From 1890 to 1950, black women had a higher marriage rate than white women. And in 1950, just 9% of black children lived without their father. By 1960, the black marriage rate had declined but remained close to the white marriage rate. In other words, despite open racism and widespread poverty, strong black families used to be the norm.
But by the mid-1980s, black fatherlessness skyrocketed. Today, only 44% of black children have a father in the home. In unison, the rate of black out-of-wedlock births went from 24.5% in 1964 to 70.7% by 1994, roughly where it stands today.
It's a fair point. I'd also be curious about whether black women being higher earners relative to black men has more to do with being an affirmative-action-two-for-one.
I'm not a researcher so I can't prove the theory l'm about to advance but it seems to me that the post 60s valorisation of black males has played a big part in intensifying the cultural tendencies discussed. Young black men picked up on the way that white liberalism showered them with 'self esteem' and 'respect' and blah blah. Encouraged them to think of themselves as God's gift etc. All rather tending towards narcissism and all really bad for fatherhood responsibility and monogamy. Only part of the picture of course but that's been my observation down the decades
Both Murray and Sowell in their respective books, "Losing Ground" and "Wealth, poverty and politics", both argued that this rate skyrocketed due to the expansion of welfare state during the 1960s.
The finding "that black American women outearn white women after controlling for socio-economic background" is not surprising when you consider how much more aggressive black women are and which is proven by their higher than white male homicide rate per capita. Intimidating and outcompeting white female colleagues may be a piece of cake for them, especially with the aid of DEI policies.
There's probably an optimum level of aggressiveness. Aggressive enough to be pushy and push for promotions etc. and not be a 'shrinking violet' who gets pushed around, but not so aggressive as to start violently assaulting people and getting arrested.
If men are more aggressive than women, and blacks more aggressive than whites, then white men and black women might both be around the optimum levels for career success.
Well, that supports the evolutionary theory mentioned in the article, that colder regions necessitated more altruistic attitudes in men than warmer ones: "Miller argues that in regions where men devote considerable effort to mating, women have to fend for themselves and their children, and should therefore be more oriented toward work and professionalism."
Blank-slatist conservatives are wrong to reject genetics, but more correct than you're giving them credit for. Up until 1960, black marriage and divorce rates tracked white rates quite closely, and were slightly higher until 1950 (though this is confounded by the fact the blacks were mostly in the rural south, where marriage rates were higher). See figure 5 here (https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/jep.21.2.27).
As you've pointed out in the article, blacks have had consistently higher rates of promiscuity, infidelity and bastardry than whites for as long as we have records in the United States, but the absolute levels of these things changed enormously and rapidly for the worst post-Great Society, 2nd wave feminism, and Civil Rights, which collectively made marriage much less valuable. The complete disintegration of the black family after 1960 is also not unique, just a faster version of what's happening with whites (see Coming Apart or the linked report).
The synthesis is that both blacks and whites respond to incentives wrt sex and marriage, but whites are more "genetically monogamous," and as such will have relatively stronger families given the same legal, cultural, and economic incentives. But it isn't just relative strength that matters here.
Many of the cultural and societal problems in the United States have been purposively promoted by the Deep State as Acts of Societal Disruption in an effort to destroy our civilization with the goal of total control.
maybe I missed something, but this review of the lit doesn't encourage me much about the equality of races. none at all in fact. no matter what, slavery or freedom, a lot of dysfunction.
" By 1960, the black marriage rate had declined but remained close to the white marriage rate. In other words, despite open racism and widespread poverty, strong black families used to be the norm."
That was a time when you could go to Greenwich Village or the North Beach of San Francisco if you wanted to live without concern for traditional Christian morality-and that was about it. Leave the borders of Munchkinland and you were likely to be knocked in the head by a teenage (white) goon.
And there was a time (before independence and beyond to some extent), when Jamaica had one of the lowest crime rates in the world. Ian Fleming and Noel Coward were very comfortable with having their primary residences there. Today, Jamaica has the highest homicide rate of any country in the world. Wikipedia ("Crime in Jamaica"): " When Jamaica gained independence in 1962, the murder rate was 3.9 per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the lowest in the world. In 2022, Jamaica had 1,508 murders, for a murder rate of 53.34 per 100,000 people, the highest murder rate in the world. Jamaica recorded 1,680 murders in 2009.
