How the War on Drugs gutted African-American families

[HotRocks]

Sorry if this is the wrong place for this, but I just saw this on Reddit and thought you guys might enjoy the read:

If the War on Drugs didn’t cause the destruction of the African-American family, why did the decline of married black women triple during the first decade of the War? And why did welfare spending spike in lockstep with our prison population right as it started?

Did the start of the War on Drugs play a significant role in creating our present economic and social realities – where the average black family has eight-cents of wealth for every dollar owned by whites, and a black child is nine-times more likely than a white child to have a parent in prison?

Not having both parents around can be directly linked to any number of issues, in fifty-years of international studies of over 10,000 subjects, researchers haven’t been able to find “any other class of experience that has as strong and consistent effect on personality and personality development as does the experience of [parental] rejection… children who were often rejected by their parents tend to feel more anxious and insecure, as well as more hostile and aggressive toward others. ” And surprisingly enough, the study showed that fatherly affection, or lack thereof, may shape our personality even more than attention from our mothers.

Just how damaging is it for a child to grow up in a fatherless home? Well, they produce: 71% of our high school drop-outs, 85% of the kids with behavioral disorders, 90% of our homeless and runaway children, 75% of the adolescents in drug abuse programs, and a striking majority in one final category. Out of all the kids in our juvenile detention facilities, 85% of them come from fatherless homes.

If your Dad’s in prison there’s an extraordinary high chance that you too will someday end up behind bars, creating a cycle of absence that has been perpetuating for two-generations within the African-American community.

[duhneece]

1. Have you read "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration..."

However bad the War on Drugs has been on whites (my son served 4 and a half years in prison for substance abuse), it has been devastating to the black community.

Another reason to repeal the War on Drugs, to treat addiction from a public health perspective.

[Igel]

2. There are two issues.

The first is "married black women." The second is "single-parent families."

Sure, they're connected. The fewer married women, all things being equal, the more single-parent families.

But try this.

The "War on Drugs" was 1971. But the real threat usually talked about was the war on crack that started in the early 1980s.

In 1971 the percent of kids living in single-parent househoulds was about 13%. Perhaps 2% were born to parents never marred. Most single-parents were separated or divorced (around 18%).

In 1971, the percent of kids living in single-parent black households was around 40%. Around 12% were with parents who'd never been married. Most single black parents were separated or divorced (around 27%).

The numbers of kids in single-parent households soared in the '70s and '80s. This was true for white kids as well as for black kids. Divorce rates increased and out of wedlock births increased--white, black, or Latino. For all families, the percentages levelled out as the war on crack began. For blacks, the percentage of kids in divorced/separated households declined.

By the mid-late 1990s the percentage of kids of all races in single-parent households was around 29%, about 16 percentage points higher than in 1971.The difference for non-black kids is masked in the average to some extent. But not enough to reverse the trends.

The percentage of black kids was more like 61%, 21 percentage points (roughly) higher than in 1971. (On the other hand, if you portray it as a percentage growth it's smaller. I think that woud be inappropriate since it's a finite population pool that we're talking about.)

The trends for all kids and for just black kids are similar. The increase in black kids--unless something like 200% of black kids were in single-parent households--can't account for the entire trend. Nor, if you look at more detailed charts, does it.

We need a variety of reasons for the change in separation/divorce rates and for the change in out-of-wedlock birth rates for non-blacks. It seems to add a factor to say that what affected black families was a single variable like the war on drugs (starting in 1971 or the early '80s). We'd need to account for why black families were especially low-risk for these things to increase the number of kids in single-parent families even as we account for why the number of kids in single-parent families started out far higher.

OP assumes that the question is answered and then, assuming the answer, act as though the analysis arrives at the answer. Specious. The uptick in the war on drugs--enacted for reasons best overlooked in order to keep the outrage stocked--is likely a contributing factor, to be sure. Then again, the reason for the uptick in the war on drugs also has to be included as a contributing factor.

[mzteris]

3. It started LONG before that.

The War on Drugs just helped facilitate the destruction of African American "families".

Slavery - you never knew from one day to the next whether your "spouse" would be sold or killed. One might be forced to "mate" to produce particular offspring. Parents and children separated at will.

Post-Slavery - African Americans were FREE to work, but wtf would hire them? The women continued working as "house slaves - er maids" - and the men went off to the big cities where they could get jobs as porters and kitchen help and other menial jobs. - if they were really lucky - factory. Again - separation of the family.

Enter Welfare: All able-bodied adults without children and two-parent families were disqualified from obtaining it. Et voila - incentive to have CHILDREN OUT OF WEDLOCK. AA's were getting shit for pay, the safety net for the poor was being pulled out from under them, so a solution was found. Have more kids. Don't get married. Younger and younger "moms" because then they'd get 'the welfare', too. Men started sleeping around because they COULD.

The law changed again because the "deserving poor" began to be perceived as the "undeserving poor" - poor single moms should have to WORK if they were able. Poor single men had to work, too!

Problem was/is - that good paying jobs for African American males were/are still in short supply. They have fewer opportunities and are paid less.

Poor education. Poor home environment (non-enriched learning opportunity in childhood). The easy availability of drugs to keep your mind off the fact that your life's sh*t. The realization - hey - I can make more money standing on the corner in a DAY that that sap next door makes all year working his ass off as a "_______________" (pick your job).

Your life was crap from the day you were born so you really DON"t CARE if you live or die so black male on black killing became common place and no one cared. Slums & housing projects exacerbated the situation.

The War on Drugs - increased the incarceration rate of black males.
White vs blacks - for the same crime - whites arrested less or charged with lesser crime.
Incarceration rates for whites were lower, paroled more, their terms shorter.

Take over 200 years of practices and policies that forced and encouraged the separation of the black "family" - that stripped the black male from the "family" setting. Et voila - you have a self-perpetuating problem.

Now Black Males have embraced and glorified treating women solely as sex "objects" to be used and discarded. The exaltation of the "gangsta" mentality - drugs and guns (& "having" women) equal power and prestige.

Housing "projects" (low rent housing) that keep "them" separated. An education gap that will never close until you improve the home conditions - parents who are educated. Parents who aren't high. Parents who are actually THERE. Parents who aren't totally exhausted from TRYING to work two jobs to improve their kids lives but they're on a merry-go-round of being disenfranchised by a society in which racism is not only entrenched but institutionalized.

The deck is stacked. The game is rigged. To win? You have to cheat or get very very lucky.

[Neoma]

4. There's an African American group.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1187

You could probably post it there too.