Before I can touch upon rap and its hyper masculine message, first I have to give some cultural context as to why rappers rap about the things they have claimed to experience. This started because of the decimation of the black family. Throughout history especially during the slave trade black family have been broken up whether on the selling block when mothers and fathers would be separated from their children by slave masters. To present day when a father is sent to jail away from his family for a petty crime. Daniel Moynihan, the Assistant Secretary of Labor under President Johnson released a report called “The Negro Family”, a study that discussed the black family dynamic from slavery until the 1960’s. For this paper I will be focusing
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In Moynihan’s study he compared homes of both black and white people through every social class. Broken homes are more prevalent in black households in every social class even in high class families. In the study he found that almost fourteen percent of black families of high social class had no father present compared to zero percent in white families. (Moynihan, 38) He also found that there is a correlation between the IQ scores of black kids and whether or not the father was present in the household. For example, a child in the lowest social class in first grade had an average IQ of 95.2, compared to another child of the same social class and grade but the father was absent had an average IQ of 87.8. (Moynihan, 38) With the factors of living in poverty stricken neighborhoods, poor education and no clear male role model to guide them, black males fall into the trap of crime and incarceration. It’s because of racism against young black males, they are charged with crimes more than white males. It was discovered that in 1960 thirty-seven percent of all inmates in both federal and state prisons were African American. Also it was found that fifty-six percent of homicides and fifty-seven percent of assaults were committed by inmates of state penitentiaries were black. (Moynihan, 41) These types of crimes were usually committed against another black person thus hurting the community in both directions. Also found in the study is that delinquents committing these crimes were more than likely to come from a broken home whether the father was absent or both
In Moynihan’s study he compared homes of both black and white people through every social class. Broken homes are more prevalent in black households in every social class even in high class families. In the study he found that almost fourteen percent of black families of high social class had no father present compared to zero percent in white families. (Moynihan, 38) He also found that there is a correlation between the IQ scores of black kids and whether or not the father was present in the household. For example, a child in the lowest social class in first grade had an average IQ of 95.2, compared to another child of the same social class and grade but the father was absent had an average IQ of 87.8. (Moynihan, 38) With the factors of living in poverty stricken neighborhoods, poor education and no clear male role model to guide them, black males fall into the trap of crime and incarceration. It’s because of racism against young black males, they are charged with crimes more than white males. It was discovered that in 1960 thirty-seven percent of all inmates in both federal and state prisons were African American. Also it was found that fifty-six percent of homicides and fifty-seven percent of assaults were committed by inmates of state penitentiaries were black. (Moynihan, 41) These types of crimes were usually committed against another black person thus hurting the community in both directions. Also found in the study is that delinquents committing these crimes were more than likely to come from a broken home whether the father was absent or both