I think we all know the social and legal environments were radically different in 1950 and 1960 from what they are today. There was a lot more social discipline for everyone, That was why, famously, the hippies didn't like it so much. Generally, more social discipline for blacks than whites because of Jim Crow in the South and informal partial Jim Crow in most of the rest of the country and probably other factors I don't want to get into because I'm not writing an essay.
Slavery is a very disruptive and evil thing. It was a huge mistake bringing blacks to a continent controlled by whites. The colonies and subsequent United States have suffered from it since then. The fact is black and white culture is not compatible.
Before the 1965 Civil Rights Act, black families were much more cohesive.
Are there any conservatives that are ready to cut off welfare to single mothers? To the point where their children will go without food/shelter/medical care?
No, there is some desire to shame deadbeat dads but there is little juice left to squeeze there.
Single moms would rather be married to the state than men that would want them. They will vote for that. That’s the equilibrium. Unless the vote is taken away from single moms and conservatives grow a spine nothing will change.
"Are there any conservatives that are ready to cut off welfare to single mothers? To the point where their children will go without food/shelter/medical care?"
That would, in my view, be unfair on the children, who are, after all, hardly to blame for the poor decision-making of their mothers. The better solution would surely be to prevent such women from bearing children in the first place through some kind of 'parental licensing scheme', as advocated by behavior geneticist David Lykken, for example, whereby women have to apply for a licence before they are allowed to bear offspring, ideally enforced, where necessary, by compulsary abortions and sterilization. Unfortunately, however, under the current political climate, this is probably even more unthinkable than cutting off welfare to single mothers.
"How the cold winter theory affect hot weather european countries like Portugal, South Spain, Italy etc...?"
Excellent question. The 'theory' that environment played a significant part in racial differences is unfounded. The preponderance of racial trait differences is due to genetic evolution...not to overlook the fact that environmental conditions can affect genetic selection through survivability
the first big cultures and empires in europe originated in south europe, greeks, roman the protuguese and spanish empire,the dominance of northen europe geopolitics,science and economic is a lot more recent
also the first big cultures in the world originated in hot climates, egyptians, mesopotamic, sumerians, the cold climate intelligence theory is a really bad take, agriculture and acces to water resources were more important to create cultures and empires
Some view civilizational culture as the response of genetic expression to a given environment over evolutionary time frames. On that basis, things begin to make sense in (pre-)historical times. But what happens when modernity drives extremely rapid cultural change favoring dysgenic reproduction in ever-increasing numbers and frequency? Can't be good...
This is an interesting article. I do think that welfare has a lot to do with the destruction of the black family and rise of single mother homes. But, there's another factor too, declining religiosity specifically Christianity that built the western world.
Anti-adultery/promiscuity, focus on the family and greater society, anti-infant abortion: these ideals and more came from Christianity. The lack of them have corroded American society. Whites and hispanics are galloping after similar rates of dysfunction that the black family has.
I'm not sure how to respond to this article. I haven't thought much about the causes of the various dysfunctions in the American black community, but I've never been sympathetic to slavery as the foundational root cause of the dysfunctions simply because slavery seems to be the "cause" whatever the issue, drowning out any voices arguing for "individual agency." This article actually makes me more sympathetic to the slavery reason, at least regarding the dysfunctions of the black family and family formation.
But once family formation fails from one generation to the next, it becomes the norm in a community. How you break this cycle is the question, one that is greatly exacerbated when BLM and other activist groups seek to destroy the nuclear family as an instrument of the patriarchy.
And what about white male pathologies like suicide, pedophilia and famicilide, since you care soo much about moral vices? How about eradicating the endemic pathologies about the white male community instead of trying to save others to feel better about yourselves and your pathetic condition. Asian and hispanic have been outcompeting whites in the west coast, you cant even save your demographic from replacement and you are trying to save others lol. How genuinely ironic
Seriously. Over 70+% of black children are born out of wedlock to black mothers. ~3-5% of black males commit nearly 60% of violent crime in the US. This absolutely is related to family breakdown. The black family is in need of repair. Just because the discussion is on topic X, doesn't mean that topic Y doesn't matter. We are discussing topic X.
