an argument IS a discussion...it just happens to be between two people who dont agree....just a little fyi for you..and its actually an artform...its petty or imature to argue if I think you are implying that..its just petty and imature to argue poorly...but i digress
nbc isnt the only source quoting those numbers...someone else quoted another source...but its always good to do your own fact finding
but back to the whole marriage thing...
the thing about a families these days is...they dont begin or end with marriages anymore...that would be the point i would make to you
That's symantics at work...
ar•gu•ment
1.an oral disagreement; verbal opposition; contention; altercation: a violent argument.
This is generally percieved as an argument, I doubt many people here would buy into an argument as a structured debate or discussion on a porn board. With the key words being opposition and contention.
dis•cus•sion
1. Consideration of a subject by a group; an earnest conversation.
2. A formal discourse on a topic; an exposition.
A discussion is objective conversation. I would hardly call,
"your argument fails", the beginning of an earnest discussion. But, that may be objective communication to you. An argument(as in a rebuttle to) can in fact be a PART of a discussion, but I don't think you meant it that way...if you did, then I didn't perceive your statement as an open ended, objective rebuttle.
In any event, I was unable to find any "RELIABLE" sources to validate that
"70% of black childeren are living in single mother households". However, I misread your statement, you typed, "70% of black childeren are being
born to single mother households". I was able to find quite a few sources to validate this statistic, with most leaning towards the 66% -70% range.
But in saying this, the relationship to marriage and divorce is and was very relavent to your reply. A single mother, means unwed, it doesn't mean she's alone or without a partner. Statistically speaking, she is counted among the unwed, even with a live in boyfriend, baby's daddy...etc.
In terms of living arrangements, the U.S. Census Bureau says that nearly 53%of black children live with a single parent and more black children have lived with a single parent than in a family structure. What I found interesting is single black fathers are the largest growing sector of single parents. So the 70% statistic says, 7 out of 10 black women are having babies for their man and most black men are not willing to marry their Babies Momma
This is just sad all the way around...I was really hoping that none of these numbers were true. About the marriage and divorce thing, I found some interesting stats on that as well and it profoundly affects black families more than white, asian, mexican and other.
Marianne Page and Ann Huff Stevens find that in the first two years
following a divorce, family income among white children falls about 30
percent, while it falls by 53 percent among black children
In fact, three or more years after the divorce, the black families' income
remains 47 percent lower than if the parents had remained together. Marriage appears to have even greater benefits for black children whose single mothers marry than for their white counterparts, according to the study.
"Black children are only half as likely as white children to be living in a two-parent household, and are eight times more likely than white children to live with an unwed mother. For black children under six, 'the most common arrangement -- applying to 42 percent of them -- was to live with a never-married mother.'"
The Abolition of Marriage, by Maggie Gallagher p. 117, citing Andrew J. Cherlin, Marriage, Divorce, Remarriage, rev. and enl. ed., (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1992), 98-99.
"Only 18 percent of black women who married in the 1940s eventually divorced, a rate only slightly higher than that for white women of that era. But, of that far smaller number of black women who married in the late sixties and early seventies, 60 percent have already divorced."
"'Exposure to single motherhood at some point during adolescence increases the risk [of a daughter's later becoming a single mother] by nearly [150 percent] for whites and.....by about 100 percent for blacks.'"
Sara S. McLanahan, "Family Structure and Dependency: Reality Transitions to Female Household Headship," Demography 25, Feb., 1988, 1-16. Cited in Amneus, The Garbage Generation, page 240
A whole other thread, but interesting reads and sources.
the thing about a families these days is...they dont begin or end with marriages anymore
I don't understand this statement, please qualify it for me. Are you saying a family no longer needs to consist of a Married woman, man and/or child to be defined as a family? Because if you are, the federal govornment and the U.S. Census burea disagree with you. If that is not what you're saying, what are you saying? I have another question, were you raised by a single mother or father...were either one of your parents absent? My views may be different because I was raised in a two parent household with my siblings, so my idea of family is more traditional...As most people see family the same way.