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African American Families
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African American Families


April 2007 | 408 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc

"Bravo to the authors! They have done an excellent job addressing the issues that are critical to community members, policy makers and interventionists concerned with Black families in the context of our nation."
—Michael C. Lambert, University of Missouri, Colombia

"African American Families is a timely work. The strength of this text lies in the depth of coverage, clarity, and the ability to combine secondary sources, statistics and qualitative data to reveal the plight of African Americans in society."
—Edward Opoku-Dapaah, Winston-Salem State University

"African American Families is both engaging and challenging and is perhaps one of the most important works I have read in many years. This book will most certainly move the discourse of the socio-economic conditions of black families forward, beyond the boundaries already set by other books in the market. African American Families is an excellent book whose time has come, and one that I would most definitely adopt."
—Lateef O. Badru, University of Louisville

African American Families provides a systematic sociological study of contemporary life for families of African descent living in the United States. Analyzing both quantitative and qualitative data, authors Angela J. Hattery and Earl Smith identify the structural barriers that African Americans face in their attempts to raise their children and create loving, healthy, and raise the children of the next generation.

Key Features:

  • Uses the lens provided by the race, class, and gender paradigm: Examples illustrate the ways in which multiple systems of oppression interact with patterns of self-defeating behavior to create barriers that deny many African Americans access to the American dream.
  • Addresses issues not fully or adequately addressed in previous books on Black families: These issues include personal responsibility and disproportionately high rates of incarceration, family violence, and chronic illnesses like HIV/AIDS.
  • Brings statistical data to life: The authors weave personal stories based on interviews they've conducted into the usual data from scholarly(?) literature and from U.S. Census Bureau reports.
  • Provides several illustrations from Hurricane Katrina: A contemporary analysis of a recent disaster demonstrates many of the issues presented in the book such as housing segregation and predatory lending practices.
  • Offers extensive data tables in the appendices: Assembled in easy-to-read tables, students are given access to the latest national agencies data from agencies including the U.S. Census Bureau, Centers for Disease Control, and Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Intended Audience:

This is an ideal textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses such as African American Families, Sociology of the Family, Contemporary Families, and Race and Ethnicity in the departments of Human Development and Family Studies, Sociology, African American Studies, and Black Studies.


 
Preface
 
1. African American Families: A Brief Introduction
Objectives

 
Introduction

 
What We Hope to Accomplish

 
The Question of Social Class

 
Data Sources

 
Organization of the Book

 
Notes

 
 
2. African American Civil Society: Issues, Approaches, Demography, and Theory
Objectives

 
Introduction

 
Definitions

 
Race as a Social Construct

 
African American Families

 
Structural Versus Individual Explanations

 
African American Families: A Profile

 
Theoretical Approaches to Studying African American Families

 
Data and Methods

 
Notes

 
 
3. Family Formation, Marriage Rates, and Cohabitation
Objectives

 
Introduction

 
Factors That Affect Family Form

 
Functions and Purposes of Marriage

 
Marriage Patterns

 
The Marriage Gap

 
In Their Own Words

 
Race, Class, and Gender Analysis

 
Summary: Outcomes of the Low Marriage Rate

 
Solutions

 
Notes

 
 
4. Childbearing and Childrearing Patterns
Objectives

 
Introduction

 
Childbearing Patterns

 
Nonmarital Births

 
Race, Class, and Gender Paradigm

 
Conclusions

 
Solutions

 
Notes

 
 
5. Intimate Partner Violence
Objectives

 
Introduction

 
Definitions

 
The Problem

 
The Family Violence Approach

 
The Feminist Paradigm

 
Race, Class, and Gender Approach to Studying IPV

 
The Dirty Little Secret: IPV in the African American Community

 
African American Women as Victims/Survivors of IPV: Statistics/Rates

 
Men and Masculinity

 
Race, Class, and Gender Paradigm

 
Solutions

 
Notes

 
 
6. HIV and Other Social and Health Issues
Objectives

 
Introduction

 
The State of Health and Well-Being in African American Civil Society

 
Racial Disparities in Chronic Diseases

 
Racial Disparities in HIV/AIDS

 
Leading Causes of Death

 
Infant Mortality

 
Outcomes of Poor Health: Premature Death

 
Causes of Poor Health and Death

 
Environmental Injustice

 
The Politics of Health Care

 
The Genetics (and Politics) of Race/Ethnicity and Health

 
Race, Class and Gender Paradigm

 
Solutions

 
Notes

 
 
7. Access to Opportunity: Educational Attainment and Occupational Segregation
Objectives

 
Introduction

 
A Brief History of Race and Education

 
Educational Attainment

 
Access to Education: Legacy

 
The Economy

 
Race, Class, and Gender: African American Women's History of Work

 
Occupations and Work

 
Occupational Segregation: The Impact of Race and Gender

 
Causes of Occupational Segregation

 
Outcomes of Occupational Segregation

 
Financial Outcomes: Lower Earnings

 
Race, Class, and Gender Paradigm

 
Solutions

 
Notes

 
 
8. Welfare and Wealth
Objectives

 
Introduction

 
Income Versus Wealth

 
Income and Income Disparities

 
Wealth and Wealth Disparities

 
Wealth Disparities and Access to the American Dream?

 
Housing

 
A Clear Illustration: Hurricane Katrina

 
Poverty

 
Welfare

 
Welfare Reform

 
Stereotypes About Welfare and Poverty

 
Welfare Versus Work

 
Welfare Reform and Family Values

 
Welfare Reform and Incarceration, or African American Mothers Are Crackheads

 
Race, Class, and Gender Analysis

 
Solutions

 
Notes

 
 
9. African American Males and the Incarceration Problem: Not Just Confined to Prison
Objectives

 
Introduction

 
Definitions

 
Prisons as Total Institutions

 
The Growth of Prisons: Institutions and Population

 
The Purpose of Prison: Rehabilitation or a Tool of Capitalism?

 
The Demographics of the Prison Population: Race and Gender

 
Explaining Racial Disparities in Incarceration

 
The Effects of Incarceration on the Lives of Young African American Men

 
Felony Disenfranchisement

 
Other Bans-Social Services

 
Race, Class, and Gender Paradigm

 
Solutions

 
Notes

 
 
10. Conclusion: Solutions to a Longstanding Problem: Race, Class, and Patriarchy in the 21st Century
Summary and Review of the Primary Themes

 
Degrees of Separation

 
A Snapshot of the African American Family

 
The Struggles

 
The Causes

 
Bans

 
Family Form

 
The Relationship Between Structural Forces and Individual Choices

 
What Is To Be Done?

 
Structural Forces: Race, Class, and Gender

 
Final Thoughts

 
Notes

 
 
Appendices
 
References
 
About the Authors
 
Index

I am excited about the content provided in this book. It will be used in my COUN 632 Family and Couples Counseling courses as a supplemental, recommended textbook purchase.

Dr Tracey M Duncan
Education , New Jersey City University
October 17, 2015

Needed an updated sociology of the african american textbook; this book received 4 out of 4 recommendations

Ms Joyce Shaw
Social Sciences Dept, Elizabeth City State University
August 22, 2011

For instructors

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