Fatherlessness among African Americans
We, humans, are social animals whose children spend an extraordinarily long period being fully dependent on their parents. Because of this extended period under the care of our parents, they have an extraordinary impact on our lives. We have several overt and covert ways of acknowledging the impact they have on our development. For instance, the phrase, ‘mother-tongue’ subtly pays homage to the fact that we learn some languages from being our mothers. More overt impacts of parental care include inheritances, where parents bequeath wealth to their children. Inheritance is such a significant part of life that heated political debates about inheritance tax, or ‘death tax’ have been key campaign issues. Additionally, a good portion of the richest people on earth got their wealth from inheritance. Therefore, since parental care is so impactful, it is devastating when a child is deprived of the care of a parent. The opportunity cost of not having a caring household to grow up cannot be fully quantified, but the impact can be felt. This paper explores these impacts in one specific demographic, the African – American community. The paper addresses whether the long term impacts of fatherlessness on the child’s psychology, emotions, and social development.
I am a member of the African American community. I have seen first-hand the effect that fatherlessness has had on my community. I have grown up with African American children from across the spectrum, some with both parents, others a single father, others a single mother, and some with neither who are under the care of extended family or a guardian. I myself grew up in a one-parent home since my father was barely ever around. As a child, I noticed that there were differences between these various types of children. I could see certain patterns of behavior around children from one background were not present in children from another. However, since I was a child, I did not make of much it, and only later did I look back and consciously examine this period and make the connections between what the behavior I observed and the parental situation at home.
The history of Fatherlessness in African American homes can be traced back to several systematic and historical factors. The African American community has borne the brunt of several historical injustices that have strained and sometimes torn the fabric of the community’s culture. From the onset of the African American experience on the North American continent, deliberate actions have been taken, which have had the effect of separating families. For instance, during the era when slavery was legal, Mothers, fathers, and children would be taken from their societies in Africa, shackled up, and led to a market where they would be sold. Buyers then would buy the person they wanted, load them up onto a ship, and ship them to the USA. Once again, these human beings would be resold once they got to the American mainland. This entire chain was inhumane. From the start of the process, no emphasis was placed on maintaining the integrity of the family structure. In fact, the entire system deliberately undermined the familial unit as a whole. The psychological toll of being taken as a slave or having a family member must have scarred the family for life. Furthermore, had the whole family been taken, the shame and horror of watching the entire family shackled, abused, and sold must have been devastating? Finally, since buyers only bought the slaves they desired, family members were systematically ripped apart as less desirable members were left unsold at the market (Morgan, 2005).
Once on the mainland, further degradation of the family and the role of fatherhood continued. These hitherto independent communities had lived with complete sovereignty were forced to live together under the lordship of a master. These people from different communities that had their own languages, political system, familial hierarchy, and culture all had to embrace slavery. Those who did resist and ran away faced the risk of death. This system destroyed any traditional role of fatherhood and forced African Americans to develop a new culture. However, slavery eventually ended.
Since the end of slavery, the role of the father in African American society has remained under systematic strain. In the re-construction period, the lynching of African American men was commonplace. The families of the victims were then left fatherless. Surprisingly, legislation to outlaw lynching has failed to pass Congress multiple times. In modern times incarceration is the modern tool used to take African American men away from their families. African Americans make up less than 15% of the total American population, while they simultaneously are more than 30% of the prison population. Most African Americans are in jail as a result of drug convictions.
The war on drugs has been especially brutal to African Americans and Latinos. These minorities comprise more than half of all drug convictions in state and federal prisons across the country (Bobo & Thompson, 2006). The use of mandatory minimums despite regardless of how harmful or harmless the crime was further compounds the problem. Ironically, with the wave of legalization of Marijuana, Caucasian capitalists are making millions selling the same drugs that have kept African Americans in jail for decades. Potential African American investors are no match for the well-to-do and often politically connected businessmen like a former speaker for the house of Representative John Boehner. Mr. Boehner, who, as a member of Congress once voted against the legalization of medical marijuana, is now a board member at Acreage Holdings, one of the largest Marijuana companies in the country. These reasons, along with other reasons such as poverty created by redlining and racism, have contributed to the strain placed on fatherhood leading to absentee fathers. In the wake of such deep-rooted social disruption, it not surprising that so many African American families face challenges, including fatherlessness.
Fatherlessness has been linked to many developmental problems. Poverty is one of these major problems. As a child and even now, I still see that many single-parent homes are struggling financially. These often single-mother homes have mothers who work two and sometimes even three jobs to cater to the family. A few others have legal orders mandating the father to pay for part of the family upkeep. However, that doesn’t necessarily help since the fathers are rarely wealthy either. On the other hand, double parent homes don’t have such severe poverty. Often the two parents collaborate to lower costs by doing things such as living together.
