Reflecting on The Moynihan Report

Sometimes the truth ain’t pretty. And we can’t ignore it or dismiss it just because we don’t like the messenger. Such was the case with the infamous Moynihan Report several decades ago. The report detailed what would become of the black community should the traditional black American family life continue to deteriorate. Columnist Clarence Page [...]

Friday Reading: Black Women See Fewer Black Men at the Altar

The New York Times writes on new research indicating that black men are increasingly marrying women of other races.  Based on research from Pew Research Center, 1 out of every 5 black men married outside their race in 2008: It is a familiar lament of single African-American women: where are the “good” black men to [...]

On Marriage, Motherhood and Moynihan

HT to Booker Rising for highlighting the following opinion piece by Clarence Page on marriage: Compared to 20 years ago, today’s mothers of newborns are older, more educated, less often white, more often Hispanic — and less often married. A record 41 percent of American births in 2008 were born to single mothers, according to [...]

Have Feminism and Sexual Freedom Cost Us Our Happiness?

Iranian model Pegah Patra writes in the Huffington Post on the cost of sexual freedom: According to a recent survey, in 1980 6% of men ages 40-44 were never married. Today that number has jumped to 17%. Men are delaying or avoiding marriage like never before and women want to know why. Well, as the [...]

Black Men and Marriage

In case you missed it, Yolanda Young wrote an opinion piece in the USA Today on the much talked about issue of single black women, and asks, “what about the men?” As a single, African-American woman, I shrug each time a new pessimistic report comes out highlighting the dismal state of affairs for black women [...]

The Marriage Index

Who knew?  There is an official U.S. Marriage Index.  And we’re not looking so good.  A project of the Institute for American Values, the Marriage Index is an effort to quantify the health of marriage in the United States in the same way economists use indicators to figure out state of the country’s economy.  The [...]

Professional Black Women: You’ll Never Find a Husband

At least according to some cold hard data.  You’ve probably read recent news articles this past week on the subject. I must admit I have subconsciously avoided reading them.  The current flurry of articles expound on research presented at the 104th annual meeting of the American Sociological Association. Yes, it’s no longer anecdotal as social [...]

Sad State of Marriage

As someone who eventually wants to get married, the constant barrage of infidelity news is depressing. Politicians risk their careers for simple dalliances with their own staffers, random chicks from Argentina, and strange women filming “documentaries.”   They have such disregard for their wives that they have unprotected sex with their mistresses, and in some instances [...]