African American Family Values

With the world being populated by so many people and families, there are several types of people with diverse ethnic backgrounds, culture, and manner of living that are the causes of distinct values within a family. Families that are rich and poor have virtuous family values, however what one may consider as a mediocre family value may seem poor to someone else and vice versa. The purpose of this essay is to address the societal issues amongst our family values and the working class.

As the family structure and needs within the family are changing, the grandparent role is becoming more considered as the parent. As societies problems are growing such as substance abuse, violence, incarceration, homicide, mental illness and at the time this article was published the presence of Aids, the children in these families are starting to be cared for by their grandparents due to these issues being present in their parents’ lives. In just the African American culture according to the article “Empowering African American Custodial Grandparents”, “13.5% of African American children are living with their grandparents or other relatives.” This article discusses the imploring of the Family Systems Theory in the area of empowering the grandparents

Many Americans believe that family values are only upheld when individuals belong to a “traditional family”, which consists of a working father, stay-at-home mother and their biological children. Any fluctuation from this ideal family model is considered “non-traditional”. In Barbara Kingsolver’s, “Stone Soup”, she shares her perspective about society’s negative vision of the non-traditional family. As a divorced single mother, Kingsolver suggests, “To judge a family’s value by its tidy symmetry is to purchase a book for its cover.” Similarly, Richard Rodriguez’s, “Family Values” also addresses the subject of family. However, his theme focuses on how immigrants and politicians view the family dynamic. Rodriguez believes that America severely

    Several changes have occurred since the 1920s in traditional family values and the family life. Research revealed several different findings among family values, the way things were done and are now done, and the different kinds of old and new world struggles.

In today’s society, family is often attempted to be organized within a social structure. Within this structure family typically is consisted of mom, dad, daughter, and son. However, many families do not fit into this configuration. These families may include same sex couples, separated or divorced families, extended families, or even blended families. Even though these families may be happy and healthy, to many they are not considered real families. Going along with the topic of imperfect families, both Barbara Kingsolver and Richard Rodriguez try to break down the traditional family structure through their writing. While Kingsolver’s “Stone Soup” and Rodriguez’s “Family Values” explore the ideas of different family structures and traditional American values, “Stone Soup” breaks down what an actual family is like while “Family Values” expresses the value of family in different cultures.

As of 2015 the U.S Census Bureau revealed that approximately 116 million families are living in the United States. These families possess their own unique style, culture and set of beliefs. My family, consisting of my married parents and my older sister, are no different in the aspect that we too hold our own set of beliefs. The socially constructed term ‘family’ traditionally is defined as a unit that is related by marriage or blood, share financial responsibilities and care for any children/dependents (Lofquist et al., 2012). Growing up as a Haitian American, my ideas of what it means to be a family have been greatly influenced by my cultures and my religion. The Haitian culture greatly emphasizes family relationships and familial

The number of two-parent African American households is dissolving. According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the black family has declined from 80% in 1890 to 39% in 1990. The result of conflict, and warring souls in the African American community, this trend can be stopped and reversed. The African American family must first gain an understanding of what is causing this dissolution, then they can be taught about what principals and skills they must adapt in order to reverse it. Once this is accomplished, the black family must be given opportunities to share this information. By taking these steps, two-parent African American families would once again be prevalent in the United States.

Looking at the definition of family you realize there is not set definition in the world today. The definition is one that changes from culture to culture. When looking at the role of family in african american family you must look at the relationship between mother and child slaveholder and slave and simply family in general. This had a cause and effect factor even today. What happened then still affects african american families now and needs to be changed.

Although, Nixon's “War on Drugs” affected Black marriage the rate in which families were staying together was already declining. More families were getting divorced, while some were never marrying. More people were having children out of wedlock which caused stress to the families making them even more divided. Marriage trends for families in general began to decline after the 1960s. The African American family began to spiral in the 1970’s continuing into the 1980’s. What was the reason for this decline? During this time, new jobs were emerging, there were men who were returning home from the war. Families were trying to establish themselves more, however not as a unit any longer, but as their individual selves. In comparison to the 1950s

After obtaining my recent degree in Anthropology from the University of Georgia and securing a job as a campaign assistant for a candidate running for U.S. senate, I have been assigned the task to help my candidate write the best family values policy platform he can. To accomplish this goal, I have interviewed one participant, nineteen-year-old Brandon, about his kinship system. This will help me gather information on the social issues of a family and family values. To give you a quick introduction, Brandon is my boyfriend and someone who I have known for almost a year. I am quite familiar with his family. Brandon grew up in a single-parent home after his parents divorced when he was six. They are not alone here; in 2012, there were 11.2 million single-parent households documented (BOOK pg 366). In this home, he was raised primarily by his mother, and lived there along with his older sister Chrissy Dale. Brandon has a bilateral descent group, meaning the relationships in his family are recognized through both his mother and fathers’ sides of the family (LECTURE). His kinship system is also homogamic, meaning all of the couples in his family married from inside their social group. (LECTURE). Brandon is not my participant’s real name, but will be used for the sake of this project for ethical reasons. In this report, I plan to make known step by step Brandon’s family and who inhabits it, what occupational patterns they have, what residence patterns they follow, and how

The families in America are steadily changing. While they remain our most valued and consistent source of strength and comfort, some families are becoming increasingly unstructured. In the past, the typical family consists of a working father, a stay at home mother and, of course, well-rounded children. Today, less than 20 percent of American families fit nicely into this cookie cutter image. American households have never been more diverse. Natalie Angier takes stock of the changing definition of family in an article for the New York Times.

Times have changed; the nuclear family is no longer the American ideal because family needs have changed since the 1950's. This American convention of a mother and father and their two children, were a template of films and early television as a depiction of the American family life. Now seen as archaic and cliché by today’s standards, but the idea is common throughout many of the first world nations in the world. This ideal was a vast departure from the past agrarian and pre industrial families, and was modeled and structured as the ‘American dream’ father working, mother maintaining the household and children molded to be simulacra of the parents. This portrayal was not the standard; many communities throughout America had a different

African Americans have come a long way in the last few decades. We have more rights, more opportunities to grow and prosper and more independence than ever before. But the same cannot be said for African American families as a whole. The African American family and community is in trouble (Tilove, 2005). These families are facing many issues today that are contributing to their break down. These factors include poverty, diminishing health, welfare, incarceration, the struggle to find housing and the challenges involved with providing children with higher education. The disintegration of families have gone on for too long and it’s time we do something about it (“Current Challenges”, n.d.).

n the upcoming page’s I will answer the following questions. Why is family the most important agent of socialization? What caused the dramatic changes to the American family? What are the changes? I will discuss the differences in marriage and family, I will discuss how they are linked to class, race, gender, and personal choices. The purpose of this study is to explore the many different family functions and the paths that people are now choosing. I will give my opinion on whether these changes have had a positive or negative affect. I will finally discuss the trend of the modern family, back to pre-World War II family structure, how would that effect the strides that have been made in the progression of women rights.

This paper will discuss the differences between families from the 1960’s and the families of today. There are many differences between the different times. I have focused on the parentage portion of the families. I explained what the ideal family is and how it is different today. I’ve also included ways that will help these families of today become stronger as a family.