I’m not trying to be funny, but I don’t think that’s what she’s saying/arguing. Someone as respected in the sociological sphere as Christina Cross is not going to argue that. What’s she asking is this: if two-parent black households are increasing, and single-motherhood is on the decline—and if those are supposed to be some the main drivers of inequality according to the extant literature (i.e., lack of nuclear families and lack of pooled incomes)—why aren’t the outcomes converging? What are other possible solutions as to why it’s not converging?
Lemme take off my T. Hasan Johnson Fan Club T-Shirt, and be more charitable with her assertions
I do think watching the video will give more "color"
But one of the central findings here is that the negative effect of single motherhood on child outcomes is weaker for African-American children that for white children. and the well-being of black youth from two parent families is substantially lower than that of their white peers.
Black Single Moms do better than White Single Moms
Black Children of 2 Parent families are worse off than White Children of 2 Parent families.
There are some conclusions to be drawn here.
- Maybe Black Single Moms got it like that.
- Maybe the addition of a white father (presumably) has a greater effect on the outcomes of white kids than adding a black father.
- Maybe the addition of a Black father drags down child outcomes.
She goes on to talk about the "Black Extended family"
So we know that in general African-Americans tend to be more deeply embedded in their extended family networks. They're much more likely to live with extended kin or to live close to them and they engage in engage in significant amounts of support exchange. Um, and one of the theories suggested that African-Americans more deeply embeddedness in this extended family uh actually served as a protective factor.
It sort of buffered against some of the negative consequences of single motherhood.
Wait, hold up a sec? There's a tension here.
Maybe it's in the book.
More
(07:09) But if we focus so much on the nuclear family, we will miss that and we can make it actually much harder to support these families
Mhhmm.
Aight, let's keep it going.
Okay. So, then let's take it the other way, which is to say that black kids who live with two parents don't seem to reap the same benefit as white kids who live with two parents.
(08:02) Why is that? Well, to understand this, I think it's important to understand why living with in a two parent family is gen generally beneficial for children in the first place. And it's because parents have more monitoring and time to spend supervising children, but they also have more money on average.
I see you playa!
Make it plain for the dummies in the back
Host - Um, so in general, children and two parent families have access to more resources.
Ol Girl - Well, unfortunately, one of the things that I found in my data is that black children who grew up in two parent families have drastically fewer resources, in particular, economic resources, than white children who grow up in the same type of family.
Black Female Social Science women love "flat blackness" but also they love to downplay "monitoring and supervising" (which leans towards 2 parent house hold) and emphasize "economic resources". (which leans towards fatter checks, EITC, UBI, etc)
Bring it on home sista gurl.
Ol Girl - Uh, their household incomes are about 60% of that of white two parent households and their family wealth is just a quarter, 25%.
Host - Why does that matter? Why does that matter? That the gap in wealth and assets, the money that exists because of, you know, your house or your investments and things like that. Why does that gap matter so much in your opinion?
Ol Girl - Well, wealth matters so much for being able to give people a sense of economic security at any point, but especially during moments of downturn, right? You mentioned the recession earlier. Uh, having wealth can make all the difference in being able to keep your home or not.
Hmm...I hope cats is starting to see the picture
But let her "cook"
...it being able to afford to send your children to uh a quality school um and being able to provide children other advantages as they try to establish their own independent household. Uh there are many parents who offer their children help with down payments to own homes which of course allows for a greater and earlier accumulation of more wealth.
There it is (c) Public Enemy
GENERATIONAL WEALTH!!!!
...But what about the never mentioned by heavily implied effect of having the Black Father in the home
actually I found that for some outcomes, economic resources had less to do with what was going on, but things outside the home also come into play. So, one thing that I found is that black children and two parent families were two to four times more likely to be suspended or expelled from school than their white peers. And they had uh very high suspension rates compared to any group.
So if I read between the lines, having Dad at home results in MORE school suspensions and expulsions.
Black Fathers clearly
foment unruly kids.
Of course she can't say that, but we're all adults here right?
Host - What are some of the things that would that would actually in your based on your findings actually make a difference for families?
Ol Girl - So it is true that when black children grow up with both parents they tend to experience advantages um and they do tend to have improved outcomes.
Wait what? Don't make me page up.
Ol Girl - (13:37) Uh it is also true unfortunately that they still lag behind their white peers in the same family structure and my findings indicate that much of that has to do with these wide gaps in economic resources.
Oh, okay. So having the father in the house improves childhood outcomes, but 2 parent black families still lag 2 parent white families because of economic resources.
So what should we do about it?
And so if we really want to turn the tide, we need to be thinking about how to bolster family resources um instead of making cuts to key social safety net programs like Medicaid and SNAP.
(14:07) uh and children's health insurance program. We could be thinking about ways to help families to stay afloat during these challenging times um by increasing that amount of aid.
She continues for the next few minutes talking about inflation, these programs getting cut, them being underfunded...
But the main premise "Is the Benefit of a Two-Parent Family a Myth" - the juicy clickbait stuff she wants you to buy the book for....
I dunno.
Even being charitable, taking ol girl at her word, never going "well actually" or "did you consider" - she's just doing the Black Female Academic shuffle.
I don't think she characterizes her own work the way you have.
But I'm open to discussion.
sociology.fas.harvard.edu
