Why read the blog? The tweets are what's relevant. But I can always count on you to point out the irrelevant when you don't like something...

tom

Breakdown of the family unit in inner cities especially

Since the topic introduced by Fate was "black families" lets ignore inner city....
Why are black families breaking down.
I've said the fact that young black men are in prison is a major reason.
And a major reason that they are in prison are drug laws, and the unequal application of these laws in the justice system.
As I already quoted:

First, estimates show that
incarcerated men are only about half as likely to be married as non-instituional
men of the same age, however they are just as likely to have children. By
2000, more than 2 million children had incarcerated fathers; 1 in 10 black
children under age 10 had a father in prison or jail by 2000.

You want to point to "culture".

Since In 1965, 76.4 percent of black children were born to married women. By 2011 it was only 28%.

So what changed between 1965 and 2011. The culture of Black America? If so, how so? And what changed it?

http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/03/ ... z4ZReccnG5

I've pointed to incarceration rates for blacks as a major influence.
You've pointed to "tolerance of teen pregnancy". This is largely BS.

Since 1991, the overall teen birth rate has declined by 57 percent. The most dramatic decreases were among teens of color. Since 1991, teen birth rates among African-American girls declined 67 percent; among Latinas, it declined 60 percent, while among American Indian/Native Alaskans and Asian/Pacific Islanders, it declined 63 percent and 68 percent, respectively. Birth rates among white teens declined 57 percent during that time.
A variety of factors contributed to the decline.
Since the 1990s, there has been an increased use of highly effective, low maintenance birth control methods like the IUD and contraceptive implants, according to Albert.

In fact, the greatest indicator of a higher teen pregnancy rate is being in a religious household. I'm guessing that teen pregnanacy would be frowned upon in a religious household?

With data aggregated at the state level, conservative religious beliefs strongly predict U.S. teen birth rates, in a relationship that does not appear to be the result of confounding by income or abortion rates. One possible explanation for this relationship is that teens in more religious communities may be less likely to use contraception.

https://reproductive-health-journal.bio ... -4755-6-14

You say that the "black culture is tolerant of "sleeping around".
'd suggest you try and provide evidence of this. Generally attitudes to sexual activity have become more permissive in the last fifty years. To suggest that black teenagers are significantly different in their behaviors from other races when 50% of US teenagers have had sex before graduating high school is just wrong. With the increase in sexual activity generally there should be an increase in teen pregnancy generally . Except that teen pregnancies are going down. I'll attribute that to access to and use of birth control.
More black women are in poor families and can't afford birth control. So there's another concrete answer to why single black women are raising families on their own.... Poverty. Not culture.

Tom

of drug use

,
Drug use? Its drug use putting the young me in prison, at a far higher rate than whites - although drug use rate is similar for whites. In otehr words, the "tolerance for drug use" appears to be the same between white and blacks. Its just blacks who get caught by the Police end up paying in prison time more often.
So, okay, drug use is a contributer But not "tolerance of drug use.."
And if you got rid of the drug laws, there would be fewer black men in prison ..... And less crime committed to fuel drug addiction if Switzerlands example were followed.
This would make a solid contribution to lower out of wedlock births..

Tom

Instead of correcting these things we blame it on a "culture" and lefties have sympathy for this culture they do not understand.

And how would you "correct these things"? Other than magical thinking ?

I only saw one typo--besieged is spelled wrong, btw.

freeman3 wrote:Why read the blog? The tweets are what's relevant. But I can always count on you to point out the irrelevant when you don't like something...

I don't care who goes to the White House. Really.

If Long doesn't want to go, that's his business.

freeman3 wrote:I only saw one typo--besieged is spelled wrong, btw.

No. Really?

I'm sure there were more when I read it before, but I didn't write them down. So, maybe it's been re-edited. One mistake would not have brought about my comment.

rickyp wrote:tom

Breakdown of the family unit in inner cities especially

Since the topic introduced by Fate was "black families" lets ignore inner city....
Why are black families breaking down.
I've said the fact that young black men are in prison is a major reason.

Why yes, you have. However, you've not proven it. You've repeated it. That's not proof.

Again, were Blacks making more money 50 years ago?

Why are more of them turning to crime now? Is there something irresistible to Blacks when it comes to buying and selling narcotics?

Why are so many young black men killed by other young black men?

I'm confident there are many reasons for the breakdown of the Black family. I'm equally confident that the War on Drugs is not the main one.

Oh, and if you question that, I'll repeat it. Based on your logic, that's a sound practice.

Ricky P wrote:

Why are black families breaking down?

Black families experience a higher percentage of family breakups than whites or Hispanics for primarily one reason....

A complete lack of black fathers.

Inner city black males often grow up being raised by their grandmothers if they're lucky. Mom is typically holding down at least one job, sometimes two. The same holds true for a large portion of suburban black families.

The problem is systemic/generational.

I once attended an all black retreat for young black men ages 14-25, the majority of whom came from the inner city, though certainly not all. On one of the nights, the young men had a chance to share some of the moments in their life that caused them their greatest wound. If I remember correctly, there were approximately 40 or so young men along with a handful of adult men. I was the only white speck in the room. The rest were black.

With a few exceptions, these young men (and the adults) were in tears describing what it was like not having a father in their lives. And I here they looked so tough and street smart. Of course, like all of us, they were simply kids in adult bodies. I never thought we would have reached this level of sharing. It was awful and gut wrenching. There was a lot of anger and resentment in the room toward these "fathers" who fled their families. But more so than anger, there was a heavy sadness that permeated the room.

