Restoration of the Black Family Nucleus in America

 

Anyone who has followed me for any significant amount of time is aware of the fact that I understand and appreciate the fact that the state of Black America is the result of a complex dynamic that has created the perfect storm to completely destroy and consume blacks if there are not some extensive changes made in the near future. There are some experts who predict that as soon as 2038, blacks will be an insignificant people, and by 2050, the black race, as it currently exists in America, will be virtually extinct. We are being systematically annihilated.

 

While the dynamic in question is extremely complex in nature, including multifarious machinations implemented by white supremacy, distorted norms and standards that lead to fallacious cultural paradigms for blacks, economic impotency within the black collective, and more,  the dynamic can be viewed in the same manner as a complex mathematical equation, in fact, this is the only way to gain a lucid perspicacity capable of providing the insight necessary to engage these problems at a level that produces efficacious results. When dealing with a complex mathematical equation, the goal is to break down the problem using certain rules of simplification.

When dealing with the enigmatic issues that are currently plaguing blacks in America, it is important to identify the most pernicious issues and work down from there. There is no denying that the lack of economic mobility is an immense problem, and the mis-education of black youth is also a substantial issue that deserves a certain amount of attention. The struggles with consumerism and individualism also play an integral role in the progressive demise of the black collective. However, it is my opinion that the disintegration of the black family nucleus is the single most destructive element that directly impacts the quest for progression in the black community. As my brother, Irritated Genie, has said on a number of occasions, the assault on the black family will prove to be a checkmate on the Grand Chessboard if black men and black women do not rediscover the intimacy of their mutual spiritual interconnectivity. The survival of the black race is dependent upon it.

Unfortunately, it is one of the least addressed issues by black leaders. It is rarely mentioned at rallies, our politicians are never called to task for their role in the demise of the black family, and there are hardly any programs that are designed to address this prodigious problem. There are a number of unique dynamics at play when it comes to the progressive destruction of the black family. According to a study conducted in 2005 by Dr. Lorraine Blackmon, a child born in slavery was more likely to grow up living with both parents than they are today.[1] This should be quite alarming, especially to those who are cognizant of American history, understanding that during slavery, black men were often traded and sold out of their homes, and children were sold out from under their parents.

While there are some who postulate that there has not actually been a breakdown of the black family, due to the fact that slavery had already destroyed the black family, and it never recovered, the truth is that as late as 1960 more than 75 percent of black children were born into a home in which the parents were married and living together,[2] so this phenomenon that has led to the breakdown of the black family is relatively new.

Restoration of the Black Family Nucleus in America

Understanding Why the Black Family is Important to the Survival of the Black Collective

It is the breakdown of the black family that functioned as the conduit through which many of the most insidious and malignant machinations of white supremacy racism were interpolated into the natural order and function of black culture. Because the traditional back family began to disintegrate, black children have been growing up in homes without the proper balance of masculine and feminine energy, subsequently resulting in black youth who lacked the totality of comprehensive development — psychologically, socially, emotionally and spiritually. This has led to what I call scar tissue of the soul. The lack of the presence of one parent, predominantly the father, leads to psychological and emotional trauma that has the potential to negatively impact a child’s ability to learn, adjust, engage and compete in a world that is inherently hostile toward them. It seems that this impacts young black males more than females; however, young black girls are far from being impervious to the nefarious forces at play, they simply deal with it differently.

Additionally, the family environment is where the concepts of black group economics, filial responsibility and community leadership are introduced and developed. The home is where a child begins to develop their self-perception or self-image, and the parents serve as the primary label-givers. It is the reflecting of young black youth on the reflected appraisals of their parents that sets the foundation of how they see themselves.[3] The inferiority complexes and poor self-images that plague our community are the result of a monumental failure in the home.

