In Defense of the Negro Family

...If it followed the classic Durkheim theory, it would note that a low rate of suicide is generally an index of the cohesion of a group...

...These matriarchal Negro families are very pro-education, although they have long criticized I.Q...

...Similarly in the employment area, it would appear more appropriate to develop meaningful jobs for large numbers of low-income Negroes—e.g., non-professional jobs, where the job is provided first and the training built-in, rather than being concerned about the family...

...The Haryou Report similarly stresses various indices of pathology in Harlem and fails to accent the strengths, the cohesion, etc...

...But in other aspects of language, such as the use of metaphor, rich adjectives, hip language, the connection between verbal and non-verbal communication, there is positive strength...

...They are not terribly interested in training which does not lead to jobs or which leads at best to dead end menial jobs...

...People are much more readily moved through an emphasis on their strengths, their positives, their coping abilities...

...Presumed family pathology, particularly illegitimacy, is said to be an important cause for the under-employment and inadequate education of the Negro...

...thus the use of neighborhood service-center storefronts and nonprofessional neighborhood helpers are strategic features of the new community action pogram...

...A much more significant deficit of low-income populations is lack of school know-how and lack of system know-how...

...John Spiegel, in providing psychotherapy for low-income populations, is most concerned to work with the extended family rather than ignore it or stress its difficulties...

...The uprising evolved from the Negro's strength, his protest, his anger, and when the conditions were ripe, these traits produced a powerful movement...

...Because if the have-nots have nothing— no culture, no strength, no anger, no organization, no cooperativeness, no inventiveness, no vitality—if they are only depressed, apathetic, fatalistic and pathological, then where is the force for their liberation to come from...

...There is increasing evidence that the integrated education drive is actually powering educational benefits for all children, not only Negro children...

...For example, it has come to be recognized that mental health and mental illness can co-exist in the same individual—that a person may have considerable pathology and at the same time have considerable strength...

...And they have not been receptive to "compensatory education" which constantly stresses their deficits...

...They are not attracted to the summer programs of the busy work, anti-riot type...

...The latter emphasis seems much more indirect and less likely to produce the desired result...

...Moynihan's stress on pathology and deficit is not unique...

...In response to the deficiencies of the system the Negro has developed his own informal system and traditions in order to cope and survive...

...It is thus no accident that the Haryou Report misinterprets the low rate of suicide among the Negro population...

...The questions raised by Moynihan and many others at the White House Conference on Civil Rights are crucial ones: Would the removal of all forms of discrimination enable the Negro to take his place economically in American society...

...The basic defect in the Moynihan thesis is a one-sided presentation of the consequences of segregation and discrimination...

...The emphasis on the deficits and damages of the Negro people populations...

...Perhaps full employment and the removal of discrimination would bring the Negro into the mainstream far more rapidly than is assumed...

...Their surprisingly tough, masculine youngsters would like a more maleoriented school...

...Their life patterns and work patterns were markedly changed as a result of this new non-professional job experience even though there were no changes in their family pattern...

...To overlook this adaptation and instead to emphasize one-sidedly the limiting aspects and presumed pathology of this family, is to do the Negro a deep injustice...

...Has the Negro been so damaged by discrimination that even if these barriers were removed, he could not be adequately employed and educated...

...Like the Moynihan • One should be very careful to specify what the presumed deficits are...

...And it is most inappropriate to attempt to involve people in change by emphasizing some alleged weakness in their make-up...

...For example, the great hue and cry that arose regarding the "segregated," white face, white theme "Dick and Jane" readers, has led to the development of a variety of new "urban" readers that appear not only to improve the reading ability of the Negro children but also the white children's reading...

...But the Negro has responded to his oppressive conditions by many powerful coping endeavors...

...This concept, has enormous implications for social action because it draws attention to the need for concentrating on the health-producing aspects of an organism or group...

...Health and pathology are two continuums, albeit overlapping ones...

