The ideology of black families as dysfunctional goes back to slavery. The idea black women not having the ability to be maternal was a rationale to sell children and sexual exploit black woman. Mammy rarely had children when she did they were holy terrors. Black men as sexual studs with no parental feelings also supported the capitalism of slavery. The Moynihan report that Dacia mentioned stated that overly aggressive black mothers who emasculated black men was the main reason for family dysfunction. One of the solutions he came up with was to get black men in the military during the height of the Vietnam War.

Here are some excerpts:
A fundamental fact of Negro American family life is the often reversed roles of husband and wife.
Robert O. Blood, Jr. and Donald M. Wolfe, in a study of Detroit families, note that “Negro husbands have unusually low power,” and while this is characteristic of all low income families, the pattern pervades the Negro social structure: “the cumulative result of discrimination in jobs…, the segregated housing, and the poor schooling of Negro men.” In 44 percent of the Negro families studied, the wife was dominant, as against 20 percent of white wives. “Whereas the majority of white families are equalitarian, the largest percentage of Negro families are dominated by the wife.”

The matriarchal pattern of so many Negro families reinforces itself over the generations. This process begins with education. Although the gap appears to be closing at the moment, for a long while, Negro females were better educated than Negro males, and this remains true today for the Negro population as a whole.

There is another special quality about military service for Negro men: it is an utterly masculine world. Given the strains of the disorganized and matrifocal family life in which so many Negro youth come of age, the Armed Forces are a dramatic and desperately needed change: a world away from women, a world run by strong men of unquestioned authority, where discipline, if harsh, is nonetheless orderly and predictable, and where rewards, if limited, are granted on the basis of performance.

If you want to read the whole thing:  http://www.blackpast.org/?q=primary/moynihan-report-1965

So do you guys feel that it’s an unnecessary anecdote? That’s sort of what I’m collecting from the podcast and the black pathology narrative or am I understanding the problem with his statement wrong?

Oh and for the record, because I couldn’t figure out how to edit the above post…any individual that suggests that a Black man should join the military and become cannon fodder for any administrations war agenda to learn to become a man, should be rejected out of hand nevermind being quoted for any reason….

I got Melissa’s point – it certainly IS problematic to put only one particular combination of a family unit up on a pedestal. The implication that having only one female parent is not good enough to keep kids away from violence is something that I will forever battle as single mom of two sons. I certainly can name at least five people very close to me who would probably be much happier if one of their parents had just stopped coming around to be a destructive force. It’s quality, not quantity.

BUT – her framing also struck me the wrong way. There was a part of me reacting to her tweet as Baratunde said – she went right for a more inflammatory angle (pseudo accusing the President of putting DOWN single moms as insufficient vs attempting to push on wayward dads). And I do admit (sadly) to cringing whenever she starts talking about “daddy issues”.  It’s possibly an irrational reaction on MY part, but I find that label to also be a way of kindling a fire.

I just don’t know if it is fair to expect Obama to be so finely tuned to all these nuances. I honestly had never taken statements like that so strongly before. Sure, now that folks like MHP have discussed it I am more acutely aware, but what if O just has never been informed how those lines can be interpreted in that manner?

Also – I pretty much cosign everything Wayne wrote

my post was eaten 

Wayne: I understand your point but I think you can only start with what you can control.  You can’t control the vast amount of space that interact with on a daily basis, the most control you will have is in your principal residence and, to some degree, the people who live in said residence.