An article from the Summer 2008, Volume 18, No. 3 edition of City Journal is well worth the read. The article is authored by Myron Magnet and is titled, “The Great African-American Awakening: Some brave voices are shifting the conversation from victimhood to responsibility.”  Here’s the link for those interested in reading it in full: http://www.city-journal.org/2008/18_3_african_american_awakening.html.

In the article, Magnet highlights the writings of Bill Cosby and Juan Williams. Both of these fellows are bravely going against the conventional wisdom as to why the African American population is suffering such chaos. Conventional wisdom says it’s due to institutional racism. Cosby and Williams say it’s basically due to the breakdown of the family, exacerbated by government welfare, destructive entertainment (rap music), academic programs that perpetuate the victim mentality, and race hustlers like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, & Jeremiah Wright.

According to Magnet, “married couples headed 78 percent of black families in 1950, compared with 34 percent today.” Further, the illegitimacy rate (the percentage of children born out of wedlock) stands at about 70% in the African American population. Truly, this is a dire example of catastrophic breakdown in the basic, one mother, one father family unit.

And, as the old dictum succinctly states, “where goes the family, goes society.” In the case of the African American community, these are not just words. This is reality. Magnet points out that over 50% of African American teens drop out of high school. He also states that African Americans account for 44% of U.S. prisoners and commit about 50% of murders annually, but make up only 13% of the population. These are alarming statistics that happen to well correlate with the steady deterioration of the basic family unit within the African American community.

Magnet stops his discussion at the level of the family, but I’ll go one step further, to the very foundation of the family: marriage. Traditional one man, one woman marriage is the firmest foundation on which to build strong families and thus strong societies.

A whirlwind of grievances, fatuously based on “civil rights,” are threatening to redefine the foundation of the family. If America abandons the traditional definition of marriage, then America, as a society, will suffer the same consequences that its subpopulation, the African American community, is currently bearing. American society as a whole is in the early stages of family breakdown. The African American community is in a more advanced stage. We, as a total society, should see this as a prescient warning.

Whenever someone tells me, “What do I care if Paul and Joe want to get married,” I retort, “Where goes the family, goes society . . . and families are best built on the foundation of traditional marriage.” If I get a blank stare in response, then I know this truism is coming across as just mere words, just theory, empty of real meaning. The tragedy in the African American community puts the reality into that truism. It’s a clear example of why you should worry if Paul and Joe want to get married and why you should worry if Phil would like to take on both Mary and Suzy for wives and why you should worry if Elizabeth wants to officially marry her Pekingese.

Bill Cosby and Juan Williams are right: save the family and you’ll save the community. But, to save the family, you need to first defend its basis, traditional marriage. The salve for the African American community is the salve for America.