Who speaks for the black community?

[Robert]

Fatherlessness is not a good thing, but some perspective here might be in order.

You are saying that a 75% fatherless rate is not a problem?

[Neto]

In respect to both poverty and fatherlessness, I am reminded of something my best friend from HS told me once when we were back in the States from the mission field. This has to do with divorce & remarriage, but I am not necessarily suggesting any connection between that issue and the one under discussion here. Just the similarity that after generations of any type of behavior or situation, it becomes "normalized". My friend's mother had been divorced before she met his (my friend) father, and married. My friend later was in a relationship (not an immoral one) with a woman who grew up across the road from us. Her husband had left her after she refused to join the cult he was involved in. (I knew both families pretty well, especially his.) I do not suspect that there was ever any immorality involved at all. My friend decided not to pursue the relationship with her, simply because he said that he did not want to be a part in continuing the divorce and remarriage 'trend' in his family background. In essence, he did not want to "normalize' it.
It has become so 'normal' for a woman in certain sectors of society, both in categories of so-called race and of economic position, to be a single (often never married) mother, that it has become normal, basically expected. As long as it is completely acceptable to those in those categories, it will not stop. Boys grow up without fathers, and it's a big learning curve for them to know how to be an engaged father themselves, and to even think of the importance of it, bot for themselves, and for their children.

[Ken]

Do you have other suggestions for that?

Do what my parents did. I was born in the inner city of Baltimore. We moved out when I was 6 years old.

Read some Ta-Nehisi Coates, who was also born in Baltimore. About what happened to black families who did try to move out of places like Baltimore and Chicago and improve their lives. [there will be a test!]

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/ar ... ns/361631/

[ken_sylvania]

Fatherless homes is the biggest deterrent and fix for this. This is not systematic, but cultural within the inner city culture.

I agree that fatherlessness is a big problem.

Fatherlessness is not a good thing, but some perspective here might be in order. A few years ago the CDC released a study showing that black fathers on average spend more time with their children than white and asian. Somehow that didn't make a lot of headlines, it didn't inform the plot lines of the sitcoms and it hasn't really made much penetration on Mennonet either.

Which study are you referring to? You made this same claim a year ago, but the only CDC study that I found that seemed relevant contradicted that assertion.

[barnhart]

Which study are you referring to? You made this same claim a year ago, but the only CDC study that I found that seemed relevant contradicted that assertion.

Interesting. I remember it affirmed that black fathers spend more time with their children than white or asian fathers. I don't know what assertion you are referencing. There was very little difference as I recall.

[ken_sylvania]

Which study are you referring to? You made this same claim a year ago, but the only CDC study that I found that seemed relevant contradicted that assertion.

Interesting. I remember it affirmed that black fathers spend more time with their children than white or asian fathers. I don't know what assertion you are referencing. There was very little difference as I recall.

I assume you are referring to the 2013 CDC report titled "Fathers’ Involvement With Their Children: United States, 2006–2010."
Yes, the report found that of fathers in the identical living situation (living with vs. living apart from their children), a somewhat higher percentage of black fathers ate with their children every day compared with white fathers. But if one factors in that black fathers are more than twice as likely to have one or more children that they do not live with, the percentage of black fathers who ate with their children every day was significantly lower than white fathers.

[Ken]

It has become so 'normal' for a woman in certain sectors of society, both in categories of so-called race and of economic position, to be a single (often never married) mother, that it has become normal, basically expected. As long as it is completely acceptable to those in those categories, it will not stop. Boys grow up without fathers, and it's a big learning curve for them to know how to be an engaged father themselves, and to even think of the importance of it, bot for themselves, and for their children.

So your solution is...MORE disapproval? Make their lives harder than they already are?

[joshuabgood]

Why are there fatherless homes in black communities do you think? Could it be that centuries of slavery, a century of lynching and apartheid. And 50 years of legal policies that targeted the black man...are a very significant factor in the breakup of the black family?

Well, since this was not the case until the 1960's, I would not tie it to slavery. They actually had higher percentages of intact families until that time.

Busted up families has a generational impact. And imprisoning the black man is what our society has been doing the last 50 years. Check out 13 on Netflix. Or read the book Just Mercy, if you haven't already. There is a lot of work done documenting the incarceration of the black man.

[Ken]

Why are there fatherless homes in black communities do you think? Could it be that centuries of slavery, a century of lynching and apartheid. And 50 years of legal policies that targeted the black man...are a very significant factor in the breakup of the black family?

Well, since this was not the case until the 1960's, I would not tie it to slavery. They actually had higher percentages of intact families until that time.

Busted up families has a generational impact. And imprisoning the black man is what our society has been doing the last 50 years. Check out 13 on Netflix. Or read the book Just Mercy, if you haven't already. There is a lot of work done documenting the incarceration of the black man.

Slavery by Another Name is also an important read:

[video][/video]

[Szdfan]

Why are there fatherless homes in black communities do you think? Could it be that centuries of slavery, a century of lynching and apartheid. And 50 years of legal policies that targeted the black man...are a very significant factor in the breakup of the black family?

Well, since this was not the case until the 1960's, I would not tie it to slavery. They actually had higher percentages of intact families until that time.

Busted up families has a generational impact. And imprisoning the black man is what our society has been doing the last 50 years. Check out 13 on Netflix. Or read the book Just Mercy, if you haven't already. There is a lot of work done documenting the incarceration of the black man.

Just Mercy was also turned into a movie and is currently available for free on Amazon Prime.