Essay about Is Marriage a Pricey Affair in Africa?

The target population is African American adolescent fathers. Young African American fathers are face with many adversities. Culturally biased stereotypes, violence within the home and community, scarce economic resources and support, perceived biased by social workers, along with joblessness are some of the adversities experienced by this population (Hall, 2015, Icard, 2014,). One concern of African American adolescent fathers who are low income is the level of their involvement with their children. In addition to poverty, many of these fathers are challenge developmentally and socially. Developmentally, adolescence is a stage that is typically emotionally, social and physically challenging (Erikson ?). Socially the effects of racism disadvantage

In the Maasai community and as in mine, marriage is considered very important. However, when two people are brought together to become a husband and wife in the Maasai community, the newlyweds are expected to live with each other forever; divorce is not an option.Once the Maasai man has chosen and paid for his wife he is then allowed to bring gifts to the woman's family. By first giving the presents as he sees fit, to a final point where it will become clear to those in the community that he has taken an interest in the well-being of the girl's family and that she is not to be readily available. These gifts the Maasai man has given to the girl will create the bride-to-be’s dowry, the purpose of which is not to create wealth for the bride's family, but rather to legalize the marriage. By the man putting his mark on that family, he is making itso that if anyone else tries to approach the family and offer a bride price, it will have been made clear that the girl has already been given away to another family and is spoken for. Like that of an engagement ring or wedding band worn by both the men and women in my community, as it is displaying to everyone that they are spoken for and are not available to others in the community.

The successful education process starts with the family in the home and community, and continues in school and throughout life. The extent to which Black parents become actively involved in the education of Black male children is the extent to which the destruction of potentially millions of young Black men will stop. When young Black men realize they have become expendable, are we ready for their reaction? The United States does not tolerate young Black men being unproductive or counter-productive to the goals of mainstream society. Black males are suspended, expelled and failed in schools at rates that are two to five times higher than students of other races and go to jail at rates five to ten times higher than people of other races ().Jackson, Phillip. “The Massive Failure of

Gift giving is essential to the studies of many anthropological debates such as sociability, alienation, sacrifice, religion and kinship.

The world as a whole should be mortified by what is happening in Sub-Saharan Africa. In places like Swaziland, Botswana, Lesotho poverty, crime and systematic corruption are the tinder for the fire that is the HIV epidemic in Africa.

I know growing up I’ve heard my peers make jokes on either not knowing their fathers or he is in & out of their lives. Sad to say but according to Newsone for Black America 72% of black kids are raised by a single- parent, majority of that 72% of “nonmarital births” the father is absent. I see why it would be hard to believe that some black kids actually know and have both parents in their lives.

Black fathers in the United States are more prone to becoming more absent from their children's lives. A key factor to the absence of these fathers is because of mass incarceration due to police brutality, drugs, felonies, and murders. Many of these black men commit the crimes knowingly, therefore knowing that it could lead them to jail or prison. These men are deliberately committing the crimes that have become part of their lifestyle because they are determined to live a life of wealth and luxury. Even though there are opportunities for these men to work legally to earn their money they still chose to do it the illegal way. Guns and drug charges are the two main factors in causing these men to be absent from their children's lives. The lives

Popular culture has dictated and reinforced upon society the stereotype that African American men lack any type of higher level education, and are in their majority incarcerated. Among these stereotypes, is the one that says that African American men are not apt father figures, and that they display a tendency to be more-than-likely to walk out on their families. In fact, it is quite the opposite: while 1.7 million African American fathers are not present in their child’s lives, 2.5 million are; out of those 2.5 million, 70.4% bathed, diapered or dressed their children daily, compared to 60% percent of white fathers, and 78.2% fed and ate with their children daily, compared to 73.9% of white fathers (National Health Statistics Reports, pg.12-14).

