How to help disadvantaged African American? What is the root cause of it?
I am very concerned about the status of disadvantaged African American and I do want to have a good policy to help them. My research shows much of the issues of African American faced today are caused by current policy.
Here “Marriage. Historically, strong marriages and commitment to family life have been central features of African-American families. In the last decade of the twentieth century, however, marriage rates among African Americans declined significantly. In 1998, for example, 41 percent of all African-American men over the age of eighteen had never been married and 37 percent of African-American women over the age of eighteen had never married (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1999). Experts on the African-American family have attributed the declining rates to the shortage of marriageable African-American males (Wilson 1987) and to structural, social, and economic factors (Tucker and Mitchell-Kernan 1995).” (ref 1)
What caused the marriage rates among African Americans declined significantly in the last decade?
Let’s see here: “For example, when President Lyndon Johnson launched the War on Poverty in 1964, 93 percent of children born in the United States were born to married parents. Since that time, births within marriage have declined sharply. In 2010, only 59 percent of all births in the nation occurred to married couples.” (ref 2)
The welfare programs put severe marriage penalties “if a woman on public assistance weds a man who is employed in a low-paying job. As a FamilyScholars.org report puts it: “When a couple's income nears the limits prescribed by Medicaid, a few extra dollars in income cause thousands of dollars in benefits to be lost. What all of this means is that the two most important routes out of poverty—marriage and work—are heavily taxed under the current U.S. system.” (ref3)
The welfare programs lead the generations of African American with no marriage, no work by punishing them with lost of thousands of dollars in benefits.
Is it the time to reform our welfare system to really take care the family in poverty?
Is it clearly the wrong approach by having racial quota on Asian American to attempt to help African American in college admission process?
Thanks
浪花
(member of)
United for a Better Community
Ref1: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3406900022.html
Ref3: http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/viewSubCategory.asp?id=1672
