Comparative Perspectives on Black Family Life: Uncommon Explorations of a Common Subject

Abstract

WALTER R. ALLEN * and ANGELA D. JAMES ** During past three decades, well over a thousand publications have been added to research record on African American families in United States (for detailed reviews of literature, see: Staples and Johnson,1993; Hill et al., 1993; Billingsley, 1992; Taylor et al., 1990; McAdoo, 1988; Staples and Mirande, 1980; Allen, 1978; Staples, 1971). literature on Black families across African Diaspora has also grown exponentially (Allen et al., 1986). Despite this enormous volume of research on Black life, we are very uneasy about nature and consequences of past research, as well as our own attempts to enter fray. This uneasiness is caused by continued references to The Black Family. Such references ignore extensive regional, ethnic, value, and income differences among Black families. It is an uneasiness with theoretical and methodological assumptions underlying so many published, widely circulated studies of Black families. This uneasiness is bred by entrenched, stereotypic portrayals of Black life which not only persist, but dominate popular as well as academic discourse about Black families. It is an uneasiness due to a frequently demonstrated ignorance concerning internal dynamics and motives of Black life in this society. We are uneasy that our own attempt to tell story of African American life will err too much in one direction or another. On one hand, statistical and ethnographic data on Black families present a picture of tremendous changes in manner in which men, women and children organize themselves into and household arrangements. We recognize that these changes have been accompanied by widespread concern of community members and often, feelings of social dislocation and personal difficulty among individual Black men, women and children. On other hand, we also want to keep at forefront of any discussion of dislocating effects of recent changes in Black organization understanding that these families continue to be community mainstays. The Black Family is in no danger of disappearing, even as families change in response to increasingly difficult economic, social and cultural circumstances. We seek to balance concern with what has been lost in midst of current transformations, with an accurate telling of varieties of African American stories emerging from storm's midst. DIVERSITY AND STEREOTYPES IN THE STUDY OF BLACK FAMILY LIFE Much that is written about Black American families is flawed by tendency of researchers to gloss over within-group differences. While prior research has extensively explored Black/White differences, information is relatively sparse regarding differences among African American families of different structure, incomes, regions, life-cycle stages, and value orientations. record comparing African American families to Black families across African Diaspora is also woefully inadequate (Allen et. al., 1986). Although this Special Issue's primary focus is on African American families, of necessity we incorporate studies of African, West Indian, and other racial ethnic families. rationale for examining African American experience (i.e., values, institutions) within context of larger African Diaspora is certainly well established (Du Bois, 1990; Drake, 1987). It is our premise that one best understand Africa American families by exploring both their specific and universal features. By focusing so much attention on comparing experience of among Blacks with Whites, much of richness, complexity and subtleties of African American systems have been ignored. This has resulted in widespread academic and popular acceptance of crude categories, poorly defined concepts, and negative stereotypes. Apparent in literature are abundant references to family disorganization, underclass, culture of poverty, and the Black Matriarchy. …