The Negro Family: The Case For National Action
The Negro Family: The Case For National Action, commonly known as the Moynihan Report, was a 1965 report on
Black sociologist
Background
While writing The Negro Family: The Case For National Action, Moynihan was employed in a political appointee position at the US Department of Labor, hired to help develop policy for the Johnson administration in its
When Moynihan published his report in 1965, the out-of-wedlock birthrate among blacks was 25 percent, much higher than that of whites.[4]
Contents
In the introduction to his report, Moynihan said that "the gap between the Negro and most other groups in American society is widening."[5] He also said that the collapse of the nuclear family in the black lower class would preserve the gap between possibilities for Negroes and other groups and favor other ethnic groups. He acknowledged the continued existence of racism and discrimination within society, despite the victories that blacks had won by civil rights legislation.[5]
Moynihan concluded, "The
More than 30 years later, S. Craig Watkins described Moynihan's conclusions: Representing: Hip Hop Culture and the Production of Black Cinema (1998):
The report concluded that the structure of family life in the black community constituted a 'tangle of pathology... capable of perpetuating itself without assistance from the white world,' and that 'at the heart of the deterioration of the fabric of Negro society is the deterioration of the Negro family. It is the fundamental source of the weakness of the Negro community at the present time.' Also, the report argued that the matriarchal structure of black culture weakened the ability of black men to function as authority figures. That particular notion of black familial life has become a widespread, if not dominant, paradigm for comprehending the social and economic disintegration of late 20th-century black urban life.[7]
Influence
External videos | |
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Discussion with Moynihan about The Negro Family on Meet the Press, December 12, 1965 |
The Moynihan Report generated considerable controversy and has had long-lasting and important influence. Writing to
Moynihan made a contemporaneous argument for programs for jobs, vocational training, and educational programs for the black community. Modern scholars of the 21st century, including
In 2009 historian Sam Tanenhaus wrote that Moynihan's fights with the New Left over the report were a signal that Great Society liberalism had political challengers both from the right and from the left.[9]
Reception and following debate
From the time of its publication, the report has been sharply attacked by black and civil rights leaders as examples of white patronizing, cultural bias, or racism. At various times, the report has been condemned or dismissed by the NAACP and other civil rights groups and leaders such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Critics accused Moynihan of relying on stereotypes of the black family and black men, implying that blacks had inferior academic performance, portrayed crime and pathology as endemic to the black community and failing to recognize that cultural bias and racism in standardized tests had contributed to apparent lower achievement by blacks in school.[10] The report was criticized for threatening to undermine the place of civil rights on the national agenda, leaving "a vacuum that could be filled with a politics that blamed Blacks for their own troubles."[11]
In 1987, Hortense Spillers, a black feminist academic, criticized the Moynihan Report on semantic grounds for its use of "matriarchy" and "patriarchy" when he described the African-American family. She argues that the terminology used to define white families cannot be used to define African-American families because of the way slavery has affected the African-American family.[12]
Scholar
African-American
Political commentator Heather Mac Donald wrote for National Review in 2008, "Conservatives of all stripes routinely praise Daniel Patrick Moynihan's prescience for warning in 1965 that the breakdown of the black family threatened the achievement of racial equality. They rightly blast those liberals who denounced Moynihan's report."[16]
Sociologist Stephen Steinberg argued in 2011 that the Moynihan report was condemned "because it threatened to derail the Black liberation movement."[11]
Attempting to divert responsibility
Psychologist William Ryan coined the phrase "blaming the victim" in his 1971 book Blaming the Victim,[17] specifically as a critique of the Moynihan report. He said that it was an attempt to divert responsibility for poverty from social structural factors to the behaviors and cultural patterns of the poor.[18]
Feminist critique
Some scholars argue the Moynihan Report presents a "male-centric" view of social problems, arguing that Moynihan and similar scholarship failed to take into account basic rational incentives for marriage
Counter-response
Declaring Moynihan "prophetic,"
In a 2001 interview with
My view is we had stumbled onto a major social change in the circumstances of post-modern society. It was not long ago in this past century that an anthropologist working in London – a very famous man at the time,
Malinowski – postulated what he called the first rule of anthropology: That in all known societies, all male children have an acknowledged male parent. That's what we found out everywhere… And well, maybe it's not true anymore. Human societies change.[41]
By the time of that interview, rates of the number of children born to single mothers had gone up in the white and Hispanic working classes as well. In November 2016, the Current Population Survey of the United States Census Bureau reported that 69 percent of children under the age of 18 lived with two parents, which was a decline from 88 percent in 1960, while the percentage of U.S. children under 18 living with one parent increased from 9 percent (8 percent with mothers, 1 percent with fathers) to 27 percent (23 percent with mothers, 4 percent with fathers).[42]
See also
- African-American family structure
- Black matriarchy
- Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study
- Is Marriage for White People?
- Losing Ground
- William Julius Wilson
References
- ISBN 978-0-67457-441-0.
- ^ Social Disruptions Ben Wattenberg, in The First Measured Century (PBS)
- ^ City Journal
- ^ Daniel P. Moynihan, The Negro Family: The Case for National Action, Washington, D.C., Office of Policy Planning and Research, US Department of Labor, 1965.
