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Nut job white Lady co-worker:
There's been a lot of talk lately about the topic of involvement of black dads in their kids lives. This is my favorite chart, and here's a link to the Pew Charitable Trust article (research is from the CDC).
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/06/14/the-new-american-father/
Possibly well intentioned white male co-worker:
Sorry for a lengthy response:
I think there is a fathering crisis in our country for far too many children (of all races). Sadly, father-absent-homes usually fall along economic lines, which unfortunately impacts black children proportionately more.
I think what the chart is really showing is that “fathers living with kids” are:
(1) very involved in their kids’ lives no matter the race of the father (and maybe more so with black fathers) and (2) are significantly more involved in their kids’ lives than “fathers not living with kids”.
Unfortunately a majority of black children (and a significant portion of Hispanic and white children) are living in homes without their fathers and are therefore represented in the right column on the chart instead of the left column on the chart:
“Currently, 55.1% of all black children, 31.1% of all Hispanic children, and 20.7% of all white children are living in single-parent homes. Source: U.S. Census Bureau. “Living Arrangements of Children Under 18 Years Old: 1960 to Present”. U.S. Census Bureau July 1, 2012”
“57.6% of black children, 31.2% of Hispanic children, and 20.7% of white children are living absent their biological fathers. Source: Family Structure and Children’s Living Arrangements 2012. Current Population Report. U.S. Census Bureau July 1, 2012.”
With ~50% of black children represented in the right column of the chart, I think there is a fathering crisis for black children. I don't think that means that Hispanics and whites are fathering their children better, I just think that a larger proportion of black children are not receiving the fathering they deserve/need/want.
Ultimately, the economic situations that leads to a lot of this is what motivates me to work at to try to improve communities.
Atillah:
Here are some more numbers to maybe help flesh out the picture.
United States population percentage 2013 estimate
Non white, African descent: 13.2%
Number of citizens classified as Non white, African descent in 2013: approximately 41,777,674 people
U.S. Citizens Non white, African descent living in poverty: 27.2%
approximately 11,363,527 people
47.5% of those living on poverty are single mother households with children aged under 18. Approximately 5,397,675 households.
28% of Non white Americans of African descent are single parents
11,697,748
percentages from 2012-2013
Nut job white Lady co-worker:
Right -- the situation is so much more nuanced than headlines let us get to.
We have economic and judicial forces (among others) creating the fact that a higher percentage of black children are in single-parent households. That leads people to the conclusion that black fathers are absent, but that's true only in numbers, not in percentages. So more black single-parent families, but black fathers not living in the house are *more* likely to be involved in their children's lives than other fathers. We still have the beginning problem of a racial disparity in family make-up. But the policy solutions that focus on structure issues related to families are different than solutions that focus on absent black dads.
Atillah:
That's an interesting perspective seeing as how the total number of single parent families above the poverty line is greater in number than those living below it. It's unfortunate that the infographic does not account for cultural nuances which to me begs the question is regular exposure to positive male role models equal to or at times greater than what has been traditionally defined by the dominant culture as being the ideal family structure?
With more single parent black American families living above poverty combined with the fact that single motherhood was the societal norm for black women since the dawn of American history-- it would therefore seem to suggest that what makes for a successful black American family is not truly comparable to that of other ethnic groups. Much like how the American experience of said group is completely unlike that of other ethnicities within the nation.
As a result it's somewhat confusing as to how one can view the data as representative of a state of crisis or impending disparity when the picture as painted by the numbers and the historic record seems to be one of a community pretty much going from an environment of mandated absentee fatherhood to one of many more active and present fathers. The point being that for this particular group of citizens the racial disparity and fathering crisis originated centuries ago and the numbers that exist today all seem to support that there has been an overall increase in black fathers who live at home as well as those who don't live at home, but are yet actively involved in their children's lives. This is of course assuming we are talking comprehensively about black Americans as Americans and not focusing on the popular, hyperbolic, rhetoric of the day.
Nut job white Lady eventually left
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