America’s foundation was heavily influenced by race and the melding of various cultures. We began as a melting pot of many differing groups congregating into a single union, and yet certain beliefs and ideologies over time have hindered the progression of our modern society. Racial social structures have existed in American society and have undoubtedly influenced the enculturation and familial relationships among minority communities. In the memoir Fatheralong, John Edgar Wideman eloquently exemplifies the link between racist social structures and the development and growth of African American children through his personal experiences and relationships growing up. Memories of racial profiling and discrimination lathered in Wideman’s sentiment …show more content…
The financial stability within a family contributes to the ease of living, however the lack of a physical relationship leaves a lasting affect on the growth of a child. Wideman relates the economic struggles within the African American community with the faulty relationship that often occurs between African American fathers and their children. He highlights the issues relating to a lack of economic opportunity and the dependability of a parent 's presence when he reminisces the physical relationship he experienced with his own father. He recalls, “I did not expect him to do much more than come and go like a ghost, at odd hours, to sleep, to eat...He was my father and worked long and hard for us. We slept in the same house, but at different hours” (Wideman 42). Although he and his father were not physically separated through divorce or other issues, he never considered them very close. The family struggled due to the economic restraints placed on African Americans in the U.S. job market. Wideman’s relationship to his father was immensely distant as a result of the parent’s inability to obtain a consistent wage, forcing him to work multiple jobs to sustain his family. Wideman argues this issue …show more content…
He highlights the instability of the environment writing, “The poisonous anger at stunted possibilities, the frustration of dying on the vine seep like corrosive acid into living rooms, neighborhoods”(Wideman 23). The emotional damage resulting from social imparities the African American community is forced to endure is most visible within their own environment, translating to unhealthy lives for the children and families who attempt to flourish and develop their own identities. Wideman argues these environments are “corrosive”, so unhealthy that they leave lasting scars on those who are cast in its shadow. The US National Library of Medicine and Institute of Health report on a survey finding: “poor and low-income adolescents are more likely than their more affluent counterparts to be in fair or poor (versus good or excellent) health, have limitations in their activities, and have had behavioral or emotional problems” (par 1). This provides evidence that the environment in which children are raised contributes heavily on their emotional and mental growth as well as their economic and educational success. Wideman
Robert Staples in Sociocultural Factors in Black Family Transformation: Toward a Redefinition of Family Functions goes on to further analysis and critique Moynihan’s report. Staples identify several flaws within his argument, including that the fact that African Americans are not a monolithic unit (19), the numerous reasons for fatherhood absence, and the socioeconomic factors that shape the structure of African American families (21). Staples main critique of the Moynihan report is that marginalization of the Black community is not due to the dysfunction of Black families, rather the economic basis is the fundamental cause that needs to be considered (23). For the most part, I would agree with Staples in saying that economic oppression is the cause of dysfunction within families. While reading Part One of The Black Family, the notion of respectability politics came to mind and how the role of hegemony plays in sociocultural relations. The influence of hegemony has shifted many of us into considering one-singular truth and Western ideologies have led to the shaping of ideas, mindsets, and cultures, all the way to family to dating and sexual patterns, African American culture is compared to European American
Dr. Ronald L. Jackson’s piece titled “Mommy…There’s a nigger at the door” (which appears in Journal of Counseling & Development; Winter99, Vol. 77 Issue 1, p4) shares his experience with racism as a child and continues on as it follows him into adulthood. And expressing that what we instill in our children impacts their lives in a huge way.
This film chose to focus on very young people struggling to survive in poverty. All three of the boys are younger than 18 years old and thus are in an important developmental stage. The film gives us a view into the effects of a disadvantaged upbringing on a child’s development. These three boys grew up in situations defined by poverty and familial dysfunction and for two of them, the after effects are clear. Harley has severe anger issues and is unable to function at school. Appachey lashes out uncontrollably and has multiple diagnosed behavioral disorders. Both boys have had run-ins with the law and dealings with the juvenile court system. This solidifies the argument espoused in Marmot’s The Health Gap that children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds face significant developmental challenges. The evidence suggests that children who grow up in poverty have cognitive and developmental delays and suffer from greater risk of mental and behavioral disorders. As shown in the film, Harley and Appachey both suffer from extreme behavioral and cognitive deficits and exhibit the corresponding poor scholastic and societal performance which will serve to further negatively affect their
Common stereotypes portray black fathers as being largely absent from their families. Proceeding the emancipation, African Americans were forced to adapt to a white ruled society. Now that they were free, many sought education and jobs in order to provide for their families and achieve their full potential. This caused many African American males to leave their families in pursuit of better opportunities. Obama’s father had left his home to pursue education and study at Harvard University, but Obama only saw his father one more time, in 1971, when he came to Hawaii for a month's visit. Throughout the rest of his life, Obama faced the conflict of belonging, most in part because he didn’t have a father to help him. “There's nobody to guide through
Tatum’s book “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” (1997) analyses the development of racial identity and the influence of racism in American’s culture. She emphasizes the Black-White interactions by comparing the terminology in which racism perceived based on David Wellman’s definition of racism. Tatum also believes racism is not one person in particular but is a cultural situation in which ethnicity assigns some groups significantly privileged compared to others. She illustrates how engaging children in terms of interracial understanding will empower them to respond to racial stereotypes and systems of discrimination.
