The Myth Of The Absent Black Father

[Brainstormy]

I find this heartening news. The CDC has completed a study that blows up the stereotypes about black fatherhood. Black dads are more involved with their kids on a daily basis than dads from other racial groups.

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/01/16/3175831/myth-absent-black-father/

[Captain Stern]

1. The article seems a little misleading.

The study shows the following:

1. Black fathers that live with their kids are just as involved, or slightly more so, than white fathers that live with their kids.

2. Fathers of all races that don't live with their kids are far less involved with their children than fathers that do live with their kids.

3. Black fathers that don't live with their kids are more involved than white fathers that don't live with their kids.

While it's certainly good news that black fathers that live with their kids are just as involved as white fathers that live with their kids (I've never really heard it claimed otherwise), the article never tells us what percentage of black fathers and white fathers don't live with their kids. I've always thought the idea of 'the absent black father' was about there being a greater percentage of black fathers that don't live with their kids than the percentage of white fathers that don't live with their kids.

[Niceguy1]

3. the fine print made mention that

may not even be a difference due to the margin of error

[El_Johns]

4. How could it not be a difference when black men are incarcerated at the highest rate of any

group by quite a margin?

[hfojvt]

6. most of it is NOT due to incarceration

Prison will take a father away from his family, but most of the single mothers never married the father of their child.

[El_Johns]

7. what is "it"? Whether or not the parents marry, they're still the parents. I don't understand

what you're talking about. A father remains a father, married or not, and a mother a mother.

[hfojvt]

12. I thought "it"

was "an absentee father" as was posted above, although I did not click the link to see if it was accurate quote/summary

"2. Fathers of all races that don't live with their kids are far less involved with their children than fathers that do live with their kids."

The census recorded "single mothers" and then listed various reasons for an absentee father - divorce, separation, death, or never married. The biggest factor by far being "never married".

I didn't include "death" in any of the totals since I figured it probably was not their first choice.

[hfojvt]

5. that would be a big 10-4

Last edited Tue Jan 21, 2014, 12:30 PM - Edit history (1)

By race, the percentage of white children living with their mother alone, who a) never married, b) are divorced, or c) are separated is about 17.4%

For black children that number is 47.7%.

And, the trend may be growing. The percentage of all children, whose mother never married her child's father (of any race) by the age of the child

age - % never married - % divorced/separated
under age 1 - 16.7% - 3.4%
1-2 - 15.5% - 5%
3-5 - 13.9% - 8.3%
6-8 - 12% - 10.2%
9-11 - 10% - 12.6%
12-14 - 10% - 14.3%
15-17 - 7.3% - 14.9%

data from the census, percentages from my calculator http://www.census.gov/hhes/families/data/cps2012C.html

It is interesting that percentage of children living with two parents was steady at about 83% until about 1968 when it started dropping. What caused that?

This link has some historical data
http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/p70-126.pdf

[LeftyMom]

8. "baby daddy" is a racist dogwhistle

[hfojvt]

10. is it now

because I only have heard black people using it. That and "baby momma".

[Ken Burch]

13. You're just gonna keep doubling down on this, aren't you?

[hfojvt]

17. that simply is where I heard it IIRC

there were a bunch of these young kids working for a field organizer during the 2008 campaign.

That's simply where I remember hearing it, figured it was some new young people slang.

It just figures that I would pick up a "racist dogwhistle" by hanging out with black kids campaigning for Obama.

Just my luck.

[Tanuki]

15. You must have missed Fox "News" referring to Michelle Obama as

"Obama's Baby Mama" if you don't think it's a racist dog whistle.
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[Scuba]

16. Wow. I suppose I should be inured to Fox's racist smears, but, well, just wow.

[hfojvt]

18. I am sure it is

when it is applied to a married black woman.

Is my own post, I noted that the unmarried mothers or absent fathers were from "either race".

[XemaSab]

9. How do you feel about cannibalism and/or drinking blood?

[hfojvt]

11. How about

we just goto a movie instead?

Note the 9:16 mark

In an especially ironic note though, I go to YT and am first hit with - an ad for "Vampire academy".

[Tom Ripley]

2. K&R

[Donald Ian Rankin]

14. Unfortunately you're wrong, it's not a myth, and this is a classic statistical fallacy.

There's an old joke about a man who moved from one state to another, thereby increasing the average IQ of both, and this is precisely the same idea.

"Black dads are more involved with their kids on a daily basis than dads from other racial groups."

This data, if accurate, shows that
*Black fathers who live with their children are, on average slightly more involved than white fathers who live with their children
*Black fathers who do not live with their children are, on average slightly more involved than white fathers who do not live with their children
*Fathers who live with their children are, on average, massively more involved than fathers who do not, irrespective of race.

Since far more black than white fathers do not live with their children - someone upthread quotes 17% vs 47%, I don't know if they're right or not - it follows that on average they're significantly less involved.

[NM_Birder]

19. regardless of race........

A male who does not care for his family is not a man. There are too many male meat sacks not taking care of the business they started, or more directly not understanding the responsibilities and ramifications associated with sex.

Being less than a man does not have a racial preference, a white male not taking care of his family is no better than a black male abandoning his. The truth of the horror is that, today... males of all races are less likely to feel the absolute responsibility of the lives they helped create.

This is not to say that a woman is incapable of raising a child alone, of course they are,.. my point is that if males of ALL races were being raised to be men, ...fewer women would be left to raise a child alone.