Table of Contents

Preface
1. African American Families: A Brief Introduction
Objectives
Introduction
What We Hope to Accomplish
The Question of Social Class
Data Sources
Organization of the Book
Notes
2. African American Civil Society: Issues, Approaches, Demography, and Theory
Objectives
Introduction
Definitions
Race as a Social Construct
African American Families
Structural Versus Individual Explanations
African American Families: A Profile
Theoretical Approaches to Studying African American Families
Data and Methods
Notes
3. Family Formation, Marriage Rates, and Cohabitation
Objectives
Introduction
Factors That Affect Family Form
Functions and Purposes of Marriage
Marriage Patterns
The Marriage Gap
In Their Own Words
Race, Class, and Gender Analysis
Summary: Outcomes of the Low Marriage Rate
Solutions
Notes
4. Childbearing and Childrearing Patterns
Objectives
Introduction
Childbearing Patterns
Nonmarital Births
Race, Class, and Gender Paradigm
Conclusions
Solutions
Notes
5. Intimate Partner Violence
Objectives
Introduction
Definitions
The Problem
The Family Violence Approach
The Feminist Paradigm
Race, Class, and Gender Approach to Studying IPV
The Dirty Little Secret: IPV in the African American Community
African American Women as Victims/Survivors of IPV: Statistics/Rates
Men and Masculinity
Race, Class, and Gender Paradigm
Solutions
Notes
6. HIV and Other Social and Health Issues
Objectives
Introduction
The State of Health and Well-Being in African American Civil Society
Racial Disparities in Chronic Diseases
Racial Disparities in HIV/AIDS
Leading Causes of Death
Infant Mortality
Outcomes of Poor Health: Premature Death
Causes of Poor Health and Death
Environmental Injustice
The Politics of Health Care
The Genetics (and Politics) of Race/Ethnicity and Health
Race, Class and Gender Paradigm
Solutions
Notes
7. Access to Opportunity: Educational Attainment and Occupational Segregation
Objectives
Introduction
A Brief History of Race and Education
Educational Attainment
Access to Education: Legacy
The Economy
Race, Class, and Gender: African American Women′s History of Work
Occupations and Work
Occupational Segregation: The Impact of Race and Gender
Causes of Occupational Segregation
Outcomes of Occupational Segregation
Financial Outcomes: Lower Earnings
Race, Class, and Gender Paradigm
Solutions
Notes
8. Welfare and Wealth
Objectives
Introduction
Income Versus Wealth
Income and Income Disparities
Wealth and Wealth Disparities
Wealth Disparities and Access to the American Dream?
Housing
A Clear Illustration: Hurricane Katrina
Poverty
Welfare
Welfare Reform
Stereotypes About Welfare and Poverty
Welfare Versus Work
Welfare Reform and Family Values
Welfare Reform and Incarceration, or African American Mothers Are Crackheads
Race, Class, and Gender Analysis
Solutions
Notes
9. African American Males and the Incarceration Problem: Not Just Confined to Prison
Objectives
Introduction
Definitions
Prisons as Total Institutions
The Growth of Prisons: Institutions and Population
The Purpose of Prison: Rehabilitation or a Tool of Capitalism?
The Demographics of the Prison Population: Race and Gender
Explaining Racial Disparities in Incarceration
The Effects of Incarceration on the Lives of Young African American Men
Felony Disenfranchisement
Other Bans-Social Services
Race, Class, and Gender Paradigm
Solutions
Notes
10. Conclusion: Solutions to a Longstanding Problem: Race, Class, and Patriarchy in the 21st Century
Summary and Review of the Primary Themes
Degrees of Separation
A Snapshot of the African American Family
The Struggles
The Causes
Bans
Family Form
The Relationship Between Structural Forces and Individual Choices
What Is To Be Done?
Structural Forces: Race, Class, and Gender
Final Thoughts
Notes
Appendices
References
About the Authors
Index

About the Author

Angela J. Hattery,is Professorof the Women & Gender Studiesand co-Director of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Gender Based Violence at theUniversityof Delaware.She received her BA in sociology and anthropology fromCarleton College andhermasters and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.She is the author of 12books.Hermost recent,Way Down intheHole: Race, Intimacy and the Reproduction of RacialIdeologies in Solitary Confinement explores the ways in which racial antagonisms are exacerbated by theparticularstructures of solitaryconfinement.She is also the author ofPolicing Black Bodies: How Black Livesare Surveilled and How to Work forChange(2022)andGender, Power and Violence: Responding to Sexual and Intimate PartnerViolence in Society Today.Prior to coming to UD sheheld positions at Ball State University, Wake Forest University, Colgate University, and most recently at George Mason University. Earl Smith, PhD, is Emeritus Distinguished Professor of American Ethnic Studies and Sociology at Wake Forest University, and is currently teaching classes in Sociology, African and African American Studies, and Women & Gender Studies at the University of Delaware.  Dr. Smith earned his Ph.D. at the University of Connecticut. His teaching and research focus on the sociology of sport, social stratification, and the intersection of race and the criminal justice system.  He is the author of 12 books, including his most recent book, Way Down in the Hole: Race, Intimacy and the Reproduction of Racial Ideologies in Solitary Confinement (2021). The book is based on three summers of ethnographic research in a large state penitentiary system. Methodologically, we conducted over 100 face-to-face interviews with inmates and correctional officers. His other books include Policing Black Bodies: How Black Lives are Surveilled and How to Work for Change (2022) and Gender, Power and Violence: Responding to Sexual and Intimate Partner Violence in Society Today and Race, Sport and the American Dream (2014).