This book provides students with a systematic sociological study of contemporary life for families of African descent living in the United States. Because it deals with issues facing African American families, it covers ground that is often considered, such as marriage and fertility rates, non-marital births, age at first birth, etc., but the authors also deal with several issues slighted or ignored in texts about African American family life, including disproportionately high rates of incarceration, family violence, and chronic diseases such as HIV/AIDS. Also departing from previous books, the authors examine ways in which individual choice (e.g., choosing to use drugs, choosing to engage in unprotected sex, choosing to drop out of school) intersects with the larger societal factors and constraints. All these indices are woven together and cry out fora new look at African American family situations that this book will provide. The authors hope to capture the complexities and nuances of a web of factors, thereby helping students explore both structural and individual explanations for problems facing many African American families today.
Recognizing the diversity of contemporary African-American families, experts present the latest knowledge on such topics as family formation, gender roles, child rearing, care of the elderly, and religious practices.
The institution of family has been central to the well-being of African societies over the years. African families have undergone significant transformations caused by the interplay of indigenous, Arabic/Islamic, and European/Christian cultures. The juxtaposition of these three cultures in the lives of African peoples captures the triple-heritage image of the continent. At the same time, modernization, urbanization, and migration have played and continue to play a role in the transformation of families across the continent. While it is true that the traditional family has changed in many ways and that African families are continuously confronted with new challenges, the contributors to this volume recognize that the African family has adapted to the emerging structural changes. In the new millennium, a host of issues and challenges have the potential to weaken or threaten the survival of the traditional African family. These include the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which seems to afflict the young and able-bodied; a growing elderly population; declining governmental support; and economic decay. How the post-colonial family reacts to these threats and challenges has the potential to either maintain or undermine the family's role as a major organizing principle in Africa. Profound transitions have occurred in family structure and processes since the post-colonial period. This work points to some of the documented transformations in African family life, including the changing modes of decision-making due to the establishment of a cash crop economy, nuptial patterns, changing maternal roles, an increasing age at marriage and declining fertility, a growing number of households headed by women, anincrease in the rate of marital instability and dissolution, and changing patterns of mate selection and family relations.
From the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning author comes the poignant story of how the tradition of white Southern violence and racism has long affected and still haunts one black family. Butterfield follows the Bosket family of Edgefield County, South Carolina, from the days of slavery to the present.
From a bestselling author and parenting expert and her 19-year-old daughter comes a guide to mother-daughter relationships, written in two voices and featuring two viewpoints.
Following the success of its best-selling predecessors, the Fourth Edition of Harriette Pipes McAdoo'sBlack Families retains several now classic contributions while including updated versions of earlierchapters and manyentirely new chapters. The goal through each revision of this core text has been to compile a book that focuses on positive dimensions of African American families. The book remains the most complete assessment of black families available in both depth and breadth of coverage. Cross-disciplinary in nature, the book boasts contributions from such fields as family studies, anthropology, education, psychology, social work, and public policy. Directions for future research are suggested at the end of each chapter, and references guide readers to more in-depth discussion of specific topics. Chapters aregrouped into six parts covering history, theoretical conceptions, religion, child socialization, gender relations, and public policy. New to This Edition: A new chapter 2 by the creator of the annual celebration of Kwanza, Maulana Karenga and Tiamoyo Karenga A new chapter 16 by noted historian of Black women, Darlene Clark-Hines Two new chapters on religious dimensions by Harriette Pipes McAdoo (chapter 7) and by Pamela Martin (chapter 9) A new chapter 10 covering the topic of death is discussed by Latrese Adkins, with emphasis on the role that funerals play with Black communities A new chapter 17 on breast cancer prevention for women by Karen Williams adds to the coverage of gender relations The latest demographic information on Black familiesin a new chapter 11 written by Harriette Pipes McAdoo Jonathan Livingston updates John McAdoos work on the socialization of men withinfamilies in a revised chapter 15 Robert Hill updates his earlier chapter on social welfare policies in a revised chapter 23 that examines the aftermath and impact of welfare reform enacted during the Clinton administrationBlack Families, Fourth Edition will interest students, scholars, and practitioners in African American Families, Black Families, and related courses in fields of African American and ethnic studies, human development and family studies, sociology, social work, and education.
