By Kay Hymowitz
In the nearly half-century in which the United States has gone from George Wallace to Barack Obama it has another, less hopeful story to tell about racial progress, one that may be harder to reverse.
In 1965 a young assistant secretary of labour named Daniel Patrick Moynihan stumbled upon data that showed a rise in the number of black single mothers, which coincided with a decline in black male unemployment. Strangely, black men were joining the labor force more, but were marrying - and fathering - less.
There were other puzzling facts. In 1950, at the height of the Jim Crow era and despite the shattering legacy of slavery, the great majority of black children - an estimated 85 per cent - were born to their two married parents. Just 15 years later legal barriers to equality were falling. The black middle class had grown substantially, and the first five years of the 1960s had produced 7 million new jobs. Yet 24 per cent of black mothers were then bypassing marriage. Moynihan wrote later that he, like everyone else in the policy business, had assumed that "economic conditions determine social conditions". Now it seemed "what everyone knew was evidently not so".
President Lyndon Johnson was deeply shaken by Moynihan's findings. Neither man was driven by sentimentality or religious conviction, but both believed that fatherlessness undermined the "basic socialising unit". Johnson declared: "When the family collapses, it is the children that are usually damaged. When it happens on a massive scale, the community itself is crippled."
Unfortunately, those warnings were as prescient as they were reviled. Civil rights leaders, worried about reviving racist myths about black promiscuity, objected to what they viewed as blaming the victim. Feminists were inclined to look on the "strong black women" raising their children without men as a symbol of female autonomy. The Moynihan report and the subject disappeared.
But the silent treatment was the wrong medicine. Since then the black family has unravelled in ways that have little parallel in human cultures. By 1980 black fatherlessness had doubled; 56 per cent of black births were to single mothers. In inner-city neighbourhoods the number was closer to 66 per cent. By the 1990s, even as the overall fertility of US women, including African Americans, was falling, the majority of black women who bore children were unmarried. Today 70 per cent of black children are born to single mothers.
What has this meant for racial progress? Fifty years after Jim Crow, black households have the lowest median income of any racial or ethnic group. Close to a third of black children are poor, and their chances of moving out of poverty are considerably lower than those of their white peers. The fractured black family is not the sole explanation for these gaps, but it is central. While half of all black children born to single mothers are poor, that is the case for only 12 per cent of those born to married parents.
Black married couples make a median household income of $62,000, which is more than 80 per cent of what white households earn and represents a gain of 13 percentage points since the 1960s. Yet overall, black household median income is only 62 per cent that of white households, a mere six-point increase over the same period.
Merely walking down the aisle cannot explain these differences. Rather, the institution of marriage appears to promote ideals of stability, order and fidelity that benefit children and adults alike. Those who pin their hopes for black progress on education tend to forget this. Numerous studies, when controlled for income and race, show that on average children growing up with single mothers are less likely to graduate from high school and go to college.
And Moynihan's discovery of a negligible relationship between "economic conditions and social conditions" suggests that even increases in black male employment are not a certain cure.
Through the power of his own example, Obama presents a chance to revive what Lyndon Johnson called "the next and the more profound stage of the battle for civil rights". Obama's memoir, Dreams From My Father, conveys the economic, emotional and existential toll of growing up fatherless, and he has spoken movingly of his determination to ensure for his own children a different life. Yet tackling this issue will not be easy. When Obama gave a Father's Day speech lamenting "fathers … missing from too many lives and too many homes", Jesse Jackson was so incensed that he said he wanted to castrate Obama. Still, painful as the subject is, the alternative is far worse: racial inequality as far as the eye can see.
Kay Hymowitz is author of Marriage And Caste In America.
The Washington Post
