Absent fathers blamed for blacks' problems

Baltimore Sun ^ | 10/11/03 | Gregory Kane

[truthandlife]

JAWANZA KUNJUFU, author, lecturer, educational consultant and inveterate truth-teller, stood at a podium Thursday night and told several truths. "You know," Kunjufu told several hundred people gathered in one of several theaters of the Murphy Fine Arts Building on the campus of Morgan State University, "black folks love blaming the white man for everything. But if racism ended tonight, would [African-American] SAT scores increase? Would the [African-American] dropout rate decrease?"

Seeing that none of the assembled was reaching for either tar or feathers, Kunjufu continued with some more truth.

"I don't believe our major problem is racism," said Kunjufu, as if he were speaking not only to those in the theater, but also to all of the nation's 30 million-plus African-Americans. "The greatest demon in black America is fatherlessness. The common variable for the [African-American] dropout rate, the incarceration rate and drug use is the daddy didn't stay."

Only 32 percent of black families, Kunjufu noted, have a father in the home. That's down from - and these are his figures - 90 percent in 1920 and 80 percent in 1980.

"Slavery did not destroy the black family," Kunjufu concluded.

Kunjufu was in town as the main speaker for a program sponsored by the African American Male Leadership Institute and the Urban Leadership Institute, which organizers called, without any sense of hyperbole, a "state of emergency."

[truthandlife]

Author: Gregory Kane

Great article read the whole thing!

[apackof2]

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[hoosierham]

I'd say gov't destroyed the black family,and is hurting all others, by policies and programs which make it possible for the woman to see the man as un-necessary.

Why worry about the man staying to support you if the gov't guarentees adequate shelter,food, clothing,and medical care. The women can and do live for the moment knowing they and any children will receive entitlements. (Entitlements =stuff robbed from the taxpayers by gov't ,given to the lazy).

[camas]

back in the 40s and 50s black and white bastard rates were about the same, about 5%. then came along the LBJ PROJECTS and other forms of welfare and now its about 70% and 20%. so, as LBJ was white then it really is whitees fault.

[bert]

Fathers have been driven away by the grandmothers

[BIGZ]

Slavery did not destroy the Black family the Democrats did pandering for votes. The largess of the voting booth is going to destroy the US but the democrats who did not pass economics 101 have know clue about what is going on.

The Democratic candidates are proof of this. Watch a debate they are priceless.

Give give, give, vote for me and I will give you more.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

LBJ mismanaged more than the war on poverty...

[Gerish]

Very good article - the man speaks the truth. Also read somewhere that the abortion rate for blacks is higher than whites and hispanics. Guess Margaret Sanger's dream has come true.

[SC Swamp Fox]

ping

[SC Swamp Fox]

It takes a black man with a name like Jawanza Kunjufu to say these things. If a Clarence Thomas or Thomas Sowell or a - well, fill in the name of any black conservative here - said the same things, he'd be called any one of a number of epithets. The fact is, black conservatives have said, practically verbatim, many of the things Kunjufu said and been called all those things.

I guess we are making head-way. It's now common knowledge that black conservatives exist.

It's sad that large segments of America still weigh the truthfulness of a statement by the color of the person speaking it. It doesn’t say much for our critical thinking and analysis skills.

[Tacis]

Oh. no you don't!! It is still whitey's fault. It was whitey who put all those fine young black men in jail in the first place!

[Capt. Tom]

The solution of getting work , suporting your family, staying with one woman, and being there for your children, is so unnatural and boring it is not likely to ever happen in the black community.

Blaming Whitey works. Especially when you get encouragemsnt from white liberals- Tom

[Clara Lou]

Jim Brown (the football legend) was on TV yesterday or the day before talking about this very thing. Black men who sire multiple children with multiple women attach no importance or significance to them. Leaving those children behind is not a matter of conscience to them, in part, because they themselves were treated thus by their own "fathers."

[Darnright]

"I'd say gov't destroyed the black family,and is hurting all others, by policies and programs which make it possible for the woman to see the man as un-necessary. Why worry about the man staying to support you if the gov't guarentees adequate shelter,food, clothing,and medical care. The women can and do live for the moment knowing they and any children will receive entitlements. (Entitlements =stuff robbed from the taxpayers by gov't ,given to the lazy)."

Actually, welfare eligibility is tied to not having a married, 2 parent household. This policy has destroyed more families in our country than has anything else.

[IronJack]

Racism in the legal sense ended half a century ago. All that remains is a cultural residue, propagated as much by the so-called victims as by the offenders. Articles like these point to the true source of black disenfranchisement, and consequently, will never see any play.

[peter the great]

Ultimately I question the statisitics, based in part on the people that I know. Meaning in this situation that I have encountered is Black families without mothers. One of my neighbors and a guy that I work with. Anyway, the question remains, "How do you fix the probelem?"

[Luke Skyfreeper]

"I don't believe our major problem is racism," said Kunjufu, as if he were speaking not only to those in the theater, but also to all of the nation's 30 million-plus African-Americans. "The greatest demon in black America is fatherlessness.

Finally, the truth.

Only 32 percent of black families, Kunjufu noted, have a father in the home. That's down from - and these are his figures - 90 percent in 1920 and 80 percent in 1980.

How did we fall so far so fast?

[LibertyAndJusticeForAll]

Well, as a mere observer (and for the sake of discussion) I'm going to partly disagree.
He does not address the generations of matriarchs that slavery produced. If we learn from example at home, then where are Black families going to learn about a patriarch? By watching T.V.? By listening to Rap?
Tell me if I'm wrong, but aren't there more women at church than men? And, were there ever churches full of men? I mean, where is the example for the young to follow?
In my own genealogy, I see very strong families with wealth until the patriarch is killed in battle (especially the civil war - mostly yankees). Then a generation or two or three of struggling.
Or, in the case of my poverty-stricken trouble-making Scots-Irish branch, only a nephew and his uncle arrived here. But, they knew what family was supposed to be, and they were devoutly religious; so they overcame these obstacles (partly because this country didn't have a problem with red hair and freckles).
Of course, the NOW nags and ANSWER weren't demonstrating and encouraging my family in directions of sure failure.
Flame away ;)

[mhking]

Greg Kane alert!

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