Book Review: Angela J. Hattery and Earl Smith, African American Families Today: Myths and Realities

Abstract

Book Review: Angela J. Hattery and Earl Smith, African American Families Today: Myths and Realities. Lanham, MD: Roman & Littlefield, 2012. ISBN: 978-1442213968 (Hardcover). 210 Pages. $36.00[Article copies available for a fee from Transformative Studies Institute. E-mail address: journal@transformativestudies.org Website: http://www.transformativestudies.org ©2013 by Transformative Studies Institute. All rights reserved.]Angela J. Hattery and Earl Smith's new book, African American Families Today: Myths and Realities (Roman & Littlefield, 2012) is a very straight honest read. text implodes and explores myths and facts regarding the marriage status, education, economics, and social health of African American families and individuals in the age of Obama. They land firmly on the conclusion that all is not well and perhaps worse than before Barak Obama was elected President of the United States.While television has consistently perpetuated the myth of widespread success among African American families, my own experiences suggest otherwise. As a college student, every Thursday night at 6:45pm we left our cubicles in the stacks of the library or rushed through dinner in time to dash over to Commons to watch the weekly episode of The Cosby Show. Attending a predominately white private college in upstate New York, we felt isolated and The Cosby Show not only brought most of the students together but allowed us to see people who looked like us on TV. At the time, the premise of the show left me in a conflicted mood each week. I was torn between two very different spectrums:1. I had never met nor did I believe in the reality of such a Black family of high powered professional parents, who had as many black as white friends2. 1 knew Huxtables existed out there, just not in my neighborhood, and I had yet to meet others like them.We knew Huxtables were real, and we aspired to do as well. Everyone liked the father, a successful OB-GYN, and the mom, a corporate lawyer; we knew they were possible. They gave us hope. Huxtables were living the 1980s post-civil rights American Dream. They had been given opportunity and used their minds, their drive, their grit to achieve successful careers, a nice home, wealth, and a healthy family. It was certainly a stark contrast to 1 970s shows like Good Times, which spent thirty minutes a week working hard simply keeping their heads above water.While the Cosbys showed us that, not only did wealthy black families exist, but also that with intelligence and hard work we too could be the Huxtables, being born into a lower economic strata, I knew I would be saddled with expensive student loans en route to degrees in the professions as I pursued the American Dream menu items such as dinners in expensive restaurants, an Ivy League education, huge home, money, and annual vacations. This is why African American Families Today, is important; it attacks the pull yourself by the bootstraps myth, reminding readers of this simple fact:[D]ata on wealth and poverty reveal that the vast majority of Americans - regardless of their race - stay in the same social class that they were born into... vast majority of wealthy Americans were born wealthy... this belief system ignores the fact that most white Americans who have 'achieved' success were actually born into it. (5)Each week Cosby gave us a glimpse of possibilities, and each winter and summer break we ventured home to face other realities: crack cocaine epidemics, unequal access to jobs, housing, quality education, and rising incarceration and teen pregnancy tearing apart neighborhoods and families during the 1980s and early 1990s. We could change our status and be like the Huxtables, but it would be difficult because unlike many of our white peers, we were not born into wealth and, thus, were starting with a handicap.Hattery and Smith have made the clever choice to situate their investigation of the well-being of contemporary African American families against the 2008 and 2012 election and re-election of Barack Obama. …