Black Marriage Day

Eugene Kane promotes the importance of marriage in his column today, "Black community should be encouraging marriage."

While drawing attention to Black Marriage Day this Sunday, Kane admits that married couples are more likely to provide a stable environment for raising children.

He recognizes:

Many believe the decline of marriage in the black community has led to dysfunctional behavior as well as increased poverty and crime. Given the numbers, it's hard to disagree.

The disintegration of the family structure in the black community has produced generations adrift.

Kane is right to note that marriage stabilizes the family. Intact families are the building blocks of a better community.

Unfortunately, Kane just can't seem to admit there's a problem in the black community without dissing whites.

After offering some good comments, Kane makes this absurd statement:

Recent statistics show close to 70% of black children are born out of wedlock, a figure both staggering and depressing. The same studies found about 50% of Hispanic children born out of wedlock with about 30% of white children in the same predicament.

That means black families might be in disarray but other families are following the same path.

Kane provides the numbers. Black families are in disarray, 70% of black children are born out of wedlock.

30% of white children are born out of wedlock. That's a huge disarray disparity. Kane creates a false impression when he says that "other families are following the same path."

True, some whites are following the same dysfunctional path, but to a dramatically lesser degree.

Rather than acknowledging and focusing on the real crisis of 70% of black children being born out of wedlock, Kane chooses to talk about Sarah Palin and her daughter's new baby.

He writes:

The idea of inner-city girls having kids out of wedlock has become an accepted stereotype in society. But when someone like Bristol Palin, the daughter of former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, has a baby outside of marriage, it demonstrates this kind of thing can happen in the best of families.

First, it's not an "accepted stereotype in society" that inner-city girls have kids out of wedlock. When 70% of births in the black community and 50% in the Hispanic community are to unmarried parents, it's not a stereotype. It's a well established pattern. It's reality.

Second, while it's true that Sarah Palin's daughter had a baby out of wedlock, what's the point of bringing that up?

Yes, unwed pregnancies happen throughout society, among all races and socioeconomic levels. No kidding. So what?

That's not the issue. I thought the point of Kane's column was to raise awareness about Black Marriage Day and encourage blacks to establish stable families. Why does he feel the need to bring up Sarah Palin and her daughter, Bristol?

Kane seems to want to deflect from the very issue that he's discussing.

That's a problem.

70% of children in the black community are born outside of marriage, thus the reason for Black Marriage Day and the purpose of his column, right?

It's a holiday created by Nisa Islam Muhammad, a Washington, D.C., woman who is executive director of Wedded Bliss Foundation. The idea behind Black Marriage Day is to promote the benefits of marriage in the black community while educating young black people to the value of the institution.

What does Kane noting that white people also have kids out of wedlock do to address the crisis in the black community?

Nothing. It's no help at all.

...[Deborah Taylor, the Healthy Marriage Program manager at the Social Development Commission and also a pastor at a church that ministers to married and unmarried couples,] and others believe one solution for many of the social problems in black America could be a return to a culture where strong black families headed by two parents were the norm.

A holiday called Black Marriage Day probably won't accomplish that alone, but it's a start.

That's true. Black Marriage Day is a start.

Strong black families would do much to address and alleviate many of the social problems plaguing black America.

Kane needs to stay on that message - 70%! It's unfortunate that he chooses to dilute it by yapping about Sarah Palin and her daughter's baby. Irrelevant.

He can save his Palin remarks for when he writes about White Marriage Day.