carter.
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Marly, Brooklyn, 2009-05-26 00:42:59
This is a great piece Kat! Mental illness and abuse in our community is so taboo which is why it's allowed to perpetuate. Every story counts.
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