Did the black power movement help or hinder the civil rights movement?

Today's nuclear family with mom, dad, 2.3 kids, and dog only came into being just after the Industrial Revolution (Swerdolow 15). This leads to the idea that perhaps the desengration of the nuclear family isn't necessarily a negative things, but more of a retirement of a one way of life in favor of a new one. Even if this is true, the current period of decline still spurns numerous problems and attempted solutions.

The concept of family has changed in many perspectives throughout the years. Nuclear families started back in the 1950s also known as ‘ideal families’. Today family comes in many varieties whether it 's nuclear, accordion, or extended families and even same sex marriage. One thing that is undoubtedly true is that family will always be the one that you have an unbreakable bond with. American families have evolved in many ways leading us away from what was known as nuclear families.

The new labour has introduced laws which benefit the family, one of the laws being allowing adoption amongst cohabiting couples and gay couples. In effect this will mean other family types will be able to have children this will lead to a decline in nuclear families because couples will not have to marry to have to adopt children. For example a cohabiting couple are unable to pay the expenses of a wedding and they cannot have babies due to fertility issues therefore the new law will help them adopt a child without marriage. In addition to laws introduced by the new labour, they have also increased welfare by re-distributing income to increase welfare to help lower income families afford food and clothing. For example a mother with three children cannot finically support herself with one job and benefits, but due to the increase in welfare benefits, she is now able to support herself. Although other sociologist would disagree with these introductions of social policies,

African Americans were always thought to be inferior to the white supremacy in the United States. Although the Civil War had abolished slavery, blacks were still very ill-treated. Blacks were to not associate with the white society. They were banned from restaurants, bathrooms, parks, schools, hospitals, and much more. Whites constantly abused the blacks to the point that African American life expectancy was 7 years less compared to the whites (http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/). Society believed that a black could cause something to lose value for example “property values would drop a great deal if an African American family moved into a neighborhood that was not considered a ghetto”. African Americans began to stand up against the racial

The Civil Rights Movement grew momentum during the 1960s. As America became an “Affluent Society”, the nation became more responsible for projecting a positive image of “freedom”- an abstract idea that failed to be a reality to all. WWII disrupted the social construct and implications that come with race because blacks felt that they were entitled to the same rights as their fellow whites. Nonetheless, people of color, particularly African Americans, continued to face the injustices and inequalities they’ve been burdened with since the beginning of time. Segregation was not only enforced by laws in the South, but also by custom in the North and West (1019).

In today's society, there are various alternatives from the typical family type. The top examples of these are lone-parent, cohabitation and reconstituted. But there are also some others such as same sex couples, single parent and multi-cultural families. There has been a decrease in the number of nuclear families in the UK and an increase in various other families such as single parent families. But the raise in single parent households has to do with the increase in divorce across the UK which means that more people are left having to support their children on their own unless they become a reconstituted family.

Constance Ahrons, a doctor who coined the term “binuclear family” once said, “Pessimists say that the family is eroding. Optimists say the family is diversifying. Both points of view are right. Families are more diverse and they are more in trouble-but not because of their diversity. The families of today-whatever their size or shape-are in crisis because our economy is failing, our national resources are shrinking, and our governmental policies to support them are inadequate.” This quote gives a perspective of several reasons for the decline of the nuclear family. A nuclear family is a type of traditional family, consisting of a mother, a father, and their children. It involves time spent with the children, emotional support, low stress, and a stable economic environment. This type of family became most popular during the 1950’s, and was regarded more as a universal form of a social organization, and not just a simple family. Both parents worked secure jobs, and would come home to their children, and would enjoy this happy-go-lucky lifestyle. However, this fantasy of a family evolved over time, and the idea of a nuclear family curtailed. New generations were created that opposed the idea of a nuclear family, and began to reject society’s values: Generation X and Generation Z. In addition to the new generations, there was a development to the word “family”, as many families differed from the traditional template of a mother, a father, and children; changing the idea of a

If I said the phrase “I have a dream”, there’d be lots of you who’d know what I’m talking about.

Stern (2011) addressed “There were more people who never married, more families that had no children, and more families that had just one child” (p.269). It is amazing to think that “In 1990, half of all American families had no current child rearing responsibilities” (Stern & Axinn, 2011, p. 269).

I have no objection to the different forms of families; as long as it is a healthy environment. I believe that family is what you make of it and you do not need to be married or even have kids to have a family. In The Color of Family Ties, the authors Naomi Gerstel and Natalia Sarkisian discuss the myth of the nuclear family. They inform the reader on why Americans have a misunderstanding of how American families live.

A brief view of the 4 decades within the periods of 1950 to 1990 would show us a significant shift from the conventional nuclear family to the non-conventional modern family. Starting from the 1950s, the families were nuclear, where members worked together, understood their roles, and did what was expected of them; by the 1960s, there were a few sitcoms that began to undermine the television parent’s authority by privileging the independence of nearly adult or adult children; by the 1970s, the authoritative father began to disappear as they were no longer

Since the beginning of the 1960’s, marriage rates have decreased by over 30%, while divorce rates have doubled. This has led to triple the number of children that live with single parents.

Talcott Parsons’ (1956, pg. 309) believed that “the nuclear family is a social system” which consists of a straight married couple and around two to five children, “can be distinguished, and does function as a significant group” (1956, pg.308). Parsons believed that the family benefitted society in ways such as the teachings of gender roles and the overall structure of society: the male going to work and being the breadwinner, while the wife stays at home and cooks and nurtures the children. After the Second World War, the nuclear family was the most common type of family making the structure easily “distinguishable”. However, when we look at the postmodern society, we can see that there are many different types of families nowadays such

In the past 40 years the family structure within the UK has changed quite dramatically for example the number of traditional nuclear families has been steadily declining and in their place the single parent and reconstituted family type have increased in number, also people are living much longer lives so people are able to

In this paper, I will use the sociological imagination to connect my personal experiences of growing up in a nuclear family to comparison of growing up in a divorced family. I’m from a nuclear family and my best friend is from a divorced family. “Some people still think the average American family consists of a husband who works in paid employment and a wife who looks after the home, living together with their children” according to Giddens, Anthony pg. 447. That’s not the case in many households. There are many differences, from values, financial issues, and how having one parent opposed to, two parents growing up. Growing up in a nuclear family household has given me the opportunity to have both parents supporting me and always being there, having both parents at special events, giving me the guidance from both perspectives man, and women, love, and financial aid. My best friends parents have been divorced for over 19 years, her living style is much different. She has to make certain days available to visit her father, and her mother has financial difficulties.