Black Marriages Today

We just recently started our group presentations in Freshmen Seminar. Each group has picked a topic/question to research that relates to the broad question of the class. One of the presentations that I really liked was one on black marriages. The presentation was about the decline in black marriages and how it is affecting women and men. The group that presented this also compared black marriages to white marriages, showing that white marriages usually last longer than black marriages do. Through research this group was able to show the affect that the decline in black marriages is causing. They were also able to show how significantly the number of black marriages has changed since the 1950’s to the present day. I found this presentation to very interesting and informative because today the black family is rarely seen. Though “black marriage” is not typically seen as a controversial issue that needs attention, it is in reality. The institution of marriage is a necessity in today’s world because it was what forms a true family which many young black people are lacking. In a family there is someone there to protect, to love, and to look up to. For many black people most have only had one parent to do all those jobs. I think that more black people should come together and try to understand each other so that the possibility of an increase in black marriages could seem possible. Overall the group presentation on ‘Black Marriage’ was really good, and I thought that they had a great question, however I feel that the group could have had more energy when presenting because it would have made the presentation more engaging.

Safisha Seifullah