Two Family Nation

If you missed hour two of Sunday's radio edition of the National Conversation, you need to podcast it. We talked about a conversation that I had with "at risk" inner city youth and what they see as the biggest problem in the black community.

They agree with me and other right thinking Americans. The absent father is the heart of the problem. Voices from the mainstream media are also starting to be heard. Here are two from last week.

Where does low achievement come from? High school teacher Patrick Welsh writes in The Washington Post: "Why don't you guys study like the kids from Africa?"

In a moment of exasperation last spring, I asked that question to a virtually all-black class of 12th-graders who had done horribly on a test I had just given. A kid who seldom came to class -- and was constantly distracting other students when he did -- shot back: "It's because they have fathers who kick their butts and make them study."

Another student angrily challenged me: "You ask the class, just ask how many of us have our fathers living with us." When I did, not one hand went up.

I was stunned. These were good kids; I had grown attached to them over the school year. It hit me that these students, at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, understood what I knew too well: The lack of a father in their lives had undermined their education. The young man who spoke up knew that with a father in his house he probably wouldn't be ending 12 years of school in the bottom 10 percent of his class with a D average. His classmate, normally a sweet young woman with a great sense of humor, must have long harbored resentment at her father's absence to speak out as she did. Both had hit upon an essential difference between the kids who make it in school and those who don't: parents.

My students knew intuitively that the reason they were lagging academically had nothing to do with race, which is the too-handy explanation for the achievement gap in Alexandria. And it wasn't because the school system had failed them. They knew that excuses about a lack of resources and access just didn't wash at the new, state-of-the-art, $100 million T.C. Williams, where every student is given a laptop and where there is open enrollment in Advanced Placement and honors courses. Rather, it was because their parents just weren't there for them -- at least not in the same way that parents of kids who were doing well tended to be.

Along the same lines, Yahoo News ran an article with this extraordinary headline: Stop blaming racism for the failure of black parents. The article references the famous Moynihan Report which foretold the future of the Black family way back in 1965. Today deviancy is entrenched, multigenerational poverty is largely black; and it is intricately intertwined with the collapse of the nuclear family in the inner city.

By now, these facts shouldn't be hard to grasp. Almost 70 percent of black children are born to single mothers. Those mothers are far more likely than married mothers to be poor, even after a post-welfare-reform decline in child poverty. They are also more likely to pass that poverty on to their children.

This is not a new problem, quoting from the same article:

Consider a memo written in 1965 to President Lyndon Johnson from Moynihan in which the Assistant Labor Secretary expressed his great concern over the high rate of out-of-wedlock births among blacks (25 percent at that time). Unaddressed, Mr. Moynihan predicted, this large number of fatherless children would result in increasing school failure, criminal delinquency, and joblessness. Sadly, because liberals across the board condemned this call for action as racist propaganda, President Johnson didn't want to risk heated public debate and so did nothing.

The recent Chicago incident, and countless others that occur daily, are the result of not heeding Moynihan's warning 44 years ago. The previous out-of-wedlock birthrate has almost tripled, and 7 out of 10 black children now grow up not only without a father, but also in disproportionate poverty. That means millions of young kids lack adequate parental guidance to make the transition to become successful adults.secretary expressed his great concern over the high rate of out-of-wedlock births among blacks (25 percent at that time). Unaddressed, Mr. Moynihan predicted, this large number of fatherless children would result in increasing school failure, criminal delinquency, and joblessness. Sadly, because liberals across the board condemned this call for action as racist propaganda, President Johnson didn't want to risk heated public debate and so did nothing.
The recent Chicago incident, and countless others that occur daily, are the result of not heeding Moynihan's warning 44 years ago. The previous out-of-wedlock birthrate has almost tripled, and 7 out of 10 black children now grow up not only without a father, but also in disproportionate poverty. That means millions of young kids lack adequate parental guidance to make the transition to become successful adults.

Liberals often try to dodge the implications of this bleak reality but this is largely a low-income--and disproportionately black--phenomenon. Unfortunately, John Edwards was right, well sort of... America is now a two-family nation, separate and unequal--one intact and thriving, and the other struggling, fragmented, and far too often, Black.

