Divorce : How It Effects The Black Community

Author Harriette Pipes McDoo addresses how family values are influenced by racism in her book, Black Families. She expounds that the challenges faced by African American families have given them the ability to strengthen their core family values through overcoming racially fueled injustices (McDoo 69-71). Factors like racism, poverty, and the fight for equal rights are all factors which vary across the nation within each household affecting individual family value systems. Along with the challenges of adversity, each passing generation inside of American culture have emphasized less and less on multigenerational relationships with families moving and growing into new families to new locations. This rift in the familial structure stems from the evolution of the traditional family combined with the self-motivated desire to succeed

Therefore, some women might choose a spouse with lower educational levels then themselves. Because of those reasons, it really narrows down the number of men that black women are left to marry, which adds to there already being more black women then black women. This also leads to low marriage rates, and high rates of childbirth outside of marriage. I think that some black women could possible try to date outside our race more, and maybe it would lead to less single black

     The African-American family is defined as networks of households related by blood, marriage, or function that provide basic instrumental and expressive functions of the family to the members of those networks (Hill, 1999). It is one of the strongest institutions throughout history, and still today. Family strengths are considered to be cultural assets that are transmitted through socialization from generation to generation and not merely adaptations or coping responses to contemporary racial or economic oppression (McDaniel 1994; Hill 1999). This definition is contrary to the belief that the Black family is an adaptation to harsh conditions, instead of an ongoing establishment. Hill (1999) discusses

This is an interesting question with very little answers. Divorce is a traumatic life altering event resulting from the legal severing of marital bonds. According to the American Heritage (2001) divorce is any action taken to legally dissolve a marriage. Divorce ends a marriage before the death of either spouse. Franklin and Boddie (2004) reported that within 10 years about 40-50% of American marriages end in divorce. Historically, Blacks were active participants in the American institution of marriage. Gallagher (1988) documents that in 1960; three quarters of African Americans were born into a family of a married couple. Surprisingly, this author reported that during the days of slavery a black child was more likely to grow up living with both parents than he or she is today. In 2011, the rate of divorce in Blacks is at an all-time high and more than two thirds of black marriage ends in divorce.

Throughout time, practices that were once never used, become more common. In the 1600s divorce was a forbidden practice or a last resort. Since then, laws have changed, and so hasn’t the stigma related with divorce. The guilt and fault that divorce once carried has vanished. According to the book Should I Keep Trying to Work it out, “In the United States, researchers estimate that 40%–50% of all first marriages will end in divorce or permanent separation. The risk of divorce is even higher for second marriages, about 60%.” (Hawkins 42). As it became more common for couples in America to separate, divorce gradually became a normal part of so many lives. Why are so many couples separating now? Through research on EBSCO, and other findings, I will attempt to explain this question that so many people ask in today’s world. The divorce rate in America is drastically increasing over time due to new laws, certain generations, and relationship issues.

Slavery had an immense impact on African American families, as the familial dynamic of the African American family was in many ways responsible for the stereotypes surrounding black families in the present moment. Not only were families the sole property of their slave owner, but there were laws restricting their rights and privileges. However, despite the fact that the African American slave family existed in a perpetually tumultuous state, there were cohesive slave families, but they faced many struggles and challenges. In particular, black women were faced with incredible hardships with regard to sustaining the familial structure. This paper explores aspects of the African American family structure during slavery, considering the effect that slavery had on black women. The legacy of slavery in the present moment is also considered, in addition to whether slavery continues to exist.

Take a step back, check the history books about African Americans, and observe the importance of the family. “Historically, strong marriages and commitment to family life have been central features of African-American families (Murphy).” So in reality, marriage has been the groundwork of the home by keeping the home intact; having a foundation is a major key because it creates stability not only for the children but for the adults. “Today the desire to marry seems to be less prevalent in the middle class because women feel they do not need a husband for economic support, and for the low income

The United States rates higher divorce than other countries, moreover there is a growing trend of gray divorce in the United States. Gray divorce is a term used for the divorces of ages fifty years and older. The consequences can be on a different scale than that of being many. years younger. Much of the time, for the women it involves hardships on many fronts. This is especially true for the gray divorced women, who are suffering more economically in our society today (Science Dailey,2015). Most women are ill prepared for this life changing event. Drs. Lin and Brown along with PHD student Anna Hammersmith used information from a 2010 Health and Retirement Study to present their analysis. It turns out that twenty-seven percent of gray divorced women sixty-three years or older fall within the poverty range and only eleven percent of gray men (Science Dailey 2015).

Glenn and Shelton’s Journal offer an insight on how divorces in different regions of the United States are. The journal has statistical data from the United States census bureau along with vital information on the backgrounds of the Southern communities in the South; Glenn and Shelton take a look at the risks of divorce, religious background, and socioeconomic background. The journal helps by providing the patterns of divorce in nine Census regions in the years of 1965, 1970, and 1979. The authors look at religions specifically Catholic and Judaism stating these religions had less divorce rates which helps me dig deeper into what religion has to do with divorce.

In 1908, W.E.B. Dubois explored the weakness among the black family in The Negro American Family (1908) where he claimed that slavery destructed the African American family. Over a century later, former President Barack Obama echoed the thoughts of W.E.B. Dubois stating that “too many fathers [are] missing – missing from too many lives and too many homes... in the African-American community” (Miller, 2010). There are two dominant reasons today for the weakness of the black family – the mass incarceration of the black man and the killing of the black man through police brutality, all which root from institutionalized slavery in white America. The elimination of the black man from African-American families has affected black womanhood greatly. Historians and scholars argue that a “matrifocal (mother-centered) family became typical of African Americans both during slavery and after emancipation and has been

Is because more black women are going to school in their early 20s. About 70.5 percent of black women in the United States had by no means been married — but those were women between the ages of 25 and 29. Black women marry later, but they do marry. By age 55 and above, those numbers showed, only 13 percent of black women had never been married. Fearing for the loss of more marriage. Marriage has been the norm in the United States. But there has been huge decline for decades; married couples now make up less than half of American

According to the data which surprise me, 50 percent of African-American marriages end in divorce, and one in three

White People's Perceptions on Divorce "White people's perceptions on divorce differ from those of Asian origin." From living in a multi- cultural community it has become apparent to me through my experiences that divorce has become more socially acceptable amongst white people then Asian people. I want to test and explore possible reasons behind these evident changes in attitudes. I would also like to investigate the impact factors like secularisation and legislation have had on Asian perceptions of divorce. The stigma that existed with divorce in the past, ceases to exist in today's' society because divorce is an accepted norm.

Our society has become nonchalant about the dynamics of divorce. Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, co-director of the Rutgers University National Marriage Project, “Divorce is now part of everyday American life” (Sheehan-Johnson & Paine, 2013). In Brian Orchard’s 2011 article, A Culture of Divorce first marriages have 45 percent chance of breaking up and second marriages are given 60 percent chance of being unsuccessful (Orchard, 2011). Barbara Dafoe Whitehead and Brian Orchard both agree marriage and divorce have changed due to the relationships within the family structure. Whitehead states, “Americans began to change their ideas about the individual’s obligations to family and society” (Sheehan-Johnson & Paine, 2013). Women became more independent during the

Harvey and Fine say, in their book on the effects of divorce on children, that divorce has increased at a “contagious rate since 1980.” They argue that divorce in America is a “cultural burden of vast proportions,” and insist that the “pain extends beyond the persons who dissolve their relationships to children, parents, and dear friends.” Harvey and Fine