Black Family: Representation, Identity And Diversity

“What we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world void of national bias, race hate, and religious prejudice.” -Carter G. Woodson

Family for all of us is something that defines us, grounds us, gives us hope, nurtures us, our sanctuary, pillar of support, and means the world to everyone. Every family barring it’s colour, race, caste, creed, nationality, yet has its own identity, achievements, flaws and the commonality among all of it is being the constant in our lives.

Just like the many colours in a painting adding beauty to the plain canvas, so are families of different origins adding to the beauty of the world and its people.

As we reflect on the BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2021-Black Family: Representation, Identity and Diversity, we celebrate their contributions and advancements made in our society and several cracks in the glass ceiling. The black family has been a topic of study in many disciplines—history, literature, the visual arts and film studies, sociology, anthropology, and social policy. Its representation, identity, and diversity have been reverenced, stereotyped, and vilified from the days of slavery to our own time. The black family knows no single location, since family reunions and genetic-ancestry searches testify to the spread of family members across states, nations, and continents. Throughout history black families have been stereotyped and revered. We can see such examples every day in our lives in terms of media and other sources.

Black families are often portrayed as dysfunctional and broken which is far from reality as families are just healing and adapting, the durability and the adaptability is often overlooked. Despite the breakdown of a traditional family unit, it strengthens the need of kinship in the community. Their commitments to each other during periods of struggle, and through sayings like “ It takes a village to raise a child.”

Robert Hill stated in his book The Strengths of the Black Family that black families have some of the strongest bonds within their family unit, especially when it comes to their children and elderly members. They also have a strong work ethic and adaptability within the traditional family roles. Hill also states that they have a high achievement and religious orientation. All of these strengths create the black family, and keep it together and surviving despite the odds and statistics stacked against them.

Some believe that black families aren’t effectively functioning as they categorize adaptability to negative effects, some also believe that social view, policies are also a factor for dysfunctionality. The structural changes made during the period of slavery helped the other members of the unit survive, with female members taking the roles of absent male members and the difficulty to cope with new environment and society was also a factor ignored in the evolution of black families.

The man behind Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), Carter G Woodson, born in 1857- 10 years after the 13th Amendment was passed it the United States Congress. However, despite the ratification the struggle for civil rights would persist during the turbulent reconstruction era and beyond. Woodson and other countless Black individuals came of age during that period. His family lived on a farm in Virginia, his parents were formerly enslaved and were denied the opportunity to read and write. During his formative years, intensive farm work and multiple jobs didn’t deter him from attending school or his untiring spirit of learning.

After graduating school he worked towards an undergraduate degree at Berea college in Kentucky. While attending college he also served as his High School alma mater’s Principal ,and it became clear that he was passionate about the power and importance of education. After graduation he spent 3 years as a school supervisor in Philippines before returning in 1908 to earn a master’s degree from the University of Chicago. Four years later he earned a PhD in Harvard University, becoming the second black man to do so. He noticed a missing history, so he became one of the first scholars to study the history of the African diaspora and African American history. He established the ASALH in 1915. He designated the second week of February as the” Negro History Week”. This week was an opportunity to teach Americans about Black history and celebrate their invaluable contributions.

By the late 1960s, the week had expanded to a month on all college campuses across the US, leading the then President Ford to officially recognize it as a holiday. Since then, ASALH has identified a theme for black history month each year and this years theme resonates with Carter G. Woodson’s pursuit and passion.

Blog by Pranavi. C. S

Research by Riva Chauhan