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The Future of Black Families
| Article
# : |
10386 |
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Section : |
Modern Thought
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| Issue
Date : |
12 / 1986 |
5,249 Words |
| Author
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Robert B. Hill
Robert B. Hill is adjunct fellow at the National Center for
Neighborhood Enterprises and author of the Strengths of Black
Families. |
Black families have experienced a crisis of devastating dimensions over the past decade and a half. The number of unemployed black husbands almost tripled (from 84,000 to 220,000) between 1969 and 1984, while their jobless rate soared from 3 percent to 8 percent. This economic instability in two-parent black families led to record-level rates of divorce and separation. Over half of all black births today are out of wedlock, compared with about one out of five in 1969. Thus, the proportion of black families headed by women spiraled from 28 percent to 44 percent. At the same time, the black community reflected unprecedented increases in poverty, welfare recipiency, substance abuse, homicides, suicides, child neglect, and family violence.
This marked erosion in family stability has prompted many observers to forecast the demise of black families as a viable unit in the twenty-first century. What is the outlook for black families? With half of all black children living with only one parent, are most black families in danger of becoming a "permanent underclass"? Or will the historical resilience of the black family reassert its vitality for coming generations? What factors will determine the future of black families?
Unfortunately, a major defect in conventional treatment of black families has impeded an adequate understanding of their circumstances, that is, the widespread practice of either "blaming the system" or "blaming the victim." The latter stance is reflected by analyses that attribute the ills of black families solely to internal factors (such as deviant attitudes or family structures), while the former is preoccupied with external "causes" (such as racism or insensitive government policies). However, a thorough assessment of the prospects for black families must gauge the role of both external and internal forces. The key forces have been manifested in the following patterns: societal trends, social policies, community support systems, and family coping strategies. Let us now examine how each of these four factors, separately and combined, may shape the outlook for black families in the twenty-first century.
Societal Trends
Society wide trends that will have major effects on the future of black families are fertility rates, economic cycles, technological changes, and immigration. With the end of the postwar baby boom in the mid-1960s, overall birth rates in the United States resumed their pre-war decline to such an extent that the Census Bureau forecasts zero population growth by the middle of the next century. But
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