Moynihan perceives the inclusive problem amongst the black family to be its structure. This is a product of disintegration of nativism in the black community. The “racist virus” still flowing through the veins of American society hinders, in virtually all aspects, the progression of the Negro family. Moynihan discusses the normativity of the American family as a reason that people overlook the problems that occur in Negro and nonwhite families. He emphasizes the significance of family structure by stating “The family is the basic social unit of American life; it is the basic socializing unit.” (Moynihan, II 4). This assertion implies that due to the instability within the black family, socially, the Negro family would be unable to prosper. Because Moynihan feels the largest overall issue in the black family is structure it’s structure, he believes that it will only continue to disintegrate. To further his idea, Moynihan highlights the subdivisions of this structure: matriarchy, failure of youth, economic differences, alienation etc. Each of these subdivisions of family structure contributes to the overall issue Moynihan within the Negro family.
In John Edgar Wideman’s article, “Looking at Emmett Till” shows Emmett’s horrific murder as the living proof of the racism that occurred at that time in history and how it has revived its way back to distress our country with the same racism that existed 61 year ago. Today, more than ever, African Americans are facing another battle for equality. It seems as if the phrase, “history eventually repeats itself” has been prove by the continuous breaking news of African Americans been murder by white police officers. The murder of Emmett Till happened 61 years ago, but his loss has found new significance, as reaching back to the lynching of a 14-year-old boy in Mississippi has stretched into the murders of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown in recent
...oming to an understanding of the daily struggles of every person, who attempts to raise a child in the American society. Inferring from the book, the extent to which the scholar discusses race as a key influence of childhood inequality is not as extended as that of social class. This is clear evidence that the Lareau dwells much on social class as the principal and prevalent theme in the American society towards parenting and child bearing (4). Indeed, at some point, Lareau reports that while race produces childhood inequality, most outcomes for children, from interactions to education, largely depends with social stratification (4). Therefore, she discusses that social class is more influential in relation to race.
Racism has been a huge problem throughout the United States and every individual struggles with the unproductive messages of racism that is being passed on through from larger societies. Many people suffered from this in silence and it is what hits the hardest on children and youth who lack the life experience to understa...
From beginning to end the reader is bombarded with all kinds of racism and discrimination described in horrific detail by the author. His move from Virginia to Indiana opened a door to endless threats of violence and ridicule directed towards him because of his racial background. For example, Williams encountered a form of racism known as modern racism as a student at Garfield Elementary School. He was up to win an academic achievement prize, yet had no way of actually winning the award because ?The prize did not go to Negroes. Just like in Louisville, there were things and places for whites only? (Williams, 126). This form of prejudice is known as modern racism because the prejudice surfaces in a subtle, safe and socially acceptable way that is easy to rationalize.
In the African American community the large infant mortality rates would seemingly be correlated poverty, lack of education, and inadequate access to prenatal care. African American women show a higher infant mortality even with higher social standing and education.( Gance-Cleveland, Locus, Wilson, 2011.) This therefore signifies another element that is as of yet undiscovered and subjective to further study. One suggested theory is that African American women go through a process in life called “Weathering.” According to Geronimus ,“weathering” is the cumulative effects of socioeconomic disa...
The United States of America was formed on the basis of freedom for all, but the definition of “all” is very arbitrary. Racial adversity has been an ongoing factor throughout the United States’ history. However, from 1877 to the present, there have been many strides when trying to tackle this problem, although these strides were not always in the right direction. All the books read throughout this course present the progression of race and race relations over the course of America’s history.
William Julius Wilson creates a thrilling new systematic framework to three politically tense social problems: “the plight of low-skilled black males, the persistence of the inner-city ghetto, and the fragmentation of the African American family” (Wilson, 36). Though the conversation of racial inequality is classically divided. Wilson challenges the relationship between institutional and cultural factors as reasons of the racial forces, which are inseparably linked, but public policy can only change the racial status quo by reforming the institutions that support it.
Racial formation can be defined as “the sociohistorical process by which racial categories are created, inhabited, transformed, and destroyed” (Omi and Winant 55). Both Indians and African Americans were subject to this categorization of race. From Andrea Smith’s racial hierarchy system to Edward Countryman’s examination of projects of colonialism and slavery, the oppression of races, which connects both racialization and colonization, can be seen as the ideal in which the nation is built upon. The creation of racial representation, policies, and social structures seek to undermine other races as inferior, all the while justifying the acts of cruelty and deception in which the nation is founded on.
...came almost obsolete, denying the Black father his sociological and economic functions in the family (Staples, 158).