User:Ddavi140

Black Family Structure

Historical Background:

The institution of chattel slavery was designed to dehumanize and degrade African Americans in an attempt to maximize capital on the backs of human beings. Numerous methods of oppression were used to control those who were enslaved, including disrupting family dynamics by forcing spouses to commit adultery for the sake of breeding and taking children from their families to be sold to other plantations. Practices such as this had an inter-generational effect, that was only further ignited by the socioeconomic and cultural factors to come in later decades.

Current Background:

In 1965, researcher Daniel Patrick Moynihan, published an article titled "The Moynihan Report", the article claimed that the horrors of chattel slavery can be blamed for the present structure of African American families. It also claimed that slavery was not the only factor to blame, the author also mentioned that poverty and violence in the black community played a major role in the structure of black families. The contemporary African American family is the culminating result of all these factors. The stereotype associated with most African American families today, is that the father is absent and the mother is the head of the household, serving as a single mother. Though statistically, this stereotype may be untrue, there are still a disproportionate amount of single black mother in America. This phenomena can be related era's such as the 80's when issues such as police brutality and drug use were at the forefront. Mandatory minimums, put in place by government officials caused mass incarcerations; and thousands of black men were placed in jail.