Much has been written about the state of the American Family in as many decades, and perhaps none gets more attention than the Black American Family. Kay Hymowitz, a Manhattan Institute fellow, wrote first an article, and then a book, called Marriage and Caste in America. Although she doesn`t stray too far off the Conservative reservation in terms of the usual policy wonkspeak surrounding these issues, one paragraph of her article does raise an eyebrow:
(quote)The conventional answer to the puzzle is this: in an economy marked by manufacturing decline, especially in cities, too many of the potential husbands for low-income women are either flipping burgers, unemployed, or in jail—in other words, poor marriage material. But three facts raise doubts about this theory.
One, it’s not just unemployed men or McDonald’s cooks who have become marriage-avoidant; working-class men with decent jobs are also shying from the altar. Two, cohabitation among low-income couples has been increasing; about 40 percent of all out-of-wedlock babies today are born to cohabiting parents. Why would there be a dearth of marriageable men, when there appear to be plenty of cohabitable fathers? And three, marriage improves the economic situation of low-income women, even if their husbands are only deliverymen or janitors. In a large and highly regarded study, the Urban Institute’s Robert Lerman concluded that married, low-income, low-educated women enjoyed significantly higher living standards than comparable single mothers. Joe Sixpack may not be Mr. Darcy, but financially, at any rate, he’s a lot better than no husband at all.
Still, whatever the arguments against it, the no-marriageable-men theory is entrenched in policy circles and in the academy and is unlikely to go anywhere soon…(end of quote)
You can see the full article here: http://www.city-journal.org/html/16_1_marriage_gap.html
Ms. Hymowitz then veers off onto some other ish, but she raises a very, very powerful question: why don`t all these eggheads ever ask about the Men and Daddies in these situations – afterall, they do matter.
Why is so much of these kind of conversations so lopsided, tiltled toward Women, Mothers, Children, but never any attention is paid to the Men and Fathers here. Why are these Men avoiding Marriage.
I`ve found that a big problem people encounter in Life is they allow their assumptions to make ASSES out of them. All through these `family values` articles and books seem to make the same tired assumptions, starting and ending the conversation with the Women and Moms. And it stops there.
I say there`s another side of the story. And I also say that one reason why it ain`t getting major airtime is because it isn`t what the Chattering Classes wants to hear.
But, what do you say.
Comment and reply, invited.
The Obsidian