Because one parent is attempting to carry the load, they are rarely home, meaning that the entire load of educating black youth has fallen on the shoulders of a public education system that is neither, equipped or designed, to educate black youth to compete with their non-black counterparts. Blacks have lost sight of the fact that education is more than the attainment of academic skills. Education must be viewed as a holistic process that is initiated at the point in which the child reaches self-awareness. Education includes the entire process of experiences and the gathering of knowledge that equips a person to effectively engage the obstacles and challenges of life.[4] The family nucleus is where this process is initiated.

Also, the family serves as the ideal environment to introduce many of the concepts that represent a complete paradigmatic shift in how blacks view the world around them. The disintegration of the black family is also one of the reasons that the young black male population has fallen victim to the aggression of the private prison industrial complex, and furthermore, these young men are being primed through the use of the public education system as it supports the contrivances that directly serve the school to prison pipeline.[5]

It is important to understand the relevance of the black family. The restoration of the black family nucleus is key to the elevation of the black race as a whole. The black family is the smallest institution through which the principles that are key to the empowerment and elevation of the black race.

The Role of Social Programs in the Destruction of the Black Family

Despite the suggestion by a very forward thinking and brilliant social strategist who worked for the U.S. Department of Labor, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the U.S. Government spurned the idea of underwriting the black family by supporting black men through jobs created by the government. Instead, they decided to introduce social programs that would fund the purchase of food, pay rent and provide training programs for black women to enter the work force. With the most malicious element of these programs being the prerequisite that no one who received these social benefits could have a male present in the home.

Moynihan seemed to have his finger on the pulse of the source of the struggle of blacks in America.

“The Negro situation is commonly perceived by whites in terms of the visible manifestation of discrimination and poverty, in part because the Negro protest is directed against such obstacles, and in part, no doubt, because these are facts which involve the actions and attitudes of the white community as well. It is more difficult, however, for whites to perceive the effect that three centuries of exploitation have had on the fabric of Negro society itself. Here the consequences of the historic injustices done to Negro Americans are silent and hidden from view. But here is where the true injury has occurred: unless this damage is repaired, all the effort to end discrimination and poverty and injustice will come to little.”[6]

Moynihan’s report was a comprehensive expression that provided a lucid explanation of why it is important to preserve the black family. What I suggest here is that the American government has proven that they cannot be trusted to provide the firm footing on which the black family can be rescued, regenerated and restored. This restoration must be the result of a collaborative effort among the black collective to assemble and take action autonomously.

The role of the family in shaping character and ability is so pervasive as to be easily overlooked. The family is the basic social unit of American life, and life in general; it is the basic socializing unit. By and large, adult conduct in society is learned as a child.

A fundamental insight of psychoanalytic theory, for example, is that the child learns a way of looking at life in his early years through which all later experience is viewed and which profoundly shapes his adult conduct. The black family nucleus is an institutional entity that creates the foundation on which each black child will engage the opportunities that are before them. Additionally, the black family is also the foundation on which black children will develop the capacity to effectively engage the enigmatic issues that are inevitable. When the family nucleus has been broken, the home lacks the type of structure that is necessary to build strong, well-adjusted and prepared black young adults.

While pending civil rights legislation in the 1960 created what we know now was undue optimism as far as the black family was concerned, blacks lost sight of that which was most important to protecting its longevity — social and financial autonomy. When Moynihan wrote his report, The Negro Family: A Case for National Action, he was very assertive that in assessing the current state of the black family, the U.S. was gravely underestimating the damage that had been done by three centuries of unimaginable mistreatment. Moynihan also pointed out the fact that what he called a racist virus in the blood stream of America would continue to plague blacks in America as long as the black family remained economically castrated. Dr. Claud Anderson declares that blacks are trapped in a real-life monopoly game in which there has not been an equal distribution of the wealth.[7] In Fact, blacks have been placed in a situation in which they cannot possibly compete. Without shifting the paradigm on spending from one that is heavily impacted by consumerism to one that is focused on investing and ownership, the black family, and subsequently blacks in general, will continue to find themselves at the mercy of those with economic positioning and power.

