What it means that family breakdown is now biracial. In 1965,
Daniel Patrick Moynihan released a controversial report written
for his then boss, President Lyndon Johnson. Entitled “The Negro
Family: The Case for National Action,” it described the
condition of lower-income African American families and
catalyzed a highly acrimonious, decades-long debate about black
culture and family values in America. The report cited a series
of staggering statistics showing high rates of divorce, unwed
childbearing, and single motherhood among black families. “The
white family has achieved a high degree of stability and is
maintaining that stability,” the report said. “By contrast, the
family structure of lower class Negroes is highly unstable, and
in many urban centers is approaching complete breakdown.” Nearly
fifty years later, the picture is even more grim—and the
statistics can no longer be organized neatly by race. In fact,
Moynihan’s bracing profile of the collapsing black family in the
1960s looks remarkably similar