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The Black Family in 1965 and Today
Townhall.com ^ | February 26, 2015 | Steve Chapman

Posted on 02/26/2015 8:52:22 AM PST by Kaslin

The breakdown of the black family is a sensitive topic, though it's not new and it's not in dispute. President Barack Obama, who grew up with an absent father, often urges black men to be responsible parents.

Nor is there any doubt that African-American children would be better off living with their married parents. Kids who grow up in households headed by a single mother are far more likely than others to be poor, quit school, get pregnant as teens and end up in jail.

But these facts were once inflammatory. Fifty years ago next month, a Labor Department official named Daniel Patrick Moynihan published a paper titled, "The Negro Family: The Case for National Action," which argued that "a tangle of pathology" afflicting black communities had emerged because "the Negro family in the urban ghettos is crumbling." His key fact: Nearly one-fourth of black babies were born to unwed mothers.

He was accused of blaming the victim, but he was onto something important. Today, Moynihan, later a liberal Democratic senator, is invoked by conservatives to explain why African-Americans' progress has been so slow.

Jason Riley, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, claims that "family structure offers a much more plausible explanation of these outcomes than does residual white racism." Fox News host Bill O'Reilly is more blunt. "The reason there is so much violence and chaos in the black precincts is the disintegration of the African-American family," he said last year. "White people don't force black people to have babies out of wedlock."

They're right, up to a point. It's far from optimal for 72 percent of black children to be born out of wedlock. Social ills would diminish if there were more stable, two-parent black households.

The problem with this line of thinking is that it's incomplete. Worse, it's often used to gloss over intractable realities that continue to hinder black progress.

It's true that whites don't force blacks to have children out of wedlock. But it's wrong to suggest that whites bear no responsibility. Poverty is often the result of lack of access to good jobs or any jobs, and discrimination by employers didn't stop in 1965 -- and hasn't stopped yet.

The impact of drug laws, and the harsher treatment black men get from the criminal justice system, means that many have records that scare employers away. But research indicates that white applicants with criminal records are more likely to get interviews than blacks without criminal records.

A lot of the well-paid blue-collar jobs once abundant in cities have vanished. Moynihan lamented that unemployment had long been much higher for black men than for whites, and the gap is bigger today.

Without decent jobs, these men are not likely to be able to find wives or support families. They are not likely to get married or stay married. If family breakdown causes poverty, poverty also causes family breakdown.

African-Americans often find it hard to leave blighted neighborhoods. They can find themselves steered away from white communities by real estate agents or rejected by landlords. The Urban Institute reports a fact that ought to shock: "The average high-income black person lives in a neighborhood with a higher poverty rate than the average low-income white person" (my emphasis).

The concentration of poverty in inner cities means many black children are exposed daily to crime and violence. Their turbulent environment makes it harder for them to acquire habits of discipline and self-restraint.

It's tempting to blame African-American social ills on the modern welfare state, which allegedly breeds idleness. But most poor black households are poor despite having at least one adult who works. The welfare reform of the 1990s, which induced many recipients to take jobs, didn't reverse the decline of marriage.

Poor black neighborhoods are not the unassisted creation of poor black people, but largely the malignant result of factors beyond their control. These places generate a vicious cycle of poverty and dysfunction that mires children in desperate conditions. Then we wonder why many of these kids end up unemployed, addicted to drugs, behind bars or murdered.

Moynihan's report contained a passage that conservatives rarely quote: "Three centuries of injustice have brought about deep-seated structural distortions in the life of the Negro American. ... The cycle can be broken only if these distortions are set right." He would be sorry to learn that we have yet to set them right, and that his insights are used to rationalize our failure.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: blackfamily; blacks; fatherhood; fathers; marriage; racism; welfare
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To: Kaslin

Compare the white family of 1965 with today and the picture ain’t a whole lot prettier.


21 posted on 02/26/2015 9:20:00 AM PST by DoodleDawg
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To: nascarnation

Yet another reason why I include Lyndon B. Johnson with Obama as the two worst pieces of feces to stink up the White House.


22 posted on 02/26/2015 9:25:09 AM PST by baltimorepoet
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Only Three days to go until March!

FReepers, Let's GIT_R_DONE!


