The Black family: battered, bruised but unbowed
Slavery is a curse whose vestiges still remain
The Black family has been the object of numerous studies, research projects, but most importantly, is the cornerstone of Black human survival.
Speaking about African family values, Faye Z Belgrave, Ph.D., professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, says “marriage and family and children are really the hallmarks of this culture, because the union of a family represents so much symbolically …”
Further she pointed out that due to slavery’s divisive nature, many families were torn apart, thus initiating a new definition of family.
Belgrave, along with other noted scholars, agree that slavery has greatly affected the Black family, despite mainstream reports like “The Moynihan Report.”
Published by Sen. Daniel Moynihan in March 1965, the report “minimized (slavery as a social force,” and claimed that slavery “scarcely hurt families at all.”
However, Belgrave disagrees and points out that although Black families were able to sustain and feasibly function in the midst of immense oppression, slavery was devastating to African Americans and what it meant to be family in the Black community.
Thus, while the affects of slavery have yet to be massively addressed, African Americans continue to maintain as best possible, however with many challenges.
Single parent (mother headed) homes, one of those challenges, is a stigma that has over the years increased. Belgrave partially blames the incarceration rates.
But despite the negative aspects, strong leaders, and successful individuals and students have managed to flourish through it all.
http://ourweekly.com/features/black-family-battered-bruised-unbowed
“The ruin of a nation begins in the homes of it people”—Ashanti proverb
“To understand the Black family one must recognize the historical and socio-political environment of African Americans in this country beginning with enslavement and its devastating effect on the Black family. Current economic, political, social and health conditions continue to negatively impact the Black family.”—Faye Z. Belgrave, Ph.D.
GERMANTOWN, Md.—An interdenominational group of African American pastors has united to ignite a movement to renew marriage and fatherhood in the African American community.
In these modern times, we have seen a drastic change in the structure of the Black family. New generations are becoming increasingly sexually promiscuous and losing connection to traditional relationships and marital ideologies, including the concept of courting. What has changed our perspective on relationships? What has allowed couples to pursue non-monogamous relationships rather than those like their grandparents and parents had and have?
She’s a praying woman who faithfully attends Sunday school and morning service every week, along with Tuesday night prayer and Bible study. She wakes up every morning and prays for the family and prepares breakfast for her household full of grandbabies. She struggles to make ends meet on her measly Social Security check and government funds. Not to mention her health isn’t the best.
She’s that grandmother who has paid her dues, raised her own children and is now raising her children’s children.
Say mental illness in the African American community, and most likely you will cause a pause in conversations as large as the white elephant in the room. Mental illness has a disturbing and persistently negative history in the Black community throughout the United States.
Fueled by mistrust of a system that often views Black people as nothing more than guinea pigs ripe for experimentation, accepting the label “mentally ill” comes with a huge stigma.
