I pulled up an article from February that does a good job of concisely articulating the dilemma of marriage in the African American community. This is another one of those things I would encourage you to reserve judgements on and rather take as an opportunity to try and understand a little more a culture that you might be unfamiliar with.
From
Forum: A Black History Month valentine
There are in most 18-and-above age groupings only about eight black men for every 10 black women. This ratio is largely owing to high rates of infant mortality and homicides. Even more alarming, however, is the following bit of information: When incarceration, drug addiction and unemployment are factored in, the number of eligible (marriageable) black men is reduced to about five men for every 10 black eligible women.
These statistics carry with them enormous implications for the formation of black families in the United States and the overall well-being of African Americans in general.
that’s an excellent article. thanks for sharing it. I never thought of that way. Infrastructure plays such a role in how things are run…
Mark Twain once said “There are lies, damned lies and statistics”.
The whole “shortage of marriagable Black men” myth is living proof of that statement.
For some reason, there is this urban legend that there is a “shortage” of “marriagable” Black men, and all sorts of bogus “statistics” have been created to “prove” this myth.
“Marriagable” Black men are defined narrowly as African American males with post high school education, white collar jobs, no history of substance abuse and no arrest record.
Thanks to America’s 400 years of institutional racism against us, there are few of us who meet that standard.
Then again, few Black WOMEN meet that standard either!!!
Yes, they are less likely to be arrested than Black men, but more likely to be locked up than White, Asian or Latina women.
And, educationally speaking, there are more college educated Black women than men – but most of these college educated Black women have clerical, service or health care jobs that, frequently, pay less than the blue collar, service or transportation jobs that high school educated Black men get.
Again, the “Black man shortage” is a myth.