A New Look at Black Families

This book is based upon the research and experience of two black scholars who have lived and worked in Northern and Southern regions of the United States, and in the Eastern and Western regions, too. It includes in-depth case studies of middle-class, working-class and low-income black families, as well as single-parent and two-parent families, and a family of three, which includes a child and two parents of the same gender. This range of families studied should be informative and should provide information that overcomes stereotyped conceptions about black family life. Two important findings of this study are that black men of achievement tend to identify mothers as their mentors, and that black women of achievement tend to identify fathers as their mentors. We call this the cross-gender effect. Our research, also, concludes that egalitarian households in which neither parent has total authority over other family members is a gift to the United States from black families. Also, we discuss the benefits of extended family life, using the household of President Obama as an illustration. Finally, this study reveals that during the first decade of the 21st century, a majority of black people in the labor force (for the first time in the history of this nation) are classified as white-collar workers. This analysis of the family life of black people in the United States is based on qualitative and quantitative data.