DANIEL PATRICK MOYNIHAN AND "THE NEGRO FAMILY"

DANIEL PATRICK MOYNIHAN

Daniel Patrick Moynihan, sociologist and politician, had an illustrious career, serving as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, a senator from New York and as a member of four presidential administrations.  In 1965, as Lyndon Johnson's Great Society was moving into high gear, Moynihan issued a perceptive warning on the long-range social effects of certain government programs.

Moynihan's warning came in a report called The Negro Family.  His thesis was that foisting a welfare mentality on the black community would lead to societal dislocation and the disintegration of black families. Over the millenia, history has borne out that the family unit is the linchpin of civilization.  Intact families and children with a father and a mother have a much better chance of succeeding than do offspring from the dysfunction of divorce, crime, illegitimacy and single-parenting.

Regrettably, the social engineers of the 1960's did not heed Moynihan, and the result has been a black community literally devastated by the deleterious effects of an endemic welfare mentality.

Today, only 29% of all black women above the age of 15 are married.  Nearly 75% of black births are out-of-wedlock births.  One in every 15 black men are incarcerated. And 94% of violent deaths experienced by young black men are the result of black-on-black violence.

Many of the neighborhoods of the inner-cities look like war zones.  Inner-city schools are often no more than warehouses for permanent underachievers, and the most flourishing entrepreneurial activity is often the marketing of mind-altering drugs.

Despite all the dismal signs of a problem of gigantic proportions, most of those claiming to be "leaders" of the black community are silent, except when a sensational event of white versus black enables them to reach out for publicity and opportunities for enrichment.  Never, never do we hear any sermons of tough-love that might serve as a clarion call for black neighborhoods to get their houses in order, and certainly the organizers of sensational marches and demonstrations will never get directly involved in positive approaches to ending the prevalence of black-on-black violence.

The Reverend Al Sharpton, who by all rights should be serving a long sentence for inflaming deadly racial violence in more than one instance over the decades, is a case in point.  Instead, Sharpton is seen as a paragon of virtue, and is a well-paid television performer, as well as one who regularly does profitable shakedowns of corporations and enterprises.  Rather than sermonize on how his people could be helping themselves, he chooses, rather, to blather on, playing the blame game about profiling and other issues guaranteed to stir the masses.

Unfortunately, for the last half-century of American history, Daniel Patrick Moynihan's words in "The Negro Family" remained forgotten, while the shysters and hucksters of racial division continued to exploit America's racial chasm to the fullest.  In the meantime, we all continue to pay the price.