The likes Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton need to take a time off from bashing the NFL over Rush Limbaugh's desire to buy the St. Louis Rams (with HIS own money mind you...) and start speaking truth to deviancy in the black community.

On second thought, Al and Jesse need to sit down and shut the hell up. The rising tide of black conservatism is on the job.

Comments

[LegioNofZioN]

Amen James, we all with you 100%

[Dan (BipolarNation.com)]

THIS is the kind of thing we need to be talking about. Getting to the root of our social problems, like the breakdown of the family.

I'm going to be writing a series soon on what I think would be the ideal country to live in, and I'll be using some parts of this post to talk about how that country's culture would look.

[maddypie]

James, I just want to say the story about those at risk children was an eye opener for me.

By the time you finished I was almost in tears.
A true family unit is what these children need.
Parents of all races need to make their own lives valuable and respectable. This is what they will pass on to their children and than their children will pass it on to their own.

That is how it works. I can trace this back in my own family ancestry and see that hard work, love, discipline, love of God, morals and common decency can guarantee that future generations will continue to carry on these standards.

I know if you continue to go back and talk to these kids you will bring them a positive outlook and show them they do have other choices.

[Natisha]

James, I did hear most of the program on sunday and I must agree that is really the problem. My father was not around but my granddad kicked my butt into shape before he died. What bothers me is that it wasn't his job but he did it and man did he!

Dan, we can't talk about it because that would mean someone was "wrong"! Today telling people that they are wrong will brand you a racist of the worst sort!

[Lone Wolf]

J.T.:

People like you who take the time to engage and enlighten our troubled youth is what this country needs more of.

I couldn't agree with you more that Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton should just sit down and shut the hell up. Better yet, they should crawl back under the rocks they came out from and never be heard from again.

[Jaye]

This is so true. My nephew grew up without a father, and a mother who was mentally ill. My whole family pitched in to raise Joshua, we did the best we could, but we know how badly he needed a father and a mother. Today Joshua is married with two beautiful children, and he is a wonderful father. It is so important to him to be a part of his childrens life, to give them love and support to help them succeed.

[Diana]

James, I want to tell you that yesterday's show especially about this topic was (in my opinion) your best yet. I know that these children have benefited from your wisdom.

[Maddie - Saukville]

I did think you were going to answer the question, What does the American of African Descent community have to do to turn things around?, with, listen to the wisdom of these so called at risk youths. And essentially, you did. It was touching. They've got it figured out, why are the "grown ups" clueless?

Too busy drinking from their cups of sorrow, like the culture demands of them stupid.

[Joyce]

I listened to the broadcast yesterday too. We have much to learn from the kids themselves, and through their answers you've identified the crux of the issue.

That said, the young men of African descent did not just wake up one day and decide they did not want to be responsible fathers or husbands. So why the change? I'm guessin' it was the liberal social programs put in place more than 40 years ago that made their role in the family obsolete. Free as a bird to come and go as they pleased with little if any responsibilities. How sad, Never to be needed... every person I know needs to feel needed.

[Soapbox Jill]

James, Would you say that the early welfare state was a big factor, if not the factor, in breaking up the black family? When government started paying women to have the babies, the dads became less necessary. You agree? THANK YOU for undertaking this issue. Shining light on the truth is the only way things can get better.

[Maddie - Saukville]

Amen Joyce, very nice.

I don't know how it can't at least in part be responsible Jill.

[Sarah L.]

my husband grew up with out his father, in the inner city of Minneapolis and his older half brother was divorced, he was able to see his child once a year (she was in California, alcholic & he was too afraid to go to jail for his 3rd DUI.
So at age 40 he killed himself (his daughter was 19). His younger brother is an alcoholic, has lost his teaching license, been to jail several times, has 2 daughters and one he will never see again because the mom divorced & ran away, and is not seeking child support so he won't be able to see his 3 year old again ... I saw this niece once & have not even seen a pic of her in the last 2 years ...
these poor kids are in the middle of the DUMB things both parents do, but they do not have the choice and they need BOTH parents!
Wake up & step up Dads and moms!