Episode 135: State of the Black Family
For today’s episode, Tyrell and Daphne explore the state of the Black family in the United States. After catching up on life (00:30), the hosts interrogate their own subjective understandings about what it means to have a “good” family (3:45) and what they want to carry forward as they build their own families (10:15). Next, they explore the history of the Black family in the United States (15:45) and highlight distinctive features of African American families (20:17). Ty and Daphne then have a conversation about the Moynihan report and the general tendency to pathologize the Black family (28:35), recent trends and statistics related to the Black family (34:32), and the role of economics in the Black family structure (42:05). The hosts close the episode by discussing research related to how individuals from different socioeconomic backgrounds think about marriage and family (46:15), challenging assumptions about what a “healthy” family looks like (50:43), and exploring the role of the criminal justice system on the stability of the Black family (56:09).
Resources
How Slavery influenced black families: http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/freedom/1609-1865/essays/aafamilies.htm
Slave Marriages, Families Were Often Shattered By Auction Block: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123608207
Distinctive Features of the African American Family: https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1132&context=esr
Moynihan Report Summary: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/09/the-moynihan-report-an-annotated-edition/404632/
The Moynihan Report Then and Now: https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/23696/412839-The-Moynihan-Report-Revisited.PDF
Racial Differences in Marriage: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4850739/
The Top 4 Myths About Black Marriage: https://www.thoughtco.com/the-top-myths-about-black-marriage-2834526
The Truly Disadvantaged Review: http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/12/06/specials/wilson-disadvantaged.html