23 posted on 02/26/2015 9:42:33 AM PST by RedMDer (Keep Free Republic Alive with YOUR Donations!)
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To: econjack

Agree completely with your comments. Great post.


24 posted on 02/26/2015 9:57:40 AM PST by mc5cents
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To: Responsibility2nd
The reason why the black family has been annihilated is easy. It was by design. It was carefully crafted and created by Lyndon Baines “I’ll have them ni***** voting democratic for the next 200 years” Johnson and his Great Society.

And just as easy is the solution: Cut welfare bennies by 2/3 or more. Have personal responsibility. Get an education, get a job, get married.

Simple. Easy. Problem solved.

Worth repeating

25 posted on 02/26/2015 10:02:16 AM PST by mc5cents
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To: baltimorepoet

Yea, old “Landslide” Lyndon. What a piece of excrement.


26 posted on 02/26/2015 10:03:27 AM PST by mc5cents
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To: Kaslin

Whitey’s fault.


27 posted on 02/26/2015 10:15:19 AM PST by Sans-Culotte (Psalm 14:1 ~ The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”)
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To: Gaffer

Not buying it and writer should not be selling it. Author is still caught up in last century.


28 posted on 02/26/2015 10:21:53 AM PST by School of Rational Thought
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To: Kaslin
As usual Chapman is full of fecal matter. Blacks score the lowest in school (by far), have the highest crime rates (by far), and have the most children born out of wedlock.

I'd like to ask Mr. Chapman: at what point do blacks start taking responsibility for their actions? Never? Chapman is just another liberal apologist for black dysfunction who helps make sure blacks remain mired in their current pathologies.

29 posted on 02/26/2015 10:29:45 AM PST by driftless2 (For long term happiness, learn how to play the accordion.)
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To: Kaslin

Another white guilt piece. This country only works when people exercise self-control. When you have a protected class like blacks that are told this crap and that they deserve something just for being black, it gives them a warped sense of justification for taking stuff that isn’t theirs b/c they somehow are entitled to it.

It is insulting and offensive to poor people to imply because they are poor they don’t have any control over themselves and will just naturally adopt a thief mentality.


30 posted on 02/26/2015 10:34:15 AM PST by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Kaslin

Their biggest issue isn’t so much the the lack of jobs as it is the lack of incentive to attain a job. Those who receive handouts will continue to do so for as long as they are able to. Why get up every morning and go to work when I can lay in bed and money just come in automatically. They’re certainly not wealthy, but they are comfortable.

They need to be made uncomfortable. Welfare needs to be lowered, nothing too dramatic, but they should only receive what they need to survive and only have a certain amount of time to receive the benefits.

Drug testing recipients it a MUST. Not only would drug testing lower the amount of people receiving welfare but it might also persuade people to stop taking drugs. If they fail the drug test it would also get child welfare involved and the children could be taken from a dangerous situation. I have always believed that people are a product of their surroundings. If children come from a home of abuse and drug use then they will likely resort to the same when they get older. If they come from a home where they have lived on welfare their whole lives and their parents had no work ethic whatsoever, there is no reason to think they will have any kind of work ethic either.

A child must be molded and shaped into what he/she is to become. Raising a child is hard work and should not be taken lightly.


31 posted on 02/26/2015 10:35:49 AM PST by jasbd1985
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To: Responsibility2nd
Cut welfare bennies by 2/3 or more. Have personal responsibility. Get an education, get a job, get married.

So you support segregation, Jim Crow, and want to bring back slavery!!!

32 posted on 02/26/2015 11:55:49 AM PST by 17th Miss Regt
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To: reg45
If I recall correctly, Daniel Patrick Moynihan was a Democrat.

It's stated in the article.

33 posted on 02/26/2015 12:33:39 PM PST by Graybeard58 ( For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.)
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To: Kaslin

Black problems require black solutions. So far, guilt ridden whites have thrown everything but the kitchen sink at them (for free/with our taxes) and have had no success. Yet, the fall back is always “more”; more money, more welfare, more charity, more affirmation action, more special treatment, even though none of that, clearly, has worked. When blacks step up to address the issues within their culture and community then change may take place.


34 posted on 02/26/2015 1:37:09 PM PST by whatshotandwhatsnot (Islam Wants You Dead!)
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