African American Family Essay

“I, Nick Cannon, take you Mariah Carey, to be my wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; from this day forward until death do us part.” African American superstar, Nick Cannon has beat the odds of being an African American men and getting married. This vow is rarely said by most of the African American males population. Over the last twenty-five years, marriage rates among African American males have declined dramatically. By 1994, the percentage of never-married men increased to 42.4 percent and only 46 percent of African American men were married (Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1995). This in fact has only worsened as shown
Life among a large portion of the Urban African American population is casual, precarious, and fragmentary. It lack continuity and its roots so not go deeper than the contingencies of daily living. This affects the socialization of African American children. With a fourth to a third of African American families in cities without a male head, man African American children suffer the initial handicap of not having the discipline and authority in the home. African American mothers who have the responsibility for the support of the family are forced to neglect their children who pick up all forms of socially disapproved behavior in the disorganized areas in which these families are concentrated. (Tucker, 1995, pp. 4)
Tucker statement illustrates the need for African American men to commit and marry in order to help raise the next generation. This make sense even today as one can look at the number of kids in schools and the juvenile system who have been found to consistently get into trouble. When looked into the delinquents personal background it is common to find them coming from a house hold lacking a male