- ^ a b Moynihan, Daniel. "The Negro Family: The Case For National Action". United States Department of Labor. Archived from the original on April 28, 2014. Retrieved May 1, 2014.
- ^ a b Walter E. Williams (November 15, 2006). "How much does politics count?". Creators Syndicate. Archived from the original on October 22, 2007.
- ^ S. Craig Watkins, Representing: Hip Hop Culture and the Production of Black Cinema,, pp. 218–219
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 24, 2022.
- ISBN 9781588369482. Retrieved October 18, 2013.
- ^ Patterson, Freedom Is Not Enough: The Moynihan Report and America's Struggle Over Black Family Life From LBJ to Obama (2010).
- ^ a b Stephen Steinberg, "Poor Reason - Culture still doesn’t explain poverty", Boston Review, January 13, 2011.
- JSTOR 464747.
- ^ Ferguson, Roderick. Aberrations in Black.
- ^ Sowell, Thomas (November 23, 1998). "Random thoughts". Jewish World Review. Creators Syndicate. Archived from the original on April 20, 1999. Retrieved June 3, 2020.
- ^ Sowell, Thomas (May 5, 2015). "Race, Politics and Lies". Creators Syndicate. Archived from the original on May 7, 2015. Retrieved June 3, 2020.
- ^ Mac Donald, Heather (April 14, 2008). "The Hispanic Family: The Case for National Action". National Review. Archived from the original on May 14, 2010. Retrieved January 30, 2011.
- ^ George Kent (2003). "Blaming the Victim, Globally". UN Chronicle Online. XL (3). United Nations Department of Public Information. Archived from the original on December 24, 2003.
- ISBN 0-394-72226-4.
- ISBN 9780061319822.
- ISBN 978-0-19-507919-7.
- ^ Esping-Andersen, Gosta (2009). The Incomplete Revolution. Polity Press. pp. 20–25.
- ^ Fuchs, V. (1988). Women's Quest for Economic Equality. Harvard University Press.
- ^ McLanahan, S. and L. Casper, "Growing diversity and inequality in the American family", in R. Farley (ed.), State of the Union: America in the 1990s, New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1995, pp. 1–45.
- ^ Grove, Robert D.; Hetzel, Alice M. (1968). Vital Statistics Rates in the United States 1940–1960 (PDF) (Report). Public Health Service Publication. Vol. 1677. US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, US Public Health Service, National Center for Health Statistics. p. 185.
- ^ Ventura, Stephanie J.; Bachrach, Christine A. (October 18, 2000). Nonmarital Childbearing in the United States, 1940–99 (PDF) (Report). National Vital Statistics Reports. Vol. 48. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics System. pp. 28–31.
- ^ Martin, Joyce A.; Hamilton, Brady E.; Ventura, Stephanie J.; Menacker, Fay; Park, Melissa M. (February 12, 2002). Births: Final Data for 2000 (PDF) (Report). National Vital Statistics Reports. Vol. 50. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics System. p. 46.
- ^ Martin, Joyce A.; Hamilton, Brady E.; Ventura, Stephanie J.; Menacker, Fay; Park, Melissa M.; Sutton, Paul D. (December 18, 2002). Births: Final Data for 2001 (PDF) (Report). National Vital Statistics Reports. Vol. 51. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics System. p. 47.
- ^ Martin, Joyce A.; Hamilton, Brady E.; Sutton, Paul D.; Ventura, Stephanie J.; Menacker, Fay; Munson, Martha L. (December 17, 2003). Births: Final Data for 2002 (PDF) (Report). National Vital Statistics Reports. Vol. 52. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics System. p. 57.
- ^ Martin, Joyce A.; Hamilton, Brady E.; Sutton, Paul D.; Ventura, Stephanie J.; Menacker, Fay; Munson, Martha L. (September 8, 2005). Births: Final Data for 2003 (PDF) (Report). National Vital Statistics Reports. Vol. 54. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics System. p. 52.
- ^ Martin, Joyce A.; Hamilton, Brady E.; Sutton, Paul D.; Ventura, Stephanie J.; Menacker, Fay; Kirmeyer, Sharon (September 29, 2006). Births: Final Data for 2004 (PDF) (Report). National Vital Statistics Reports. Vol. 55. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics System. p. 57.
- ^ Martin, Joyce A.; Hamilton, Brady E.; Sutton, Paul D.; Ventura, Stephanie J.; Menacker, Fay; Kirmeyer, Sharon; Munson, Martha L. (December 5, 2007). Births: Final Data for 2005 (PDF) (Report). National Vital Statistics Reports. Vol. 56. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics System. p. 57.
- ^ Martin, Joyce A.; Hamilton, Brady E.; Sutton, Paul D.; Ventura, Stephanie J.; Menacker, Fay; Kirmeyer, Sharon; Mathews, T.J. (January 7, 2009). Births: Final Data for 2006 (PDF) (Report). National Vital Statistics Reports. Vol. 57. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics System. p. 54.
