Black Family Sociology

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Pages: 3

During the 1970’s from a social standpoint, the war in Vietnam affected the Black family in multiple economic and physical ways. Limited resources for returning veterans, the effects of absentee husbands and fathers, as well as the increased substance abuse amongst returning soldiers all contributed to the breakdown of the Black family.
As the nation begins to descend and disengage from its war with the Vietnamese in 1975, Black men faced a number of transitional problems. Returning from war, Blacks were twice as likely to not be employed full time in comparison to White veterans (Fendrich, 62). Not having adequate financial resources to sustain or maintain a substantial living for themselves did not make it easy for them to provide for a family. Those soldiers who had more than a high school education
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If men weren’t coming back to help rectify the home, women felt less of a need for their presence in the house. With a single female led household with children, there was an increased need for government assistance when it came to resources. Without adequate funds to rectify financial strains, more mothers in black communities relied on the aid of welfare. This aid was contingent on their socioeconomic status, which also caused complacency among women in the community. If these women employed themselves, got married, or had a make-up of legal aged people in the house that made a certain amount of money, they no longer qualified for welfare. What may not have seemed detrimental at the time has had generation effects of circumstantial poverty. If they did not find themselves using government aid, they were picking up two and three jobs to make ends meet. This caused not only for there to not to be a male figure in the home, but for there not to be a constant parent figure present wither, leading to the “latch-key kid” syndrome (Fendrich,