Where's your evidence that "suicide, pedophilia and famicilide" are exclusively, predominantly or even disproportionately "white male pathologies". While all these behaviours may be disproportionately engaged in by men, they're not always, nor even usually, white men.
Regarding suicide, I know Japan and South Korea have high suicides as compared to other developed economies, but both are Asians countries. A lot of non-white developing countries also have suicide rates much higher than those reported in most of Europe and North America.
As for pedophilia, I recall looking into this subject a few years back and finding that, at least in the USA, blacks were actually overrepresented as child sex offenders as compared to whites, they were just overrepesented to a lesser degree than they were among other types of violent offender, rather as they are among serial killers, another type of offence traditionally (and wrongly) thought to be overwhelmingly committed by white males.
This is interesting. My GG grandfather was 1/2 black and come to Lower Canada in 1837 from a slave plantation in Barbados. I know a lot about the white side of our planter family, but very little about the slave side. I dont know what to say, except that this grandfather did marry in Canada and had a large family, from which I am descended.
I just learnt so much about why Caucasians restrict female sexuality and why my foreign students purvey the promiscuity of their male counterparts so vivaciously. Makes total sense.
From 1890 to 1950, black women had a higher marriage rate than white women. And in 1950, just 9% of black children lived without their father. By 1960, the black marriage rate had declined but remained close to the white marriage rate. In other words, despite open racism and widespread poverty, strong black families used to be the norm.
But by the mid-1980s, black fatherlessness skyrocketed. Today, only 44% of black children have a father in the home. In unison, the rate of black out-of-wedlock births went from 24.5% in 1964 to 70.7% by 1994, roughly where it stands today.
https://ifstudies.org/blog/family-breakdown-and-americas-welfare-system
That’s a very hard statistic to explain away.
Loosening of social norms (racism) gave rise to more natural behaviour among African Americans?
It's a fair point. I'd also be curious about whether black women being higher earners relative to black men has more to do with being an affirmative-action-two-for-one.
Connected to the disincentive to marry or stay married.
I'm not a researcher so I can't prove the theory l'm about to advance but it seems to me that the post 60s valorisation of black males has played a big part in intensifying the cultural tendencies discussed. Young black men picked up on the way that white liberalism showered them with 'self esteem' and 'respect' and blah blah. Encouraged them to think of themselves as God's gift etc. All rather tending towards narcissism and all really bad for fatherhood responsibility and monogamy. Only part of the picture of course but that's been my observation down the decades
And the valorising of sport and forms of entertainment where black men excel will have contributed to the same observed effect.
"And the valorising of sport and forms of entertainment where black men excel will have contributed to the same observed effect."
Yes, the Deep State is all about providing bread and circuses for the proles in an effort to dissuade revolution.
I believe it has to do with dissolution of strong religious communities.
Both Murray and Sowell in their respective books, "Losing Ground" and "Wealth, poverty and politics", both argued that this rate skyrocketed due to the expansion of welfare state during the 1960s.
This is a very important observation. I am curious why the author left it out.
The finding "that black American women outearn white women after controlling for socio-economic background" is not surprising when you consider how much more aggressive black women are and which is proven by their higher than white male homicide rate per capita. Intimidating and outcompeting white female colleagues may be a piece of cake for them, especially with the aid of DEI policies.
Are higher homicide rates associated with higher income for any other demographic?
Men. They're more aggressive and competitive than women and they earn more after age 30.
I suppose. That is literally the inverse of what we observe when looking at black men vs. black women, though.
There's probably an optimum level of aggressiveness. Aggressive enough to be pushy and push for promotions etc. and not be a 'shrinking violet' who gets pushed around, but not so aggressive as to start violently assaulting people and getting arrested.
If men are more aggressive than women, and blacks more aggressive than whites, then white men and black women might both be around the optimum levels for career success.