In the article on (www.theroot.com) says, “ In the United States, 31 percent of black children have both mother and father in home. 53 percent have only a mother present with 7 percent having a father present and 9 percent having neither parent present.”. Household composition pulls little weight and appears to come as a disadvantage for some service issues, such as a teenage program and incorporated

Black males is a major reason why 70% of black children are born to single mothers compared to the national average of 40%. Studies show that the main reason why black fathers fail their kids is because they don’t get married, or don’t stay married with their original spouse. The black community are the least likely to marry any other race in the United States. Another reason why black father fail their kids is because a lot of the time their relationship with the child well depend on the relationship they have with their mother, if that relationship fails than more likely than not the relationship with the child will fail as well. From personal experience and in the community I live in. In Prince Georges County Maryland, the majority race

(Smith, 1988, p. 270). High homicide rates, high suicide rates, few job options, high percentage of drop outs, and limited life plan continue to become more common within the adolescent male the belief that he must survive. In today’s generation, adolescent fathers may feel like if he plays an active role in the child’s life, then he will be an adult, but may also feel like he does not need to provide financial support to the mother. Because of an adolescent father’s fixated view of self, influenced by society, would only make sure he is in a “good” position. Social workers often put an emphasis on how the father grew up in a damaged household with little to no motivation to be an active father in the child’s life, whereas they should provide more assistance into helping him be a better person and the best father. With all of these challenges that adolescent fathers face, I begin to question, how much hope does society have for the African-American male and his

In the Moynihan Report, Moynihan talks about racism and discrimination and how that comes into play with African American youth. He identified that there are five factors in a home environment that made a difference in whether boys would become delinquents: discipline of boy by father, supervision of boy by mother, affection of father for boy, affection of mother for boy, and cohesiveness of family (U.S. Department of Labor, 1965). Nowadays, more African Americans men have been leaving their homes or have been incarcerated leaving the women alone with the child(ren) and with a lesser chance of getting married. Incarcerated men are away from their home for years at a time and this disturbs the family’s routine that have been set in place. As Moynihan mentions in his report, the youth, especially males, could be affected by this sudden change (U.S. Department of Labor, 1965). The child no longer has those five factors in a home environment to make a difference in his live. In the United States, 5 percent of all African American men are incarcerated, compared to less than 1 percent (0.5 percent) of their white counterparts. African American men are ten times more likely to be incarcerated than white men (Hattery and Smith, 2012: 120). With incarceration increasing within the black community, leaving the family with one or no income, this is a factor as to the incline of single mothers and could also be another factor as to the increase in poverty among the black

With slavery, African Americans were conditioned to accept their status as "other”. Whites made no effort to hide their disdain for black people. In this new system however, African Americans were given the illusion that they were free, so they resisted speaking out on such inequality due to the fact that they were told that they should be grateful for their freedom. The current system works so that since birth, African Americans, males in particular, are pushed towards aggression and dysfunction. The family life of the disadvantage and poor which primarily feature African Americans has become dramatically more complex and unstable over the last few decades. In 2010, 72% of black children were born to single unwed mother and many of these fathers are incarcerated (Newsone, 2010). Minorities are also given harsher time for petty crimes than their Caucasian counterparts, which also increases the time away from their children. There are more black men that are in prison or jail, on probation or on parole than were enslaved in 1850 (Alexander, 2010). And black men suffer a disproportional rate drug arrests that often do not reflect higher rates of black drug offenses. In fact, whites and blacks engage in drug offenses, including possession and sales at roughly comparable

The overall out-of-wedlock birth rate, which was approximately 8% in the mid 1960s, increased to more than 40% by 2015. Among the black population, the out-of-wedlock birth rate rapidly increased from 25% to approximately 74%. Although these numbers don’t necessarily reflect the absence of a fatherly family influence, it probably does reflect an effort to work the entitlement

“Educational expectations are lower for black children, according to Child Trends, a non-profit and nonpartisan research center that tracks data about children. Black parents, most of whom are less educated than their white counterparts, don’t expect their children to attain as much education as white parents expect”