06-10-2020, 11:56 PM
(06-10-2020, 11:39 PM)jason Wrote: That's all pretty spot on, but couldn't a case be made that absentee fathers, and the high rate of teen pregnancy are a result of the traditional family unit being stripped from black people the moment they set foot in North America? I don't have numbers, and those same issues seem to be prevalent among poor whites too, but it seems like the lack of regard around breaking up families of people who were slaves could have some carryover.
That's a very reasonable assumption. However, the black family unit did not begin disintegrating until the early 70's.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_family_structure
Quote:When Moynihan wrote in 1965 on the coming destruction of the Black family, the out-of-wedlock birth rate was 25% among Blacks.[19] In 1991, 68% of Black children were born outside of marriage.[20] In 2011, 72% of Black babies were born to unmarried mothers.[21][22] In 2015, 77% of Black babies were born to unmarried mothers.
There are several theories for this disintegration. Some blame the war on drugs, which is certainly a possibility. Others blame the welfare state, for which I personally tend to lend more credence. The "war on drugs" certainly contributed, I would not deny this. But I think the degradation of self esteem inherent in being reliant on others to live coupled with the financial incentive to have more children is a more likely culprit. I fully realize that this position puts more "blame" for the problem on the left than the right, as opposed to blaming the war on drugs. It's very likely they both had a negative impact. The problem is both sides refuse to acknowledge the damage their political positions did. Help is not always helpful and punishment is not always character building or otherwise constructive. Acknowledging the damage caused by both positions would go a long way towards fixing the current problem. Of course, neither side would dare to recognize their role in this.