Well, that supports the evolutionary theory mentioned in the article, that colder regions necessitated more altruistic attitudes in men than warmer ones: "Miller argues that in regions where men devote considerable effort to mating, women have to fend for themselves and their children, and should therefore be more oriented toward work and professionalism."
Blank-slatist conservatives are wrong to reject genetics, but more correct than you're giving them credit for. Up until 1960, black marriage and divorce rates tracked white rates quite closely, and were slightly higher until 1950 (though this is confounded by the fact the blacks were mostly in the rural south, where marriage rates were higher). See figure 5 here (https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/jep.21.2.27).
As you've pointed out in the article, blacks have had consistently higher rates of promiscuity, infidelity and bastardry than whites for as long as we have records in the United States, but the absolute levels of these things changed enormously and rapidly for the worst post-Great Society, 2nd wave feminism, and Civil Rights, which collectively made marriage much less valuable. The complete disintegration of the black family after 1960 is also not unique, just a faster version of what's happening with whites (see Coming Apart or the linked report).
The synthesis is that both blacks and whites respond to incentives wrt sex and marriage, but whites are more "genetically monogamous," and as such will have relatively stronger families given the same legal, cultural, and economic incentives. But it isn't just relative strength that matters here.
Many of the cultural and societal problems in the United States have been purposively promoted by the Deep State as Acts of Societal Disruption in an effort to destroy our civilization with the goal of total control.
Genetics or culture?
> Blank-slatist conservatives are wrong to reject genetics,
Conversely the Bio-Calvinists like the OP are wrong to ignore culture.
maybe I missed something, but this review of the lit doesn't encourage me much about the equality of races. none at all in fact. no matter what, slavery or freedom, a lot of dysfunction.
" By 1960, the black marriage rate had declined but remained close to the white marriage rate. In other words, despite open racism and widespread poverty, strong black families used to be the norm."
That was a time when you could go to Greenwich Village or the North Beach of San Francisco if you wanted to live without concern for traditional Christian morality-and that was about it. Leave the borders of Munchkinland and you were likely to be knocked in the head by a teenage (white) goon.
And there was a time (before independence and beyond to some extent), when Jamaica had one of the lowest crime rates in the world. Ian Fleming and Noel Coward were very comfortable with having their primary residences there. Today, Jamaica has the highest homicide rate of any country in the world. Wikipedia ("Crime in Jamaica"): " When Jamaica gained independence in 1962, the murder rate was 3.9 per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the lowest in the world. In 2022, Jamaica had 1,508 murders, for a murder rate of 53.34 per 100,000 people, the highest murder rate in the world. Jamaica recorded 1,680 murders in 2009.
I think we all know the social and legal environments were radically different in 1950 and 1960 from what they are today. There was a lot more social discipline for everyone, That was why, famously, the hippies didn't like it so much. Generally, more social discipline for blacks than whites because of Jim Crow in the South and informal partial Jim Crow in most of the rest of the country and probably other factors I don't want to get into because I'm not writing an essay.
Slavery is a very disruptive and evil thing. It was a huge mistake bringing blacks to a continent controlled by whites. The colonies and subsequent United States have suffered from it since then. The fact is black and white culture is not compatible.
Before the 1965 Civil Rights Act, black families were much more cohesive.
I suspect the cohesion was a consequence of a socially conservative society more than anything. No fault divorce has a lot to pay for.
Are there any conservatives that are ready to cut off welfare to single mothers? To the point where their children will go without food/shelter/medical care?
No, there is some desire to shame deadbeat dads but there is little juice left to squeeze there.
Single moms would rather be married to the state than men that would want them. They will vote for that. That’s the equilibrium. Unless the vote is taken away from single moms and conservatives grow a spine nothing will change.
"Are there any conservatives that are ready to cut off welfare to single mothers? To the point where their children will go without food/shelter/medical care?"
That would, in my view, be unfair on the children, who are, after all, hardly to blame for the poor decision-making of their mothers. The better solution would surely be to prevent such women from bearing children in the first place through some kind of 'parental licensing scheme', as advocated by behavior geneticist David Lykken, for example, whereby women have to apply for a licence before they are allowed to bear offspring, ideally enforced, where necessary, by compulsary abortions and sterilization. Unfortunately, however, under the current political climate, this is probably even more unthinkable than cutting off welfare to single mothers.