...Similarly, in relation to the family, it is very important to specify what the supposed weaknesses are, and how these supposed weaknesses are translated into preventing the individual from functioning in the employment and education structures...

...Only by calling upon these traditions can the Negro move into the mainstream of our society arid, not incidentally, can our society benefit enormously from incorporation of some of these traditions...

...Even more dramatic, the Wall Street Journal (Jan...

...It is only through full recognition of strengths that the condescension of welfarism can be avoided...

...In the Howard University Community Apprentice Experiment, it was demonstrated that highly delinquent, functionally illiterate Negro youngsters were able to function in nonprofessional jobs when the training was built into the job...

...But one thing seems clear: if Negroes are offered more of the same in the way of education, training and employment, they will be less than responsive...

...This is the "compensatory education" thesis...

...The Limitations of "Compensatory Education" In the field of education there is a widely heralded, although essentially unsuccessful approach, which, like Moynihan's, one-sidedly attempts to develop a theory of action based on deficits...

...He has developed many ways of fighting the system, protecting himself, providing self-help and even joy...

...This behavior could not be accounted for by an emphasis on the weaknesses, deficiencies and supposed lack of bootstraps...

...Lippitt has demonstrated how disadvantaged 6th grade youngsters helped 4th grade youngsters for a short time during the week and both groups dramatically improved in their performance...

...one is not the inverse of the other...

...The mechanism of this connection is often vague...

...Thus Dr...

...Storefront churches, the extended family, the use of the street as a playground, the block party, the mutual help of siblings, the informal know-how and self-help of the, neighborhood, the use of peer learning, hip language, the rent strike and other forms of direct social action are just a few illustrations...

...It is more accurate to speak about deficiency in syntax and formal language...

...That damage has been done to the Negro as a result of discrimination cannot and should not be denied...

...If one wants to improve the educability of the Negro, it . would seem much more relevant to stress changes in school practice and to develop this practice so that it is more attuned to the style and strengths of the population in question, rather than to emphasize the reorganization of the family...

...It is not correct to talk about language deficiency as a general defect among low-income family approach, it is one-sided in principle and doomed to failure in practice...

...One of the most significant forms of his adaptation has been the extended, female-based family...

...tests, all-white readers, condescending PTA's, and together with their children have indicated a strong desire for a livelier, more vital school...

...20, 1965) reports that in approximately 10% of Southern schools where some desegregation has taken place, not only do the Negro pupils improve rapidly, but the white youngsters appear to advance also...

...I am convinced that Daniel Moynihan is sincerely opposed to discrimination and his report is intended to document its negative consequences for the Negro...

...The Moynihan Report employs supposed inadequacies of the Negro family as an explanatory tool for understanding why the Negro has not taken his place fully in the economic structure of our society...

...This can be achieved by hiring large numbers of males as nonprofessional teacher aides, recreation aides, parent education coordinators...

...It is the Negro who is basically challenging our educational system and producing the demand for changes in educational technology and organization that will be of benefit to everyone...

...F.R...

...In other words, it is not accurate to assume that because an individual has more pathology, he has less strength or health...

...The community action phase of the anti-poverty program is attempting to build on these positive traditions...

...Instead, "compensatory education" stresses deficits and attempts to build an entire program on overcoming these deficits...

...Since much of the learning in the family comes less from the parents and more from the brothers and sisters and friends on the street, this method of peer learning might be well adapted in the school itself...

...From my point of view, however, the report represents a highly inappropriate approach to the development of programs and policy to fulfill the rights of the Negro...

...It does not build on the action style, the cooperative (team) learning potential, or the hip language of the poor...

...As long ago as 1955 I reported that Negro families in large numbers stated that education was what they had missed most in life and what they would like their children to have...

...kept sociologists from predicting the powerful Negro upheaval that developed into the Civil Rights Movement...

...Conceptualizations developed in psychiatry have important bearing on this issue of strength and weakness...