- ^ Martin, Joyce A.; Hamilton, Brady E.; Sutton, Paul D.; Ventura, Stephanie J.; Mathews, T.J.; Kirmeyer, Sharon; Osterman, Michelle J.K. (August 9, 2010). Births: Final Data for 2007 (PDF) (Report). National Vital Statistics Reports. Vol. 58. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics System. p. 46.
- ^ Martin, Joyce A.; Hamilton, Brady E.; Sutton, Paul D.; Ventura, Stephanie J.; Mathews, T.J.; Osterman, Michelle J.K. (December 8, 2010). Births: Final Data for 2008 (PDF) (Report). National Vital Statistics Reports. Vol. 59. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics System. p. 46.
- ^ Martin, Joyce A.; Hamilton, Brady E.; Ventura, Stephanie J.; Osterman, Michelle J.K.; Kirmeyer, Sharon; Mathews, T.J.; Wilson, Elizabeth C. (November 3, 2011). Births: Final Data for 2009 (PDF) (Report). National Vital Statistics Reports. Vol. 60. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics System. p. 46.
- ^ Martin, Joyce A.; Hamilton, Brady E.; Ventura, Stephanie J.; Osterman, Michelle J.K.; Wilson, Elizabeth C.; Mathews, T.J. (August 28, 2012). Births: Final Data for 2010 (PDF) (Report). National Vital Statistics Reports. Vol. 61. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics System. p. 45.
- ^ Martin, Joyce A.; Hamilton, Brady E.; Ventura, Stephanie J.; Osterman, Michelle J.K.; Mathews, T.J. (June 28, 2013). Births: Final Data for 2011 (PDF) (Report). National Vital Statistics Reports. Vol. 62. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics System. p. 43.
- ^ Martin, Joyce A.; Hamilton, Brady E.; Osterman, Michelle J.K.; Curtin, Sally C. (December 30, 2013). Births: Final Data for 2012 (PDF) (Report). National Vital Statistics Reports. Vol. 62. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics System. p. 41.
- ^ Martin, Joyce A.; Hamilton, Brady E.; Osterman, Michelle J.K.; Curtin, Sally C.; Mathews, T.J. (January 15, 2015). Births: Final Data for 2013 (PDF) (Report). National Vital Statistics Reports. Vol. 64. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics System. p. 40.
- ^ Hamilton, Brady E.; Martin, Joyce A.; Osterman, Michelle J.K.; Curtin, Sally C.; Mathews, T.J. (December 23, 2015). Births: Final Data for 2014 (PDF) (Report). National Vital Statistics Reports. Vol. 64. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics System. pp. 7 & 41.
- ^ "Daniel Patrick Moynihan Interview". PBS.
- ^ "The Majority of Children Live With Two Parents, Census Bureau Reports". United States Census Bureau. November 17, 2016. Retrieved May 23, 2021.
Further reading
- Aksamit, Daniel. "How the pathology became tangled: Daniel Patrick Moynihan and the liberal explanation of poverty since the 1960s." PS: Political Science & Politics 50.2 (2017): 374-378.
- Averbeck, Robin Marie. (2015) "The Good Old Liberals," Jacobin Magazine, recounts critiques of the Moynihan Report by Civil Rights leaders and provides a Left response to recurring 'nostalgia' for Moynihan in the press.
- Ferguson, Roderick A. (2004) Aberrations in Black: Toward a Queer of Color Critique University of Minnesota Press. In chapter 4, Ferguson analyzes the Moynihan Report as a coalition of sociological canons, black nationalism, the civil rights movement, neoconservative resentment, and neo-racist tendencies to initiate a trend that sought to reaffirm heteropatriarchal normativity
- Hymowitz, Kay S. (Summer 2005) "The Black Family: 40 Years of Lies"," City Journal, argues that early rejection of the Moynihan Report caused untold, needless misery in inner city communities.
- Geary, Daniel. "Racial Liberalism, the Moynihan Report, and the Daedalus Project on 'The Negro American'," Daedalus, 140 (Winter 2011), 53–66.
- Geary, Daniel. Beyond Civil Rights: The Moynihan Report and Its Legacy (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015).
- Geary, Daniel. " 'Racial self-help' or 'Blaming the Victim' ", Salon, 19 July 2015
- Klass, Gary, Book review of William Ryan's Blaming the Victim (1976): [1], 1995
- Kristol, Irving (August 1971). "The Best of Intentions, the Worst of Results", The Atlantic, discusses Moynihan and his critics
- Massey, Douglas S., and Robert J. Sampson, "Moynihan Redux: Legacies and Lessons", Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 621 (Jan. 2009), 6–27.
- Patterson, James T. Freedom Is Not Enough: The Moynihan Report and America's Struggle Over Black Family Life From LBJ to Obama (Basic Books; 2010)
- Wilson, William Julius, "The Moynihan Report and Research on the Black Community", Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 621 (Jan. 2009), 34–46.
External links
- An annotated version of the report from The Atlantic
- Office of Policy Planning and Research, United States Department of Labor (March 1965) "The Negro Family: The Case For National Action" – Moynihan Report, hosted by Department of Labor, 1965