DRAPER'S PASSION

Social Issues

Racial Profiling ...

More than four out of 10 black Americans say they have been the victims of racial profiling, including almost three-quarters of young black men (Gallup News Service by Frank Newport) Read more ...

Incarceration ...

Incarceration rates climbed in the 1990's and reached historic highs in the past few years. In 1995, 16 percent of black men in their 20's who did not attend college were in jail or prison; by 2004, 21 percent were incarcerated. By their mid-30's, 6 in 10 black men who had dropped out of school had spent time in prison. (New York Times by By Erik Eckholm) Read more ...

One of every 21 adult black men is incarcerated on any given day. For black men in their late twenties, the figure is one in eight. There are now far more incarcerated black men in this age group (161,600) than the total number of all incarcerated African Americans in 1954 (98,000). Given current trends, one of every three (32%) black males born today can expect to go to prison in his lifetime. (The Sentencing Project, www.sentencingproject.org) Read more ...

Fatherhood ...

The role of the father or father figure is critically important to the task of taking our African American boys from boyhood into manhood. (Fathers.com by George R. Williams, MS, MFT) Read more ...

Statistics on Marriage / Divorce ...

On the whole, Blacks or African Americans (hereafter called Blacks) have lower rates of marriage and marital stability than all other ethnic groups. They also have higher rates of single headed families than other groups.

• Black males and females aremore likely to be unmarried than Whites, Hispanics, or American Indian/Alaskan Natives (AIAN) (42.2% for males, 40.8% for females, compared to 27.5% and 21.2% respectively for Whites, 38.2% and 30.3% for Hispanics, and 35.7% ad 29.9% for AIAN ).(ACS 2002)
• Black individuals are far more likely than Whites and Hispanics to be divorced (in 2002, 9.4% of Black males were divorced, and 13.3% of Black females versus 9.1 % and 11.3% respectively for Whites and 5.9% and 9.3% for Hispanics). (ACS 2002)
• Among married Black individuals, a greater percentage is living apart from their spouses than among married White and AIAN individuals (15.7% for Black males, 24.1% for Black females, versus 5.3% and 6.3% respectively for Whites and 11.1% and 12.8% for AIAN ) Only Hispanics have a higher rate of living apart from their spouse than do Blacks – 16.2% for males and 16.9% for females (in many cases this may be due to immigration complications). (ACS 2002)
• Black families are less likely to contain a married couple than all other groups (46.0% versus 81.0%). White families have an 81% chance of containing a married couple, AIAN families have a 67% chance, and Hispanics have a 67.4% chance. (Census 2000)
• Single male headed families are slightly more likely in Black homes than in White family homes (about 8.5% versus 5.3% for whites.). Hispanics and AIANs have a higher rate of single male headed families (10.3% and 10.4% respectively). (Census 2000)
• Single female headed families are far more likely in Black homes than in all other groups homes (45.4% versus 13.7%). By contrast, Whites have a 13.7% rate, AIANs have a 28.8% rate, and Hispanics have a 22.3% rate of single female headed families. (Census 2000)
• Only 44.9% of Black householders in family households live with a spouse. This compares with 80.6% for Whites, 60.1% for AIAN, and 70.2% for Hispanics. (Census 2000)

Read more ...

An article about altering welfare policies to focus on fathers included a chart showing that the percentage of black children under 18 years old living with a single, never-married parent rose from 14.1 percent in 1970 to 28.7 percent in 1980, to 51.8 percent in 1990, to 63 percent in 2002. fffff (courier-journal.com by Betty Baye' ) Read more ...

Back to top