Title: Why Has Marriage Declined among Black Americans? | Scholars Strategy Network
Headings: Why Has Marriage Declined among Black Americans?
Why Has Marriage Declined among Black Americans?
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Dawne Mouzon

Content: Racial disparities persist even at the highest levels of education. Even after holding education constant, black men are still more likely to be unemployed or economically deprived – causing them to fall short of what black women are looking for in partners. Finally, contrary to patterns found among other race-ethnic groups, black women have higher educational attainment than black men, yet this adds to their struggle to find the kinds of men they hope to marry. Black women’s values, in short, are not the problem. Black marriage rates are likely to rise only after America’s black men receive more economic opportunities. Read more in Dawne M. Mouzon, “‘Blacks Don’t Value Marriage as Much as Other Groups’: Family Patterns and Persisting Inequality,” in What White People Think They Know (and People of Color Aren’t Totally Clear on Either): Questioning Conventional Wisdom about Race, edited by Cherise Harris and Nikki Khanna (Sage Publications, 2013).