American FatherhoodPub Date : 2019-12-31DOI: 10.18574/nyu/9781479892273.003.0012
J. Martschukat
{"title":"Families, Fathers, and the Black Community, 1950–2010","authors":"J. Martschukat","doi":"10.18574/nyu/9781479892273.003.0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9781479892273.003.0012","url":null,"abstract":"Chapter 11 looks at an African American family in 1970s Watts after the civil rights movement and the Watts riots. Its main character is the slaughterhouse worker Stan from Charles Burnett’s independent film Killer of Sheep (1977). In this film, Burnett makes a powerful counterargument in the debate on the “dysfunctional black family,” which a decade earlier was described by Daniel Patrick Moynihan and the Johnson administration as being mired in a “tangle of pathology.” Stan is neither shiftless nor lazy but tries to get ahead and secure a decent living for his family. He endlessly struggles for the survival of his nuclear family but is constrained in his efforts and their success by the racist conditions of his life in 1970s America. The chapter approaches the massive debate on the black family and fatherhood in contemporary America through the film and its public reception, both in the 1970s and 1980s and after its re-release in 2007. Thus, the author uses the film to explore this discourse from the 1960s to today, from Patrick Moynihan to Barack Obama, and analyzes their comments on black families and fatherhood as well as those by their critics.","PeriodicalId":127547,"journal":{"name":"American Fatherhood","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116460122","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
American FatherhoodPub Date : 2019-12-31DOI: 10.18574/nyu/9781479892273.003.0014
J. Martschukat
{"title":"Conclusion","authors":"J. Martschukat","doi":"10.18574/nyu/9781479892273.003.0014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9781479892273.003.0014","url":null,"abstract":"The brief concluding chapter wraps up the arguments made with regard to the politics of family and fatherhood in US history. It also connects the historical analyses of the past to the questions and issues of the present and thereby comments on the importance of history writing for how we see the world today and how we live our life.","PeriodicalId":127547,"journal":{"name":"American Fatherhood","volume":"423 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132147288","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
American FatherhoodPub Date : 2019-12-31DOI: 10.18574/nyu/9781479892273.003.0004
J. Martschukat
{"title":"Slavery, Family, and Fatherhood, 1830–1860","authors":"J. Martschukat","doi":"10.18574/nyu/9781479892273.003.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9781479892273.003.0004","url":null,"abstract":"The third chapter explores the history of slavery. It is written from the perspective of the slave father Tom Jones and uses his slave narrative and his letters from the early 1850s as source material. The chapter shows how Jones as a slave father fights against his coercion into bondage and how he acts to take control over his life, obviously driven by an urge to have a family to love and to care for. Yet in presenting Tom Jones’s desires, thoughts, and actions, his slave narrative clearly draws upon the image of an ideal republican, Christian, industrious, and caring father and citizen. Thus, it presents to a white northern audience a black slave who deserves freedom because he knows how to employ his liberties for the betterment of himself, his family, and, after all, society. The chapter argues that the story of the slave’s efforts to care for his family and gain recognition as father make a compelling argument for the injustice and wrongfulness of slavery in general, while at the same time reinforcing the nuclear family ideal with all its normative power.","PeriodicalId":127547,"journal":{"name":"American Fatherhood","volume":"31 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129806936","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}