Poverty rates in single-parent homes are much higher than double parent homes. Logically, single-parent homes have half the earning potential of double parent homes. Furthermore, whereas both sets of families may have the same bills, the double parent homes are paid by two parents, whereas single-parent homes only one income. Naturally, the double parent home nation is less fragile than the single parent, and a job loss is not as detrimental. Raj Chetty, a researcher at the National Bureau of Economic Research, found that having fathers is a primary factor that predicts the future upward income mobility for children in that neighborhood (Chetty et al., 2014). They found this to be true across the board even when they controlled other variables such as schools, race, and ethnicity. They attributed this future immobility to the choices that these children are influenced to make. For instance, it was found that children of single-family homes are likely to turn to criminal behavior, get convicted, go to jail, drop out of school an engage in early secular activities and even get a child of wedlock. Therefore, these choices hamper their ability to potentially rise in the income hierarchy by saddling them with additional responsibilities. Interestingly It welfare programs contributed to the rise of fatherlessness in the African American community since some of these programs gave money only to fatherless homes. In essence, these programs paid mothers to keep fathers away from their families (Riley, 2015).
Fatherlessness has also been found to affect female children’s sexual development. It has been found that girls who grew up without a father or had a father who left them at an early stage are far more likely to get pregnant than those who did not. Furthermore, these fatherless girls were more likely to go through puberty sooner. Scientists found that when income, ethnicity, and BMI were controlled, and females experienced early-onset breast development if they were from fatherless homes (Deardorff et al., 2011). Further research found that these girls would have less stable relationships with men if their mothers did not date or had unstable relationships with their fathers, too (Teachman, 2004). This instability, along with early puberty, feeds the cycle and creates more fatherless children born to young mothers who also have to struggle.
As I grew up, I noticed that more single-mother families had legal problems than double parent families. Those that had only their mother were arrested more often, consequently had more legal troubles and a criminal record. The criminal record haunted them throughout ther lives, and they often couldn’t get jobs because of their criminal activities in the past. Luckily I haven’t gotten into any such trouble myself.
Family structure is often an indicator of whether children become delinquent. In double parent homesteads, the parents can both supervise the children since the other parent can be looking after other responsibilities. However, in single-parent homes, where the child has almost no interaction with the father, the child is much more likely to end up in the Juvenile Justice system. Gangs are often very inviting to these individuals. They fill the hole created by the fathers’ absence. They provide a sense of belonging, community, and acceptance. Additionally, the gang leader may provide guidance and authority that the child may not get at home (Towns, 2007).
In summary, it is clear that fatherlessness is devastating. Historical and systematic factors predispose African American families to fatherlessness. Modern-day actors such as the racist war on drugs, and effects from older policies like welfare qualifications and redlining compound the problem even further. These children grow up to face a variety of challenges that their two-parent counterparts do not. They are more susceptible to teen pregnancies, drug abuse, obesity, crime, and poverty. Some of these consequences, like early pregnancy, crime, and poverty, create feedback loops that generate even more fatherlessness. However, the chain is not unbreakable. Steps like free education, more sustainable welfare systems, and mentorship can break the cycle. The end of racist law enforcement can also dramatically shift the balance of fatherlessness by releasing convicted fathers and allowing them to reunite with their families. The mothers, guardians, foster parents, and extended family members who step in and provide support for these children and ensure they not only have food, shelter, and clothing but have emotional support and mentorship are commendable. In conclusion, fatherlessness among American children should be addressed by a nation as a whole where various stakeholder pool together to find a solution.
References
Bobo, L. D., & Thompson, V. (2006). Unfair by design: The war on drugs, race, and the legitimacy of the criminal justice system. Social Research: An International Quarterly, 73(2), 445-472.
Chetty, R., Hendren, N., Kline, P., & Saez, E. (2014). Where is the Land of Opportunity? The Geography of Intergenerational Mobility in the United States. The Quarterly Journal of Economics (2014), 129(4). https://doi.org/10.3386/w19843
Deardorff, J., Ekwaru, J. P., Kushi, L. H., Ellis, B. J., Greenspan, L. C., Mirabedi, A., Landaverde, E. G., & Hiatt, R. A. (2011). Father Absence, Body Mass Index, and Pubertal Timing in Girls: Differential Effects by Family Income and Ethnicity. Journal of Adolescent Health, 48(5), 441–447. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2010.07.032
Morgan, K. (Ed.). (2005). Slavery in America: a reader and guide. University of Georgia Press.
Riley, J. L. (2015, February 11). Still Right on the Black Family After All These Years. Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/jason-l-riley-still-right-on-the-black-family-after-all-these-years-1423613625
Teachman, J. D. (2004). The Childhood Living Arrangements of Children and the Characteristics of Their Marriages. Journal of Family Issues, 25(1), 86–111. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513×03255346
Towns, Armond R. “Ghetto Blues: The Organizational Street Culture of Black” Masculine” Gang Members in a White World.” Kaleidoscope: A Graduate Journal of Qualitative Communication Research 6 (2007).