There are many problems facing African American families today. Two major proble

Question

There are many problems facing African American families today. Two major problems are the fact that over 50% of African American families are headed by only a mother and the other problem is the high out of wedlock birthrate. Given these two problems, share your thoughts using the course material and other sources as to the root cause of these problems and any possible solutions. Below is "course material"

Family Life The family in its role as a social institution providing for the socialization of children is crucial to its members' life satisfaction. The family also reflects the influence, posi tive or negative, of income, housing, education, and other social factors. For African Americans, the family reflects both amazing stability and the legacy of racism and low income across many generations. Challenges to Family Stability More than one-third of African American children had both a father and a mother pres ent in 2009 (see Figure 8.2). Although single-parent African American families are com mon, they are not universal. In comparison, such single-parent arrangements were also present in about one in five White families. Regardless of race, there has been a remark- able retreat from marriage (Acs 2013) It is just as inaccurate to assume that a single-parent family is necessarily deprived as it is to assume that a two-parent family is always secure and happy. Nevertheless, life in a single-parent family can be extremely stressful for all single parents and their children not just those who are members of subordinate groups. Because the absent parent i more often the father, the lack of a male presence almost always means the lack of a male income. This monetary impact on a single-parent houschold cannot be overstated. For many single African American women living in poverty, having a child is an added burden. However, the tradition of extended family among African Americans eases this burden somewhat. The absence of a husband does not mean that no one shares in child care: out-of-wedlock children born to Black teenage mothers often live with their grand parents and form three-generation households. No single explanation accounts for the rise in single-parent households. Sociologists attribute the rapid expansion in the number of such houscholds primarily to shifts in the economy that have kept Black men, especially in urban areas, out of work. The phenom enon certainly is not limited to African Americans. Increasingly, both White and Black unmarried women bear children. More and more parents, both White and Black, divorce, so even children born into a two-parent family might e White Black 74.7% 36.6% 8.7% 4.3% 50.4% 18.5% 3.1%

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Root causes of these problems:

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