What Does It Mean? A Black Family?

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

Families around the world consist of many variations. The traditional family includes a mother and father of the same racial background and their children. While this is the most acceptable type of family dynamic, today there are families that consist of countless different types of deviations. Many children grow up with one parent, gay parents, or with their grandparents. There are also families that consist of two parents that are of different races. Interracial families consist of relatives who are from diverse origins. Interracial families include families where the parents are of two different races or when the adopted children are of a different race than their parents.

Family dynamics across all races are complex. For the state of the black family is made even more complicated by a history rooted in slavery. Fractured families were born out of a system where husbands were taken away, jailed or killed, leaving the family weakened with a mother and/or grandmother at the helm. While these historical facts may be true; that the black family is weak, can be argued. Yet, the family for many in the black community and other communities of color extend to include a large number of kin. On the other hand, it can also be argued that since families were ripped apart during the slave trade it created an opportunity for setting up networks of support and family units to include members who may not be blood related. You often hear black people refer to an elder as “aunt” or “uncle” these networks were put in place as protective factors in the event that parents were sold there was an assurance that someone would care for the children. To an extent this behavior continues to this day as we see many fathers sentenced to long jail terms for petty crimes or killed. The family structure makeup may be a blood relative and it may also be kin of another kind. LaShawnDa Pittman discusses how these factors shape the African-American family and how slavery impacted the role of the mother and father within the family system. During slavery there wasn’t any possibility of childhood. Children were socialized to begin work at the age of

     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

What is a family? The meaning of family has changed throughout history. It means something different to many people. According to the U.S. Census Bureau: “A family includes a householder and one or more people living in the same household who are related to the householder by birth, marriage, or adoption. All people in a household who are related to the householder are regarded as members of his or her family. A family household may contain people not related to the householder, but those people are not included as part of the householder’s family. Thus, the number of family households is equal to the number of families, but family households may include more members than do families. Not all households

A post from July 4th stated; “Family can be very diverse and there is no general term to describe such. Each person takes their own hold onto this meaning and individually family can mean many different things from one person unto the next”. This notion is one which stems from the belief that families can be of mixed races and religions, be single parent families or foster parents taking in children for periods of time; society may hold notions of what is the typical or nuclear family yet, society does not need to adhere to this ideal and each has the right to form a relationship with any other

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.

Once again, in the 1970s, changes in the structure and dynamics of the American family are present in the popular 1970s TV show “The Brady Bunch”. Perhaps the biggest change that is present is the structure of the family portrayed. The Brady’s, the TV shows main subject, would be considered a blended family. Mike Brady, the father in the show, has three sons from a previous relationship; he marries Carol, who has three daughters from a previous relationship, there marriage brings both families together. I would classify the family as an upper middle class family, based on the appearance of their house and the presence of a full time maid at their house. Similar to TV shows from previous decades the children appear to be submissive to the authority

Being a future educator of our youth, it is important to look into different cultures to understand where people come from and understand their struggles. It is important to look into different cultures to know how to work with these families. One must first understand their values, belief, and their family structure, before they are able to help them. I found a textbook that talked about African American family structure so, as a teacher, I can understand this dynamic and work with the families to help their children get the best education possible. The textbook looked into traditional family structures, racial socialization, and roles of different family members, in African American culture. It is important to understand these aspects in

Everyone has a heritage, where they came from, where they developed into who they are today. Your family stems from your heritage and definitely forms you into the person you become. Barbara Kingsolver goes into depth on the concept of family in her essay, “Stone Soup,”. Throughout this essay, Kingsolver specifies how despite some families have gone through broken places and had to overcomes struggles and had to restructure their life, they are still a family, regardless they are not the common “traditional family” that everyone expects to see. Kingsolver describes how each family is positioned into these “family of dolls” with specific roles for each member and then goes on to explain how the “traditional families” in society put these negative labels and break down “nontraditional families” simply because they are not the same.

Depending on their cultural background, many families will often have different understandings or ideas of what a family is and how it should be structured.

Determining family structure and dynamics as well as defining the family is a complex process. Personally, I come from a very traditional family. Much like the assumptions made by the students in the article Defining Family: Young Adults’ Perceptions of the Parent-Child Bond by Mellisa Holtzman (2008). This is what comes to mind when most people define family; a nuclear family, with married parents, and biological children. However, a family is a complex system and can take on many different forms.

A family can be defined in many different ways and almost every person has their own view and definition of families. Some may define it as simply as the blood relatives they have grown up with, living in the same home for most of their life. Whereas others, including myself, have a much more in depth or personable definition. No matter the culture or living situation, my definition of a family is the people I know will be there for me whenever I need them to be. This includes not only my actual blood related siblings, parents, grandparents and cousins but also my best friends and even some of my parents’ close friends that I have known the majority of my life. Family should not be defined by blood. I have an aunt that was adopted which means she is not blood related, but I still fully consider her family, I believe this has an impact on my own definition of a family. Television today has changed the views and stereotypes on American Families. Stereotypes include the family having a mother and father living in the same home where the mother is a stay at home mom, while the father makes a living for the family. Also the family is usually Caucasian and considered wealthy, living in the suburbs. The shows such as Full House, Good Luck Charlie Keeping Up With The Kardashians have had a major impact on how societies view families in this day and age because of the way they follow these American Stereotypes.

There are many different definitions about what the family is. Different theoretical positions influence these variations. For example, the functionalist sociologist George Peter Murdock defines the family as “a social group characterized by common residence, economic co-operation and reproduction. It includes adults of both sexes, at least two of whom maintain

A family can be defined in many ways, but the common denominator in all is the love and fulfillment one gets by being surrounded by family members. Families can sometimes be at odds with each other, but the strain of this type of relationship usually creates an upsetting feeling to the people involved. People want others to rely on, talk to, do things with, share, love, embrace, and be part of. No matter what the family dynamic is the qualities the word family has will remain the same, as time goes by, and life evolves once again for every person living their