While it is obvious that the black man has been perpetually trapped in the crosshairs of the racist mechanisms of the white power structure in this country, it is important to understand that the black family has always been a target of the malicious and destructive forces of white supremacy. The black family is the fundamental institution through which history, pride, self-love, unity and a sense of identity is perpetuated through generations. By disrupting the natural progression of the black family, the white power structure has effectively retarded the growth and advancement of blacks as a collective.

There is no doubt that over the last 50 years, there have been many blacks who have excelled, achieving unprecedented levels of ascendency; however, far more have fallen victim to the pernicious forces that are inextricably connected to the broken home and welfare dependency, all while the unemployment rate among black men remained excessive high.

Over the last 150 years, the black family has undergone an extreme metamorphosis, or should I say a sort of mutation, sustained by the constant oppression, economic manipulation and social engineering of White Supremacy America.

Through exceptional planning, the black community has been forced into a matriarchal structure, which is out of direct alignment with the rest of the social structure in American society, seriously impedes the progress as a collective, imposing an immeasurable encumbrance and affliction on the black male, both, psychologically and financially, and consequentially on the black woman as well.

It was the selling of the idea to the black woman that her man was keeping her back, while offering those who were socially and financially capable to have access to what the black man was being denied — access to corporate America — jobs and career opportunity. While the black woman was fully embracing her perceived independence, she was being fed a constant dose of the idea that she did not need a man. While it was subtle, this ideology was actually the same social and psychological ploy suggested in the “Willie Lynch Letter,” as a means to create a perpetual conflict and animosity between the black man and the black woman. While the black man struggled to secure employment to support his family and the black woman continued to soar in corporate America, the black woman’s contempt for the black man also soared. Her erroneous belief that she no longer needed a man left her to believe that she could execute the role of both mother and father. This imbalance in the upbringing of black youth served as a nebulous narrative through which confusion became the prevalent force in the black home.

There is a wealth of pragmatic and empirical evidence that the destruction of the black family has set the stage for perpetual failure. Although there is a substantial portion of  the black population, especially highly mobile black women, who believe that having a black matriarchal social structure is fine, I, along with many other sociologists, psychologists and economists believe that the misalignment of this matriarchy has actually been immensely devastating, because it robs the black male of his inherent birthright. Whether you examine the male rooster, the male lion or the male human, the very essence is to establish his authority — to lead, protect and cover. When the male is robbed of this inherent right, the psychological and emotional damage can be exceedingly traumatic.

Because the leadership in the black home has been fragmented, black youth are particularly vulnerable to being caught up in the tangles of pathology that has consumed their world, and currently the majority of black youth are subjected to destructive pathologies that either, guarantees their incarceration or their poverty.

Without a solid family foundation, it is tremendously difficult to build generational wealth at a rate that will provide the pathway to elevation and empowerment for future generations. Because there is no generational wealth, even when one escapes the poverty, it is often for one generation only; this is because the financial mobility that they enjoy does not come from business ownership or the development of independent wealth. It is the result of what most would consider a nice salary. However, the job does not belong to the affluent black, it belongs to their employer, who is likely to be white. Being that the financially mobile black person does not own their revenue generating entity, they are unable to leave it to their progeny, leaving their posterity to start over from scratch all over again.

What is exceptionally imperative is understanding the plight of blacks in this country, beginning with slavery and continuing through Jim Crow, and now what Michelle Alexander calls the New Jim Crow.[8] Alexander goes into exceptional detail to reveal the evil machinations that have played out over the course of the last 150 years;, a time in which blacks were under the illusion of being free. However, through the practice of sharecropping, convict leasing, Jim Crow segregation, and now, mass incarceration, the quest of America to use the backs of blacks to fund profitable enterprise is still in force.

