Moynihan blamed female dominance rather than racism for black family woes

Evidence

In his report Moynihan argued that the black American family was being undermined by female dominance. He claimed that racist discrimination against black men in the work force caused black families to have a matriarchal structure which he asserted was out of line with the white American norm, the patriarchal family structure, and that this prevented the black race from being accepted into the mainstream of American life. Moynihan’s message was similar to that of black women who admonished black men for not assuming the patriarchal role. The difference in the two perspectives was that Moynihan placed a measure of the responsibility for the black male’s inability to assume a patriarchal role on black women, whereas black women felt that racism and black male indifference were the forces that caused black men to reject the role of sole economic provider. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 522

Categorization

• XREF: The Moynihan Report critique connects directly to the Black feminist critique of pathologizing families in other chapters and to later intersectional scholarship. — connects to: Sexist ideology, not evidence, grounded Moynihan’s matriarchy thesis

Related

• Moynihan generalized a minority family form into a universal claim (similarity 0.90)
• The Moynihan matriarchy myth prescribed female subordination as the cure for racial oppression (similarity 0.85)
• Sexist ideology, not evidence, grounded Moynihan’s matriarchy thesis (similarity 0.85)
• Black men adopted Moynihan’s emasculation and matriarchy myths to justify misogyny. (similarity 0.83)
• Moynihan’s report blamed Black mothers while ignoring state-imposed disadvantages and New Deal exclusion. (similarity 0.82)
• The Moynihan report endorsed military violence as a cure for black emasculation (similarity 0.81)
• The matriarchy myth discredited black women and black men simultaneously (similarity 0.81)
• The emasculation thesis rests on a sexist hierarchy of male experience. (similarity 0.80)
• Slavery-era myths branded black women masculinized to defend patriarchal ideology. (similarity 0.80)
• Contraception’s spread converted black male sexism into open misogyny (similarity 0.79)
• Black men’s alienation stemmed from Black women having any power at all (similarity 0.79)
• The matriarchy label steers black women away from feminism they need (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Sexist ideology, not evidence, grounded Moynihan’s matriarchy thesis #corroborates (0.50)