This updated edition of the classic book Black Families at the Crossroads offers a comprehensive examination of the diverse and complex issues surrounding Black families. Leanor Boulin Johnson and Robert Staples combine more than sixty years of writing and research on Black families to offer insights into the pre-slavery development of the Black middle class, internal processes that affect all class strata among Black American families, the impact of race on modern Black immigrant families, the interaction of external forces and internal norms at each stage of the Black family life cycle, and public policies that provide challenges and promising prospects for the continuing resilience of the Black family as an American institution. This thoroughly revised edition features new research, including empirical studies and theoretical applications and a review of significant social policies and economic changes in the past decade and their impact on Black families.
Praise for the First Edition
" Those who work with Black families will find the book a helpful resource, and thoughtful lay people will find that the text augments what they have long suspected. Irrespective of experience levels, all readers will more fully appreciate the fact that the Black family is far from a monolithic, deficient, or amoral institution." – Family Relations
" Authors Robert Staples and Leanor Boulin Johnson describe how external forces, such as economics, racism, culture, and politics, shape the dynamics of the modern Black family." – Ebony
" This work makes a significant contribution to the field." – Journal of Marriage and the Family
What progress have African Americans made in corporate America? This book examines the evidence by drawing on studies of almost 200 black corporate managers and their families. A past president of the New York State Council on Family Relations, author Susan D. Toliver, shows that black families have progressed in corporate America, but the inroads are uneven. Toliver takes a penetrating look at how the cultural identity of black families has been influenced by their participation in corporate America. She also suggests that corporations deepen their commitment to cultural diversity, not in name onlybut work to emphasize the talents and develop the strengths of the African American community. Black Families in Corporate America explores the following areas: + Shifting gender dynamics within the families of black managers + Changes in approaches to parenting + Issues of racial identity within corporations and the professional black community Black Families in Corporate America will appeal to scholars in ethnic studies, multicultural counseling, family theory, sociology, social work, personnel management, organizational development, and cross-cultural psychology.
In the parlance of social psychology, social work, and urban social scientists, African American fathers have often been described as "absent," "missing," "non-residential," "non-custodial," "unavailable," "non-married," "irresponsible," and "immature." It is wondered why it is/was so difficult to find literature, research, and comments regarding positive attributes of African American families in general and African American fathers in particular. This book fills a void in attempting to offer a broader picture regarding the status of African American males in a father role. The purpose is to get beyond the African American father "invisibility" syndrome and gloom and doom pathology oriented labels and tell another side of the story about the power of fathering in the African American experience. The book brings these "invisible" social and biological fathers to life by telling their stories and letting the reader hear and feel the vibrancy of their voices as they struggle to meet the challenges of being fathers and Black men in America. "Black Fathers: An Invisible Presence in America" is divided into four sections: *Part I offers some research and theory regarding the impact of fathers on the lives of their children. *In Part II, reactions and experiences from those men who had active, involved, and committed Black men in their lives as they were growing up are shared. *In Part III, stories are shared from African American men who had problematic relationships with their fathers, but who put forth the time, energy, and effort to work through the issues. *The primary focus of Part IV is on how to strengthen the role of Black fathers, father figures, and socialfathers in family life and child rearing by discovering and internalizing psychological strengths anchored in African American psychological themes, African values, and spirituality. This book will appeal to scholars and researchers in the fields of race/ethnic relations, family studies, and Black studies.
Have any of your children ever found a squirrel feather? Have any of your children ever streaked naked with flying toilet paper in hand in front of members of your church? Have any of your children ever died? Raising a family is never easy, but the experience can provide some very interesting situations, which is particularly true when viewed through the life of the Branch family with its six boys. In "Blessed by the Boys," their father, Ron, has chronicled many of the thought provoking words and humorous antics, as well as the tragedy, of the boys, and set them to some blessed spiritual truths important for families trying to stay strong in today's society. It is inspirational for life when it is experienced how much of a blessing life together as a family truly is. In the meantime, their beautiful mother, Terry, sometimes wonders what blessed by some girls would be like.
From the moment she hears, "It's a boy!" a special love blossoms in the heart of a mom and a bond unlike any other has begun. "Chicken Soup for the Mother and Son Soul" celebrates the blessings and bruises, tears and triumphs, happiness and hopes of mothers and their sons.
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