There is a natural animosity, an evil hostility even, between the black man and the black woman. While I am willing to admit that, in many ways, the black man abdicated his role as leader, protector, provider and covering for his woman and his progeny, I am obligated to irradiate the fact that the black man’s efforts to lead his family was ambushed by the systematic assault of the racist elite in an effort to undermine his authority and ability to lead. While I must acquiesce to the notion that the black man, in far too many instances has found it to be an acceptable course of action to procreate and then abandon his progeny, I am forced to present the truth that there is likely no greater heinous act than that in which the black man has been snatched out of the black community and thrust into the belly of the private prison industrial complex, leaving behind young black males who are doomed to follow behind them.

Conclusion,

If we want to put an end to the black on black violence, we must reintroduce black pride and self-love that can only be developed within the confines of a family where both parents are present and active. If we want to experience black group economics practiced vertically on a grand scale, it begins with teaching and modeling financial literacy and financial responsibility in the home. If we want our young black men to cover, respect and protect our women, they must see it modeled in the home consistently. How can filial responsibility be taught when it is not being experienced. We must restore the black family. We must bring healing to the core of the black soul, its family! ~ Dr. Rick Wallace, Ph.D.

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Book #16 ~ The Mis-education of Black Youth in America

“The African American Psyche
One of the challenges that the African American community faces is their limited perspicacity of the psychological impact of slavery and the subsequent institutional, governmental and social mechanisms that has negatively impacted the black self-image. It is imperative that blacks understand why they think and behave in the manner that they do. It is immensely important to understand that a significant amount of blacks are suffering from a diminished self-image that has the capacity to feed self-hatred. How blacks view work, property and personal business opportunities is a direct result of chattel slavery and the subsequent institutions that followed. Both, Dr. Na’im Akbar and Dr. Joy DeGruy, refer to this form of psychosis as Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome — describing a set of specific beliefs, behaviors and actions that are directly associated with the multigenerational trauma that has been experienced by African Americans at the hands of their white oppressors.” (Wallace, 2015; The Mis-education of Black Youth in America)

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Bibliography

Alexander, M. (2010). The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the age of Colorblindness. New York City : New York Press.

Blackmon, L. (2005). Divorce Statistics for African Americans. Americans for Divorce Reform.

DeGruy, J. (2005). Post Traumatic Syndrome: America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing. Portland, OR: Uptone Press.

Diehl, U. (2009). Human Sufering as a Challenge for the Meaning of Life. Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany, 1.

Greenfield, G. (1988). Self-affirmation: The Life Changing Force of a Christian Self-image. Baker Publishing Group.

Jencks, C. (1991). Is the American Underclass Growing. Washington D.C.: Washington D.C. Brookings Institution.

McLeod, S. (2008). Social Roles. Simply Pyschology, 1.

Moynihan, D. P. (1965). The Negro Family: A Case for National Action. Washington D.C.: Office of Policy Planning, The U.S. Department of Labor.

Wallace, R. (2015). The Miseducation of Black Youth in America: The Final Move on the Grand Chessboard. Etteloc Publishing.

Watkins, L. (2014, February 11). Dr. Claud Anderson Warns: Not Owning Things Will Leave You Behind, 2014. Financial Juneteenth, p. 1.

Wikipedia. (2015, February 26). Cognitive Dissonance. Retrieved from Wikepedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance

 

 

 

[1] Blackmon, Lorraine, Divorce Statistics for African Americans, Americans for Divorce Reform, 2005

[2] Jencks, Christopher, Is the American Underclass Growing, Washington D.C. Brookings Institution, 1991

[3] Greenfield, Guy, Self-affirmation: The Life Changing Force of a Christian Self-image, Baker Publishing Group, 1988

[4] Wallace, Rick, The Mis-education of Black Youth in America: The Final Move on the Grand Chessboard, 2015

[5] Alexander, Michelle, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, New York Press, 2010

[6] Moynihan, Daniel Patrick,  The Negro Family: A Case for National Action, Office of Policy Planning, The U.S. Department of Labor, 1965

[7] Watkins, Lawrence, Dr. Claud Anderson Warns: Not Owning Things Will Leave You Behind, 2014

[8] Alexander, Michelle, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, New York Press, 2010