Fortunately, the retreat leaders did not let things end on this low note. On the contrary, the discussion then moved toward "secondary father figures." At this point, the young men began to identify coaches, uncles, older brothers, pastors, sports heroes, etc who have served as their role models. They identified what it was about these men in the community that they revered and wanted to model. This segment was inspirational to say the least.

Now I know that a sample of 40 or so young black men can't be superimposed onto the macro level to summarize an entire group of people, but it is something I will never forget and have thought about ever since.

I recognize that it is impossible to reduce social patterns down to singular explanations but if I had to point to one common denominator to answer Ricky P's question, it would be what I've outlined here.

The focus here is wrong and judgmental and pointing fingers (not really Dags). Black fathers in general do not have the resources to support families so they don't stick around. Black women adapt by having the government help to support their babies. Trying to get at all the causal roots at this point is impossible. We do know blacks were denied education pre-civil war; we do know they were denied provided equal educational and work opportunities into the 1960s with continuing discrimination into the present-day. We do know they were segregated. We do know that they were treated as being inferior. Now people want to point fingers at black culture as being the problem. Stop pointing fingers at black character and try to figure out how to solve the economic and education lag among blacks that is at the root of all these problems and which were originally at the very least largely started by white racism. When black men have the steady job and resources to support black families...they will. Scolding black men as to why they aren't supporting their families accomplishes nothing when they don't have the resources to do so.

dag

A complete lack of black fathers.

Yes. Because they are in prison.
What else does prison do to a person? A felony in the US eliminares many job prospects. The socialization in prison often changes the incarcerated persons behavior and values...

And mostly they are in prison because of drug crimes, when white people (who use drugs at the same rate) end up in prison far more often.
Malcolm Gladwell wrote about Tipping Points.
Where a certain level of influence from a key factor makes an enormous change in the market, or the social condition etc...
http://gladwell.com/the-tipping-point/

I think that at some point in the mid 90's enough young black men began to populate prisons that the social fabric for black families, which had endured despite decades of discrimination that limited opportunity for blacks (enumerated by Freeman) .... began to disintegrate.
And the shame of it is, that drug laws are so poor at actually lowering either drug use or crime committed by users and dealers..

Crime is a personal choice. That includes doing illegal drugs.

Sex (not rape) is a personal choice.

Leaving your responsibility is a personal choice.

I know the left is all for choice. Welcome to the freedoms they chose.

Ricky, using your own numbers
You say only 28% of black children are born to married parents.
That means (using your own numbers) that 72% of black men are in prison?

No, it's not the reason this is happening. It certainly does not help but it is not the driving reason as you want us to believe (and what you keep telling us with zero proof).

Freeman said something about Black men can't support their families so they leave???
That's not a cause to simply leave your family to fend for themselves, it's stated as if this is a "reason" yet it's nothing but liberal nonsense. They COULD get a second job, they COULD keep from having children, they COULD do a whole bunch of other things but instead they choose to simply leave and it seems to be the norm and accepted.

Ricky mentioned

You want to point to "culture"

No, please READ what I said, I do not accept this behavior as "Black Culture" Anyone who accepts this as a culture issue is a far left liberal who simply can't accept people have responsibilities, bad things happen and the government should take care of all these bad things, they want personal responsibilities eliminated and that's just not right. This thinking does however keep adding fuel to this fire and is the reason we are in this position. PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY, that is what is lacking.

Living in the inner-city and segregated communities is not a personal choice. Being discriminated against is not a personal choice. Having the police harass you is not a personal choice. Growing up without a father is not a personal choice. The negative effects of generations of discriminination on the culture is not a personal choice. A lack of positive male models is not a personal choice. Negative depictions of your race are not a personal choice. Unequal educational and work opportunities are not a personal choice. People's ability to make the right decisions is heavily affected by their external environment.

But not lecturing another race that they are struggling because of character issues--that's a personal choice that right-wingers can exercise and is totally within their control...

Lamentations 5:7

What then, Freeman? Should we give the poor, black children free healthcare, free food, free housing, free college, free cell phones, free everything and see what happens?

Oh wait. We have done that already. We have seen where that leads.

Find black men decent-paying jobs. Men don't want freebies, anyway. When there is an avenue for people to take where they can be a productive member of society, earn enough money so they can get married and raise kids, most men will choose that option. In fact, that's really what we are programmed to do. When that option is not there...you see what happens. As Trunp would say..not good.

Keep calling this "Black Culture" (as you have been doing) and you do nothing but perpetuate the problem. This is absolutely NOT a "culture" but rather a crutch. They have it tough, I get it. We need to help them find jobs but the free hand outs have done nothing but perpetuate the problem and in fact make it worse. And making it so someone NEEDS to work really lights a fire under their back side to actually find a job, making it so they need not work, complaining that the freebies are not comfortable enough (free cell phones?) only makes this go on and on and on...

Stop coddling these people, help them for real, help only those who truly require it, get tough and stop the feel-good nonsense that has made things worse in the long run.
Spend some money on creating jobs, on stopping jobs from going over seas, reducing the roadblocks that prevent jobs from forming, oh wait, that's a Republican idea and what Trump is actually trying to do. He'a bit of a jerk, a bombastic self centered jerk, but please, why not give him a chance?

(and where are the problems the worse? in inner cities.
What party runs virtually ALL our Cities? Democrats and their liberal ways.)
so Trump is trying to do exactly as Freeman wants yet he does not want to accept Trump or any Republican can do anything right. It doesn't matter if they do what he wants, they simply must be wrong because it's not their party and not what they really want.