THE CONTEMPORARY BLACK FAMILY

A traditional Eurocentric view of the family assumes that parenting takes place in a nuclear family where the mother is responsible for child rearing and the care of the home and the father is responsible for the economic well-being of the family. This is not a representative picture of the African American family, neither historically nor contemporaneously. And it is precisely because it is measured against the normative and idealized white nuclear family that the black family has so often been designated as dysfunctional. However, the structure of the black family not only has different historical roots but also has been persistently impacted by racism, whether overtly in policies against miscegenation or more covertly in color-blind institutional practices. As a result, the notions of motherhood and fatherhood have developed somewhat differently in the African American community than in a Euro-American context.

Motherhood . Mothers have long been praised and respected in the African American community. However, the idea that in order to be classified as “good mothers”women must make child rearing their full-time responsibility is traditionally much less pervasive in African American families. That is, in contrast to white women, black women’s standing as mothers is not threatened by their participation in the labor market. Moreover, strong women-centered networks have fostered an expansion of the notion of motherhood in the black community to include women who help care for the well-being of children outside the nuclear family, and others in the community as well. These networks make women less dependent upon, and concerned with, male participation, and hence strengthen their position within the family and in the community at large. Thus, the historical evolution of the black family, combining internal cultural developments with severe external constraints, has contributed to the much higher proportion of female-headed households among black families and the continued respect that women receive as mothers.

From the perspective of the white majority community, however, the strong woman who is celebrated in the African American community has often been turned into a threat. Historical images of the mammy and the matriarch and, more recently, the welfare mother are designed to oppress and control black women. Negative stereotypes such as the welfare queen are held up as examples of what is wrong with society and hence can be used as political weapons against the movement to achieve equality and eradicate racism. Moreover, because the image of the “welfare queen”designates a single mother without a husband, it can also be used to control men. That is, the continued reliance on explanations for the fractured black family that emphasize female-headed households and the absence of fathers and husbands implicates not only fathers but also black manhood.

Fatherhood . The celebration of motherhood does not necessarily de-emphasize fatherhood in the black community. The consistent absence of black fathers has been a major issue since slavery. More recently, high incarceration rates, the difficulties undereducated black men face in the job market, and various regulations in the welfare system that discourages marriage are among the issues debated both inside and outside the academy. For some observers, this picture constitutes a crisis in the black family, especially since absent or distant fathers are ineffective role models for African American boys and young men. The reintroduction of black fathers into the family, from this perspective, will foster a healthy and stable environment for black children.

Others suggest that although it may be unfortunate that black men play a more marginal role in family life than their white counterparts, the tradition of strong women makes the presence of husbands and fathers less critical for the stability of black families than for white families. The lesser reliance on men for economic support, however, does not necessarily mean an absence of men in the black family. On the contrary, the tradition of extended family networks makes each individual family less isolated than the ideal-typical nuclear family and hence facilitates the development of other male familial roles, such as brother, grandfather, cousin, and uncle.