AN ALARM ABOUT FAMILIES OF ALL COLORS

Cose, Ellis (2005) Long after the alarm went off NEWSWEEK, 3/14, 37.

40 Years ago this month, the late Senator Daniel P. Moynihan issued a report that caused a storm and died a political death. He maintained that Black families with single mothers would be a disaster to the Black community. He held up the white family as one of stability.

Most observers including Black comedian Bill Cosby borrow from Moynihan at least in the first part. The response is to cut welfare benefits to single mothers to two years. It has had mixed results.

What Moynihan got wrong is that white families are essentially doing the same things. One third of all babies are born to single mothers. Divorce in the USA is relatively high, but many other countries that are predominantly white have higher rates.

In other words, there is a new family that is emerging that may not be good for kids. It is the single parent family. Regardless of the sex of the parent, numerous pathologies are correlated to this kind of family.

Years and years down the road, it may be that a consensus MAY emerge that 1) getting pregnant is hard to do 2) getting married is much harder to do and 3) getting divorced is less easy.