Marriages and Families : Making Choices in a Diverse Society (with InfoTrac)

Rating:
Summary: Interracial relationship data in book is biased
Review: I study close relationships of all kinds regardless of race. I have noticed something troubling about books such as yours. I have noticed many texts are off base or one sided when discussing heterogamous or "interracial" relationships involving black men. Rather than present a balanced picture of heterogamous relationships within the black community, the authors of this text deliberately took a stance which casts a negative shadow on black men in heterogamous relationships even going so far as to quote an article in a popular magazine as a source. This is a text book. There's no room for unsupported opinions from popular media. All arguments should be fairly presented and documented with a diversity of academic sources because you're influencing the minds of students who are relying upon your "expertise."

One ludicrous claim in this text was the notion that black men trade successful positions in society for white women of lower status in order to gain status. This is a very old myth that only perpetuates negative stereotypes of black men. Studies have found NO correlation of that type, it's just a pernicious myth! (Golden, 1954; Heer, 1974; and Monahan; 1976). Think about it rationally. When you consider the stares, negative comments and potential social isolation black men who marry outside of their race experience, do you honestly see that as raising status? The reality of the situation renders the "status" argument moot and demonstrates it is a ridiculous assumption.

Please stop printing these damaging unsupported myths about black men!

Other than this grossly distorted section, the book was a good overview of marriage and family issues within our culture.