Marriage--A Dying Institution

According to a new study released by the Urban League, the economic status of Blacks compared to Whites reveeals that Black America's economic status is just 56% that of Whites. Although the entire study is not available for free (why?), you can view the Executive Summary here. The report looks at five different areas of societal measures, economics, health, education, social justice and civic engagement. In nearly every category, the news was mixed. For example, the number of black owned businesses have jumped, with a ration of 2.5 white owned businesses to one black owned business, and improvement over the previous year's 3 to 1 ration.

One of the driving forces between the disparities is in home ownerhip. This from USA Today:

The sharpest economic disparity between black and whites is in median net worth, according to the report, which compiles data from many government sources, including the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The median net worth for African-American families — half have more, half less — is less than one-tenth of the median for white families. That gap is driven largely by differences in homeownership. More than 70% of white families own their homes, compared with about 50% of blacks, the report says.

So what is the cause? Some people will jump straight to racism, but at least one scholar says that black America should not be so quick to play the race card. Also in USA Today:

Black America's search for answers should begin "right in the mirror," says Ronald Mincy, a professor of social policy and social work practice at Columbia University in New York City and author of the 2006 book Black Males Left Behind.

"A big part of it is us," he says. "This is not to say there isn't racism. I'm not crazy. But we do need to look at these disparities and try to identify what are the sources."

Much of the net worth disparity can be accounted for by the fact that many African-American households are headed by single parents, says Mincy, a visiting fellow at the Urban Institute, an economic and social policy research group in Washington.

This report comes to my attention after reading a piece in the Washington Post over the weekend called 'Marriage Is for White People' (Hat Tip: Instapundit) In the Post article, the writer, Joy Jones, notes:

I grew up in a time when two-parent families were still the norm, in both black and white America. Then, as an adult, I saw divorce become more commonplace, then almost a rite of passage. Today it would appear that many -- particularly in the black community -- have dispensed with marriage altogether.

But as a black woman, I have witnessed the outrage of girlfriends when the ex failed to show up for his weekend with the kids, and I've seen the disappointment of children who missed having a dad around. Having enjoyed a close relationship with my own father, I made a conscious decision that I wanted a husband, not a live-in boyfriend and not a "baby's daddy," when it came my time to mate and marry.

My time never came.

For years, I wondered why not. And then some 12-year-olds enlightened me.

"Marriage is for white people."

That's what one of my students told me some years back when I taught a career exploration class for sixth-graders at an elementary school in Southeast Washington. I was pleasantly surprised when the boys in the class stated that being a good father was a very important goal to them, more meaningful than making money or having a fancy title.

"That's wonderful!" I told my class. "I think I'll invite some couples in to talk about being married and rearing children."

"Oh, no," objected one student. "We're not interested in the part about marriage. Only about how to be good fathers."

And that's when the other boy chimed in, speaking as if the words left a nasty taste in his mouth: "Marriage is for white people."

This stunning revelation for Jones led her to question what about Black society has changed, particularly when even during slavery, the men and women slaves often engaged in quixotic searches for family members when sold away. Jones noted that

Among African Americans, the desire for marriage seems to have a different trajectory for women and men. My observation is that black women in their twenties and early thirties want to marry and commit at a time when black men their age are more likely to enjoy playing the field. As the woman realizes that a good marriage may not be as possible or sustainable as she would like, her focus turns to having a baby, or possibly improving her job status, perhaps by returning to school or investing more energy in her career.

None of these efforts by African American women are negative in any respect, but Jones' tone in her writing noted that she and her friends were unwilling to compromise their life for any man and the men with whom she is acquainted were similarly unwilling to compromise.

But marriage and relationships are about compromise, about giving and receiving. The sense of entitlement to the perfect marriage without the sweat equity, and the sense is certainly not limited to the black community, that seems to permeate so much of our society may be leading us to a situation where marriage and two parent households are a dwindling minority, because neither party is willing to accept anything less than their own vision of a perfect marriage or perfect life. In a quest to "have it all" both sides are losing everything.

For Americans in general, not just black or white America, marriage is the foundation upon which so much of our society is built. The economic benefits of marriage are undeniable. A wedded couple is more likely to own their own home, have health insurance, lower incidences of crime, and healthy and stable children. This is not to say that single people can't have these things either, but it is a much harder road to travel.

Thus, when the Urban League talks about the State of Black America, what we really need to be talking about is the State of Married America. If both black and white America had the same rates of marriage, we would get a much better picture of the causes of the economic disparities. But until then, we can only speculate.