How the cold winter theory affect hot weather european countries like Portugal, South Spain, Italy etc...?
"How the cold winter theory affect hot weather european countries like Portugal, South Spain, Italy etc...?"
Excellent question. The 'theory' that environment played a significant part in racial differences is unfounded. The preponderance of racial trait differences is due to genetic evolution...not to overlook the fact that environmental conditions can affect genetic selection through survivability
Well they are demonstrably less productive than the northern European states.
the first big cultures and empires in europe originated in south europe, greeks, roman the protuguese and spanish empire,the dominance of northen europe geopolitics,science and economic is a lot more recent
Very true. And they were civilized while the Britons and the Scandinavians were much more primitive.
also the first big cultures in the world originated in hot climates, egyptians, mesopotamic, sumerians, the cold climate intelligence theory is a really bad take, agriculture and acces to water resources were more important to create cultures and empires
So essentially black culture has always been black culture.
Some view civilizational culture as the response of genetic expression to a given environment over evolutionary time frames. On that basis, things begin to make sense in (pre-)historical times. But what happens when modernity drives extremely rapid cultural change favoring dysgenic reproduction in ever-increasing numbers and frequency? Can't be good...
This is an interesting article. I do think that welfare has a lot to do with the destruction of the black family and rise of single mother homes. But, there's another factor too, declining religiosity specifically Christianity that built the western world.
Anti-adultery/promiscuity, focus on the family and greater society, anti-infant abortion: these ideals and more came from Christianity. The lack of them have corroded American society. Whites and hispanics are galloping after similar rates of dysfunction that the black family has.
I'm not sure how to respond to this article. I haven't thought much about the causes of the various dysfunctions in the American black community, but I've never been sympathetic to slavery as the foundational root cause of the dysfunctions simply because slavery seems to be the "cause" whatever the issue, drowning out any voices arguing for "individual agency." This article actually makes me more sympathetic to the slavery reason, at least regarding the dysfunctions of the black family and family formation.
But once family formation fails from one generation to the next, it becomes the norm in a community. How you break this cycle is the question, one that is greatly exacerbated when BLM and other activist groups seek to destroy the nuclear family as an instrument of the patriarchy.
And what about white male pathologies like suicide, pedophilia and famicilide, since you care soo much about moral vices? How about eradicating the endemic pathologies about the white male community instead of trying to save others to feel better about yourselves and your pathetic condition. Asian and hispanic have been outcompeting whites in the west coast, you cant even save your demographic from replacement and you are trying to save others lol. How genuinely ironic
Seriously. Over 70+% of black children are born out of wedlock to black mothers. ~3-5% of black males commit nearly 60% of violent crime in the US. This absolutely is related to family breakdown. The black family is in need of repair. Just because the discussion is on topic X, doesn't mean that topic Y doesn't matter. We are discussing topic X.
Where's your evidence that "suicide, pedophilia and famicilide" are exclusively, predominantly or even disproportionately "white male pathologies". While all these behaviours may be disproportionately engaged in by men, they're not always, nor even usually, white men.
Regarding suicide, I know Japan and South Korea have high suicides as compared to other developed economies, but both are Asians countries. A lot of non-white developing countries also have suicide rates much higher than those reported in most of Europe and North America.
As for pedophilia, I recall looking into this subject a few years back and finding that, at least in the USA, blacks were actually overrepresented as child sex offenders as compared to whites, they were just overrepesented to a lesser degree than they were among other types of violent offender, rather as they are among serial killers, another type of offence traditionally (and wrongly) thought to be overwhelmingly committed by white males.
I had both of these authors in mind when I wrote this comment and as I read this post.
This is interesting. My GG grandfather was 1/2 black and come to Lower Canada in 1837 from a slave plantation in Barbados. I know a lot about the white side of our planter family, but very little about the slave side. I dont know what to say, except that this grandfather did marry in Canada and had a large family, from which I am descended.
I just learnt so much about why Caucasians restrict female sexuality and why my foreign students purvey the promiscuity of their male counterparts so vivaciously. Makes total sense.