An introduction to the complex relationship between African Americans and the African continent What is an “African American” and how does this identity relate to the African continent? Rising immigration levels, globalization, and the United States’ first African American president have all sparked new dialogue around the question. This book provides an introduction to the relationship between African Americans and Africa from the era of slavery to the present, mapping several overlapping diasporas. The diversity of African American identities through relationships with region, ethnicity, slavery, and immigration are all examined to investigate questions fundamental to the study of African American history and culture.

In the fifteen chapters that comprise this comprehensive look at the Black family today, each of the contributors deals with an aspect of family life that pertains especially to the Black community. The topics include the extended family, single female parenting, teenagers, male-female relationships, the role of the church, pastoral counseling, marital counseling, sexuality, money management, sexual abuse, drug abuse, and evangelizing the Black male.

Publisher Description

With numerous selections designed to reinforce the goal of empowering clients to take charge of their lives, this revised and updated second edition of The Black Family serves a two-fold purpose. It extends the small but growing body of strength-oriented literature to include African-American families and it serves as a natural extension of current texts on African-American families to provide social workers and the education community with a broader framework for understanding the needs of Black families. Offering both a research orientation and a practice perspective, this book should appeal to social work educators and practitioners involved in family services, health and mental health settings, and child and public welfare.

The condition and characteristics of the black family have been subjects of intense debate since at least the 1960s, when the Moynihan Report and the culture of poverty theses held sway. Since then a consistent theme has been that black families are pathological. Despite the fact that research has been inconclusive and contradictory, political debate and policy have been strongly influenced by the pathology theme. This volume presents alternative approaches toward understanding the special characteristics of black families. Extending a special issue of The Review of Black Political Economy, the book focuses on the economic circumstances and decision making of these families, employing Interdisciplinary and cross-cultural perspectives. It examines the general responses of black families to various external factors such as economic systems, and to Internal factors such as interpersonal relationships. This compendium of current thinking and research will be of interest to professionals in a number of fields, Including family studies, counseling, social work, psychology, and sociology. It will be of practical use in training programs for service delivery systems Interested In Incorporating multicultural perspectives, as well as those specifically interested in black families today.

African American Relationships, Marriages, and Families is a historically and culturally centered text designed for relationship, marriage and family educators and therapists who work with African American singles and couples. Complete with numerous exercises, the book helps singles and couples increase their self-awareness, partner awareness and respect, and appreciation for difference. It also helps foster effective communication and conflict resolution skills, showing readers how to develop and maintain healthy relationships, marriages, and families. No ground is left uncovered in Dixon’s thoughtful and considered analysis.

Publisher Description

Introduces research, theory, and practice of couples therapy with Black clients to help clinicians in providing culturally responsive care.

Returning to his innovative work of twenty-five years ago, Robert Hill once more offers an incisive analysis of five key cultural strengths of African-American families. With compassion and eloquence, he argues that these existing strengths provide a solid foundation upon which to develop the kind of public policies and self-help initiatives that will truly promote the interests, not only of the African American community, but of our diverse nation as a whole.