Talking Point: The Black Family Revisited

Finally…at long last the world can observe a black family in its purist environment – home. This true black family can be observed without the stereotypes and assumptions of family violence, drugs and uneducated children. I am delighted that a true picture of what I have known can finally emerge through our observation of our new president and his family.

I grew up during the time of the Moynihan Report, a depreciating report commissioned by the Department of Labor in 1965. The fact that the government would commission a report which demeaned and entire race of people speaks to the overt racism of the time. The report was intended to find reason(s) for ; (1) the disintegration of the black family as the basic social unit of black American family life, as preceived through the lens of white American, and (2) its ability to pass on valued attributes to their children through parenting and role modeling. It reiterated the notion that by and large, adult conduct in society is learned as a child. The fundamental insight of psychoanalytic theory (a European concept), for example, is that in the early stages of child development, a child formulates the way they will look at life as a result of their early experiences. Additionally, theses experiences will shape their adult conduct.

The Moynihan Report was commissioned at the height of the civil rights movement and black protest and seems to signify there was be something wrong in the black family that was creating hostility and anger towards white America. The report suggested, “At the heart of the deterioration of the fabric of Negro society was the deterioration of the Negro family”. It reflected the fundamental assumption of the weakness of the black community even in the present society. The Negro situation was commonly perceived in terms of the visible manifestation of instability while the white family achieved a high degree of stability and is maintaining that stability today. By contract, the family structure of lower class blacks is and was viewed as highly unstable, and in many urban centers was approaching complete breakdown according to the report.

In my community and that of my peers, it is difficult for whites to perceive the effects that three centuries of exploitation had on the fabric of the black family but that being said, my community was stable, insulated community where there were intact families; dad worked, mom stayed home and the children went to school. It was a community where family life was the normal activity of daily life. My parents were married for 48 years when mom passed away. Dad continues to live with us; his children, grand’s and great grand’s are a part of his daily life. He is a joyful, if somewhat cantankerous 87 years old.  My family was the norm so it made it hard for us to relate to the Moynihan Report!