Black Family In The Age Of Mass Incarceration Analysis

In his article, Black Family In the Age of Mass Incarceration, Ta-Nehisi Coates talks about his concerns with how poorly African American families are treated in society. Coates mentions how the government is not taking the mistreatment of African American communities problem seriously and is afraid this is going to have a very negative effect on their community and future generations. Throughout the article, Coates brought up numerous issues; however, the biggest dilemma discussed was the issue of poverty. Poverty is an important issue people should focus on because it causes great damage to families economically and socially. According to Coates, poverty in the African American culture increases the chance of discrimination and injustice; …show more content…
One of the biggest issue Coates focuses on in his article, is how mass incarceration causes great damage to the Black community. According to Coates, the issues of poverty can be traced back to the matriarchal society in the African American community. Coates argues this is a problem because children are growing up without a father figure in their life, and their single mothers are too busy at work earning money to support their families causing them to spend less and less quality time with their children. Children are influenced by daily dynamics which they often seek from their parents. Children that are raised in a toxic environment where there is a lack of a father figure and/or absence of a strong familial unit, are often seen following their parents footsteps. Mass incarceration leads to the issue of poverty because it causes ex-convicts to work at a lower wage in order to provide for their families. In his article, Coates uses Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s example. Moynihan was raised by his mother because his father was in prison, his life consisted of single motherhood, poverty, and relocation. At a very early age, Moynihan was forced to split his time between studying, working, and spending time with family on rare occasions. Moynihan’s family example clearly goes to illustrate that ex-convicts have a harder time finding a job because of the stigma that they served jail time and thus …show more content…
Poverty should be taken as a very serious issue because it causes a wound in the cultural and social aspect of the African American community that will forever remind people of the struggles they or their ancestors went through. It is important to discuss and educate people on poverty because no solution will be obtained unless people are aware of the issues and the effects it has on African American people. Once people begin discussing the solution to poverty, the community’s social, and economic status will increase because factors that are causing poverty in the African American community such as discrimination, mass incarceration and lack of education will decrease