Is marriage for white people? : how the African American marriage decline affects everyone

Title:

Author:

Banks, Ralph Richard.

Personal Author:

Banks, Ralph Richard.

ISBN:

9780525952015

Publication Information:

New York : Dutton, c2011.

Physical Description:

viii, 289 p. ; 24 cm.

Contents:

The marriage decline -- Why has become of marriage? -- The man shortage -- The market -- What about the children? -- Power wives -- Mixed marriages -- Beyond race? -- Desire -- Fear -- Saving black marriage.

Abstract:

Examines a sharp decline in marriage rates among the African-American middle class while analyzing probable causes, tracing the rise of educated and independent black women and evaluating the potential of interracial marriages.

Subject Term:

Marriage.

African Americans -- Marriage.

African American families.

Interracial marriage.

Summary:

Holds:

Available:*

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Summary

A distinguished Stanford law professor examines the steep decline in marriage rates among the African American middle class, and offers a paradoxical-nearly incendiary-solution.

Black women are three times as likely as white women to never marry.
That sobering statistic reflects a broader reality: African Americans are the most unmarried people in our nation, and contrary to public perception the racial gap in marriage is not confined to women or the poor. Black men, particularly the most successful and affluent, are less likely to marry than their white counterparts. College educated black women are twice as likely as their white peers never to marry.

Is Marriage for White People? is the first book to illuminate the many facets of the African American marriage decline and its implications for American society. The book explains the social and economic forces that have undermined marriage for African Americans and that shape everyone's lives. It distills the best available research to trace the black marriage decline's far reaching consequences, including the disproportionate likelihood of abortion, sexually transmitted diseases, single parenthood, same sex relationships, polygamous relationships, and celibacy among black women.

This book centers on the experiences not of men or of the poor but of those black women who have surged ahead, even as black men have fallen behind. Theirs is a story that has not been told. Empirical evidence documents its social significance, but its meaning emerges through stories drawn from the lives of women across the nation. Is Marriage for White People? frames the stark predicament that millions of black women now face: marry down or marry out. At the core of the inquiry is a paradox substantiated by evidence and experience alike: If more black women married white men, then more black men and women would marry each other.

This book not only sits at the intersection of two large and well- established markets-race and marriage-it responds to yearnings that are widespread and deep in American society. The African American marriage decline is a secret in plain view about which people want to know more, intertwining as it does two of the most vexing issues in contemporary society. The fact that the most prominent family in our nation is now an African American couple only intensifies the interest, and the market. A book that entertains as it informs, Is Marriage for White People? will be the definitive guide to one of the most monumental social developments of the past half century.

Reviews (1)

Kirkus Review

A scholarly account of African-Americans' encounters with the marriage gap.In his debut (Law/Stanford Law School), Banks explores the marriage gap between African-Americans and whites, concluding that fewer African-Americans marry and stay married due to "the changing conception of marriage, and the changing educational and economic positions of men and women." Add to this the "numbers imbalance" between the wide array of eligible African-American females and an African-American male population in short supplyan unevenness Banks attributes to incarceration, interracial marriage and a lack of economic opportunities for black men. Banks argues that while many African-American women seek out highly educated African-American men, these same men are statistically more likely to date women outside their own race, prompting the pool of prospective suitors to dwindle further. As a result of this imbalance, many African-American men find little incentive to engage in a monogamous relationship: "Why cash in when you can continue to play?" The author writes that "[b]lack men maintain nonexclusive relationships for the same reason as other men: because they can." Banks tempers his statistically driven arguments by weaving in intriguing personal interviews. This technique, both quantitative and qualitative in its approach, provides the groundwork for a brave and convincing argumentone that reveals a startling trend in the decline of African-American marriages.A triumphant work that demystifies the intersection between compatibility and color.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.