Big Michael said:
Considering that half the marriages end in divorce it is not unreasonable to expect there are a lot children live in single-parent homes at some point in their childhood.
Yes. But, that blanket "50%" stat covers up wide variation in the rate of divorce in actual communities. In some communities fewer marriages wind up in divorce. In other communities more do. And in some communities some of the marriages that end in divorce are sustained until the kids move out in some sense of duty to the children. Also, some divorces are essentially abandonment by one of the parents, and some divorces still leave in place a co-operative, supportive, two-parent environment that just happens to have the two parents living separately. Of course, children who are in single-parent families becaues the father was *never* around are another matter and again this is likely more prevalent in poor "majority culture" communities, especially black/native.
Further, when you consider that blacks make up just over 2% of the Canadian population, the statement doesn't make sense. If single-parent families were the sole reason for the problems, and according to you, "many/most of the 25% single are poor and uneducated", then 25% of the Canadian population, currently or in the future, should exhibit similar behaviour to some of the people at J-F if single-parenting was the only problem.
Plainly there are more counted among "poor and uneducated" than just blacks! I am not sure in what way you're disagreeing with my statement. The point is that I suspect that the black community has a higher single-parent and divorce rate than the rest of society, and is over-represented in those statistics. There are also poor whites who are stuck in a similar rut, as well as many natives.
My primary reason for posting is that there IS a problem there, and if every time someone points out that there is a problem someone yells "ignorant racist" then the problem is never going to get solved.
More specifically, no one is sweeping any problems under the rug and the problems are more complex than single-parenting.
Surely there are many factors, no-one is denying that. Perhaps you would care to list some of the other factors? Cultural attitudes that disparage education, adoption of a counter-culture that sets individuals apart as outsiders to the system, over-dependence on welfare, a cult of victimization that encourages people to blame their failures on the system rather than take responsibility for themselves, high levels of drug and alcohol abuse, and a failure of the community to criticize those among its members who are harmful would be some of the factors that can be laid at the doorstep of the non-immigrant poor, and that includes blacks, natives, as well as "white trash" or whatever you want to call them.
In addition no doubt there ARE some valid external factors. Natives and blacks DO face racism and ARE at a disadvantage in many ways. Really, though, many racial groups have faced similar levels of racism but NOT fallen into the multi-generational cyclical vicious circle trap that many blacks and natives have fallen into. Racism alone is not the explanation, given the progress that other groups have made.
Perhaps internalized racism. One argument is that while immigrant populations and blacks have faced similar levels of external racism, blacks have primarily internalized that--see above "cult of victimization"--while other immigrant groups refused to accept the external racism and struggled to overcome it.
At the end of the day, though, the high level of single parent families in the community is BOTH a symptom of AND a cause of the problem. Not THE cause, but ONE of the causes, and ONE of the symptoms. It's part of the vicious circle.
Failure to acknowledge that it exists and that it is a problem is a failure to address at least that part of the problem.
Edit: I would think that the primary difference between blacks/natives and other cultures in their reaction to racism is one of hope vs. hopelessness, or something similar. When the Chinese faced this sort of racism they maintained an internal pride and hope for the future. Their children grew up in the same difficult circumstances, except with parents who did not become fuckups and who passed down to their kids a sense of self-worth and a sense of hope so that bit by bit they chipped away at the prejudices and biases and established themselves as a viable, respected, and self-respected community within Canada. When blacks and natives face it they do not seem to have that internal pride or hope--they give up, and then in desperation turn to all these fuckup behaviors that cause the next generation to lose hope as well. So yeah, you can lay SOME of the blame on racism, but a good deal of the blame has to be laid at the door of people who decide/encourage/tolerate the fuckup behavior that ruins it for the next generation too.
