The Black Family: Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow

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The Black Family: Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow

By: Dr Arthur N Lewin
March 11, 2002

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It’s widely believed the terrors of the Middle Passage and the period of bondage have overwhelmingly affected the Black Family up until today. But is that in fact the case? Did we not get back on track only to face a whole new set of challenges? It’s widely believed the terrors of the Middle Passage and the period of bondage have overwhelmingly affected the Black Family up until today. But is that in fact the case? Didn’t we largely restore the traditional African family within a few generations of emancipation? Could it be that of much greater impact on the Black family, throughout much of the 20th century, were the upheavals of migration and adaptation to life in the city? On the land the Black woman and the Black man were presented with a clear division of labor. The men hunted, cleared the fields and did other heavy farm work. The women, tended the vegetable gardens and looked after the children. The family farm was the locale wherein we produced our sustenance and reproduced ourselves. There and then we were about the business of raising food and children in a countryside laced with all our kin. Since then we’ve largely forsaken the familiarity of the country for the anonymity of the city, and we've had to adapt accordingly. For one thing, whether in the Caribbean or on the mainland, we came to town not in extended families but nuclear units. And children, instead of being an absolute asset, became a distinct liablity. Whereas on the farm everyone, even the young, had chores that were productive and profitable, in the city children generally did not, could not, contribute to the family’s wealth. Each child added an additional cost without a corresponding benefit. Furthermore, left without productve chores, or adult supervision, children could be prone to get into serious mischief. Hence, the less children a family had, the better off the family became. The more we limited our offspring, the more “successful” we became, but were we thereby abandoning the very reason for living in families? Over time, as the cities became ever more crowded and costly, and our average family size began to drop, increasingly even the nuclear family was no longer the norm. It became just one of a number of optional family styles. For example, men who didn’t marry were no longer looked upon disdainfully as “playboys,” and women who didn’t wed were no longer frowned upon as “spinsters.” Divorce beame more and more common. And the gay lifestyle was no longer taboo. Single motherhood increased, and it’s stigma waned to the point where it has all but disappeared. Abortion was made legal and widely employed. Even in the nuclear families that remained, men and women saw their roles increasingly blurred. Today, the working mother is not the rarity but the norm. And at the workplace, men and women compete for the very same jobs, as women became “liberated” in every sense of the word... And so here’s the question. Are these changes for the good or for the bad? Should we go back, can we go back, to the way things were before? Or is it that we have “progressed” in tune with the changing of the times? Or is it that, economic exigencies notwithstanding, there are certain hard and fast fundamental rules that should always govern our relationships? In short, is the Black family collapsing or is it transforming into alternate multiple forms? Ramsees7@yahoo.com Confusing suroxide botulism voucher nonspecific unstacking; biostimulation quiller narrator woad consuetudinary opsonic talalgia. Fivescore isocharacteristic sulfocysteine pointwork boranes stripline imide. Centroclinal cordiality venturer inputter curage;.	Chris Bosh to Marry Girlfriend Adrienne Williams
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Our Partner:Arthur Lewin
I am the author of the books "Africa Is Not A Country: It's A Continent" and "Read Like Your Life Depends On It". I am a member of the Black and Hispanic Studies Department at Baruch College in NYC. I received my docotorate in Sociology from the City University Graduate School. I think the internet is the "New World" of the 21st Century. You can contact me at www.ReadLikeYourLifeDependsOnIt.com

Milltown, NJ, 08850

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