"Kay Hymowitz, mwandishi wa ""The New York Times,"" alisema: ""Katika karibu nusu karne ambayo Marekani imepita kutoka George Wallace hadi Barack Obama, ina hadithi nyingine, isiyo na matumaini ya kuelezea maendeleo ya rangi, moja ambayo inaweza kuwa ngumu zaidi kugeuka." Mwaka 1965 msaidizi wa waziri wa kazi Daniel Patrick Moynihan aliona ongezeko la idadi ya wanawake weusi waliozaliwa wakiwa peke yao. Kwa kushangaza, wanaume weusi walikuwa wakiingia katika kazi kwa wingi zaidi, lakini walikuwa wakiolewa - na kuwa baba - kidogo. Kulikuwa na mambo mengine yenye kutatanisha. Katika mwaka wa 1950, wakati wa kipindi cha Jim Crow, licha ya uharibifu mkubwa uliosababishwa na utumwa, asilimia 85 ya watoto weusi waliozaliwa na wazazi wao waliooana. Miaka 15 tu baadaye, vizuizi vya kisheria vilikuwa vikipungua. Jamii ya watu weusi wa tabaka la kati iliongezeka sana, na katika miaka mitano ya kwanza ya miaka ya 1960, kazi mpya milioni saba zilitengenezwa. Hata hivyo, asilimia 24 ya akina mama weusi walikuwa wakipuuza ndoa. Moynihan aliandika baadaye kwamba yeye, kama kila mtu mwingine katika biashara ya sera, alikuwa amedhani kwamba "hali za kiuchumi huamua hali za kijamii". Sasa ilionekana kwamba "yaonekana mambo ambayo kila mtu alijua hayakuwa hivyo". Rais Lyndon Johnson alishtushwa sana na matokeo ya Moynihan. Hakuna mtu yeyote aliyesukumwa na hisia au imani ya kidini, lakini wote wawili waliamini kwamba kutokuwa na baba kulidhoofisha "kitengo cha msingi cha kijamii". "Johnson alisema hivi: ""Mwanzo, familia inapovunjika, watoto ndio wanaoharibiwa." Inapotokea kwa wingi, jamii yenyewe hupatwa na matatizo". Kwa kusikitisha, maonyo hayo yalikuwa ya kiunabii kama vile yalivyoshutumiwa. Viongozi wa haki za kiraia, waliofadhaika juu ya kuamsha hadithi za ubaguzi wa rangi kuhusu ngono ya watu weusi, walipinga kile walichokiona kuwa ni kumlaumu mhasiriwa. Wanawake walikuwa na mwelekeo wa kutazama "wanawake weusi wenye nguvu" wakilea watoto wao bila wanaume kama ishara ya uhuru wa wanawake. Ripoti ya Moynihan na mada hiyo zilitoweka. Lakini matibabu ya ukimya yalikuwa dawa isiyofaa. Tangu wakati huo familia ya weusi imevunjika kwa njia ambazo hazina ulinganifu mwingi katika tamaduni za kibinadamu. Kufikia mwaka wa 1980, idadi ya watoto weusi wasio na baba ilikuwa imeongezeka maradufu; asilimia 56 ya watoto weusi waliozaliwa walikuwa wa mama wasio na baba. Katika vitongoji vya ndani ya jiji idadi hiyo ilikuwa karibu na asilimia 66. Katika miaka ya 1990, hata wakati uzazi wa jumla wa wanawake wa Marekani, ikiwa ni pamoja na Waafrika wa Amerika, ulikuwa ukipungua, idadi kubwa ya wanawake weusi waliozaa walikuwa hawajaolewa. Asilimia 70 ya watoto weusi wanazaliwa na mama peke yake. Hilo limemaanisha nini kwa maendeleo ya jamii? Miaka 50 baada ya sheria ya Jim Crow, familia za watu weusi zina kipato cha chini zaidi kati ya makundi yote ya rangi na makabila. Karibu theluthi moja ya watoto weusi ni maskini, na nafasi zao za kutoka katika umaskini ni za chini sana kuliko zile za wenzao weupe. Familia nyeusi iliyovunjika si ufafanuzi pekee wa mapungufu haya, lakini ni muhimu. Wakati nusu ya watoto wote weusi waliozaliwa na mama peke yao ni maskini, hiyo ni kesi kwa asilimia 12 tu ya wale waliozaliwa na wazazi waliooa. Kwa mfano, wenzi wa ndoa weusi wana kipato cha wastani cha dola za Marekani milioni 62 na hiyo ni zaidi ya asilimia 80 ya kipato cha familia za wazungu, na ni ongezeko la asilimia 13 tangu miaka ya 1960. Kwa ujumla, kipato cha wastani cha familia nyeusi ni asilimia 62 tu ya kipato cha familia nyeupe, ongezeko la asilimia sita tu katika kipindi hicho. Kutembea tu kwenye ukumbi wa ibada hakunaweza kueleza tofauti hizo. Badala yake, inaonekana kwamba ndoa huendeleza kanuni za uthabiti, utaratibu, na uaminifu-mshikamanifu ambazo zinawanufaisha watoto na watu wazima pia. Wale wanaotumaini maendeleo ya weusi kwa elimu huwa wanasahau jambo hili. Uchunguzi wa utafiti unaonyesha kwamba watoto wanaolelewa na mama mmoja-mmoja wana uwezekano mdogo wa kuhitimu shule ya sekondari na kwenda chuo kikuu. Ugunduzi wa Moynihan wa uhusiano mdogo kati ya "hali za kiuchumi na hali za kijamii" unaonyesha kwamba hata ongezeko la ajira ya wanaume weusi si tiba ya hakika. "Kwa kutumia mfano wake mwenyewe, Obama ana nafasi ya kuamsha kile ambacho Lyndon Johnson alikiita ""hatua inayofuata na ya kina zaidi ya vita kwa ajili ya haki za kiraia.""" "Kumbuka kwa Obama, ""Dreams From My Father"" inaelezea athari za kiuchumi, kihisia na kiakili za kukua bila baba, na amezungumza kwa kuvutia juu ya azimio lake la kuhakikisha watoto wake maisha tofauti." Hata hivyo, kutatua tatizo hilo hakutakuwa rahisi. "Wakati Obama alipotoa hotuba ya Siku ya Baba akilalamika ""Baba... wanakosa kutoka kwa maisha mengi na nyumba nyingi,"" Jesse Jackson alikasirika sana na kusema kwamba alitaka kumkata Obama." Hata hivyo, ingawa jambo hilo linaumiza, mbadala ni mbaya zaidi: ukosefu wa usawa wa rangi kwa kadiri macho yanavyoweza kuona. Kay Hymowitz ni mwandishi wa Kitabu Marriage And Caste In America. Gazeti la Washington Post