Marriage is a big thing in this country, isn’t it? People are all up in arms about protecting the sanctity of it. Making sure people wait for it before they have kids, and that those of the same sex don’t do it because that would be wrong. With all of this to do about stopping certain people from marrying, who’s making sure that other people do?

It seems that marriage (according to statistics, which as we all know, are infallible) has become a white institution. Black people just aren’t doing it anymore.

Some of you may be familiar with the special CNN aired, “Black in America” in which they spoke on many of the issues that black America is having not only with marriage, but with other aspects of day to day life: employment, education, etc., all of which impact the black community.

Dionne Hill, the producer of the segment has a special rumination on black people and marriage. It’s not a new statistic, but the fact still remains: black people simply are not getting married in the numbers that we once used to. Certainly no longer comparable in numbers to the ethnic majority of Caucasian people marrying. In the article, which can be found in it’s entirety here, she talks about her own experience with the illusive unicorn that is marriage and her own vision of the perfect life, which is, of course: marriage, career, and children. Read More »

“In 2004, 26.5% of black males ages 18 to 24 were enrolled in college versus 36.5% of black women that age, according to the American Council on Education’s most recent statistics”.

Which is one of the reasons why black women are dating more white men then ever before, USA Today claims.

The hot button article appeared last Sunday, stating, among other things, that “American black women are among the least likely to marry”. The reason for this low marriage rate? The negative statistics aimed at young black men.

According to the article, recent numbers have shown that black men are “seven times more likely to be incarcerated than white men and more than twice as likely to be unemployed.”

Combine those figures with a growing number of black women frustrated with the ‘high rates of successful black men choosing blondes”, and you’ve got women ready for a change.

“I think a lot of black women are realizing or feeling that the pickings are slim,” one such women is quoted as saying in the article, while another one claims she witnessed “All the black men literally [pushing] (us) out the way to talk to the blondes” at a party she once attended. Read More »