Author Question: Why was the Moynihan report so harshly criticized? What does this response reveal about the ... (Read 59 times)

luvbio · **on:** Aug 9, 2018

Why was the Moynihan report so harshly criticized? What does this response reveal about the progression of race relations at that time?

What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

The __________ Convention of 1972 uncovered the political tensions that had developed within the black community since the civil rights movement had achieved major successes during the 1960s.

Fill in the blank(s) with the appropriate word(s).

chem1s3 · **Reply #1 on:** Aug 9, 2018

Answer to Question 1

Ideal Answer: The ideal answer should:
1. Define Moynihan as assistant secretary of labor whose leaked memorandum became known as the Moynihan Report.
2. Explain that the report noted that Moynihan's guiding assumption was that civil rights legislation, necessary as it was, would not address the problems of the inner city. There, he argued, the breakdown of the lower-class black family had led to the pathology of juvenile delinquency, illegitimacy, drug addiction, and poor performance in school.
3. Note that he attributed the vulnerability of the black family to three centuries of almost unimaginable treatment by white society: exploitation under slavery, the strain of urbanization, and persistent unemployment.
4. The report was harshly criticized for its condemnation of matriarchy. Black social scientists, such as Joyce Ladner, Andrew Billingsley, and Carol Stack, countered that the structure of the black family reflected a functional adaptation that black people had made to survive in a hostile and racist American society. Historians Herbert Gutman and John Blassingame argued that Moynihan underestimated the prevalence of two-parent black families in the past.
5. Conclude that the response reveals the rise of black power and community self-development as a new strategy of uplift that rejected the older notion of white leadership and analysis.

Answer to Question 2

Answer: Gary