Gentle Respect

Let me offer you, metaphorically, two magic wands that have sweeping powers to change society. With one wand you could wipe out all racism and discrimination from the hearts and minds of white America. The other wand you could wave across the ghettoes and barrios of America and infuse the inhabitants with Japanese or Jewish values, respect for learning, and ambition. But, alas, you can’t wave both wands. Only one. — Richard Lamm, former Democratic governor of Colorado

In the early 1960s the late Democratic Senator and MIT professor of sociology Daniel Patrick Moynihan began working in the Department of Labor. He tracked statistics on unemployment, welfare and out of wedlock childbirths. It was the received wisdom of the time that out of wedlock childbirths were the result of economic conditions, and sure enough, that is what Moynihan found. When unemployment went up, welfare caseloads increased. When unemployment declined, welfare caseloads declined. But then something strange happened. In the late 1950’s the correlation weakened, and then in the 1960’s it completely reversed. Welfare caseloads just started rising higher and higher as more and more out of wedlock childbirths occurred - despite a booming economy and declining unemployment. The divergance of these two formerly linked graphs - unemployment and welfare caseloads - was given a name. The Moynihan scissors. The study came to be called The Moynihan Report.

The second study was even more powerful. Part of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Acts included a provision to study the quality of education for African Americans. The legendary sociologist James Coleman was tapped to do the study. In the Words of Daniel Patrick Moynihan (available here):

SEN. MOYNIHAN: [Let me] give you a little background. This is sort of academic, but it’s the real world too. In the 1964 Civil Rights Act, as it was going through a long process, a little clause was put in saying there should be a survey of equality of educational opportunity. We had to demonstrate how separate schools were inherently unequal. And that was before things progressed such that the law outlawed dual school systems. But the little provision was still in there.

And a friend of mine, James S. Coleman – a great sociologist – was asked to do this survey. And when he undertakes it, they said, “why are you doing this? Everybody knows these schools are unequal in their facilities and that’s why they’re unequal in their outcomes.” He said, “Well, everybody knows it, but now we’ll know it for once and all.”

And I’ll tell you, early one evening, there’s a reception at the Harvard Faculty Club, and Seymour Martin Lipset – the incomparable Marty Lipset – walks in, sees me, comes over and says, “You know what Coleman’s finding, don’t you?” And I said, “No.” He said, “It’s all family.”

And, indeed what [Coleman] found [was that] the predictor of educational achievement was to be found in family setting, structure, and so forth.

QUESTION: Not in schools? Not principally?

SEN. MOYNIHAN: Not principally in schools. Now, and he was the sort of first major person in that difficult decade who found out things that he shouldn’t have found out. Actually, there was an effort – not very serious, but an effort – to expel him from the American Sociological Association.

QUESTION: For telling the truth?

SEN. MOYNIHAN: Well, for finding out information that was unwelcome.

In the words of Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the Democratic party went into “denial mode.” Realize that Moynihan himself was a lifelong Democrat. Fast forward 40 years and the Democrats denial has had real costs. Out of wedlock childbirths have more than doubled in the African American community.

Dealing with Rebuttals

The standard line against most rebuttals to the link between poverty and the breakdown of marraige is to invoke immigrants and the Great Depression. Immigrants are generally poor, but have stable families. And African Americans had far worse socio-economic conditions during the Great Depression than they do today, and yet stable families.

Articles

• Article: Getting Hitched by Iain Murray
• Article: Marriage and Caste by Kay S. Hymowitz
• Why We Don’t Marry by James Q. Wilson. A good article that takes on some rebuttals.
• Dan Quayle Was Right by Barbara DaFoe Whitehead. A reprint of a long article in the left-leaning magazine, ‘The Atlantic.’ A long look at the research, and documents the change as intellectuals studying poverty came to realize the importance of the married, two-parent family. Well worth the time.
• How Welfare Reform Worked by Kay S. Hymowitz. Another scholarly look at the research and the change of opinions among the sociological community towards family.
• Taxonomy of Objections Organized list of responses to common and uncommon objections to the link between marriage and poverty.

Books

• Marriage and Caste by Kay S. Hymowitz. An easy reading introduction.
• Civil Rights by Thomas Sowell. The importance of culture. For example, African Americans of West Indian descent made 94% as much as whites compared to 62% for African Americans as a whole.
• The Marriage Problem by James Q. Wilson. Accessible summary of the research on marriage and poverty, including rigorous rebuttals.