'Marriage Is for White People' :: Joy Jones in Washington Post

Read the whole thing. (Link via Instapundit.)

One quote:

Among African Americans, the desire for marriage seems to have a different trajectory for women and men. My observation is that black women in their twenties and early thirties want to marry and commit at a time when black men their age are more likely to enjoy playing the field. As the woman realizes that a good marriage may not be as possible or sustainable as she would like, her focus turns to having a baby, or possibly improving her job status, perhaps by returning to school or investing more energy in her career.

I wonder if Joy Joyce has read the Undercover Economist:

A little over one in 100 American men are in prison - but there are several states where one in five young black men are behind bars. Since most women marry men of similar age, and of the same race and the same state, there are some groups of women who face a dramatic shortfall of marriage partners.

Economist Kerwin Charles has recently studied the plight of these women. Their problem is not merely that some who would want to marry won't be able to; it's that the available men suddenly have more bargaining power.
. . .
The women's response makes sense: girl power. The women affected do everything to make the most of single life, including staying at school for longer and hunting for more paid work. The American prison system hasn't left them much choice.

What is it that puts a disproportionate and large number of black men in prison (or dead on the streets)? It's next layer of the onion. I do note, however, that one immediate implication is that if white men were imprisoned in proportionately the same numbers as black men, then white men would be as likely to be players as black men.

TAGS: Joy Joyce, marriage rates