Crack coc
“Well, [the] marriage conversation differs from today from the ‘60s, in that they are happening less,” Harper said. “So we have to ask ourselves, what’s going on? Even if we’re creating children together, we’re still not finding ways to stay together and partnering in our community. … There are some distinct challenges in our community regarding kids, partnership, marriage that we have to solve and that’s what this book is all about.”
There are sets of challenges Harper details in The Conversation that he said makes it difficult for black men and women to have and maintain partnerships.
“Some of the challenges in the 1960s began at the end of the Vietnam War and brothers being affected by Vietnam. Secondly, the infusion of crack cocaine into our community [affected] our men again. We had welfare laws, which said you could not receive welfare payments, in certain states, if you had a man living in the home. So that encouraged men to not even be in the home. [At] the end of the industrial age … [when] jobs moved to a more service or office-based economy, it was clear that many of the executives weren’t as comfortable hiring African American males, but they felt more comfortable hiring African American females,” he said.
Harper said he’s not so much interested in how we got to be in this cultural quagmire as much as he yearns for solutions, some of which are outlined in The Conversation. The most critical component is greatly increased communication.
“First, [we must] allow ourselves to be vulnerable and open and not send a representative. Actually ask questions and really be willing to listen to the answers …,” he said. –terry shropshire
