This new book by Stanford law professor Ralph Richard Banks is all off the beaten path, and concerns 1 basic unit of economic institutions and primary act of M&A–marriage.
It’s likely the first public “concession” by a prominent African American and academician that (1) “black marriage” in America is dead—for the middle class—and that (2) its resurrection shouldn’t be a goal–at least not directly.
A WSJ article on the story was reportedly the most clicked on story for WSJ readers ( a demographic hardly obsessed with the marital state of affairs of middle class black women) over a weekend that included a debt downgrade.
Professor Banks’ contention appears to be that black middle class women lack counterparts in black middle class men as potential spouses and consequently, should seek marriage with non-blacks. He says black middle class women have been “taking one for the team” and going without the deserved fruits from the institution of marriage for too long. It’s a big economic deal too; right down to the lack of a legacy and increased demographic equity from any inheritance of rare intellectualism and socioeconomic latitudes earned by many such unmarried and childless women. In business parlance Professor Banks’ stance appears to promote an urgent need for marital spousal competition and the break-up of a de facto dating monopoly reflexively held over black middle class women by black men at large. He suggests—and credibly—that it would only raise the quality of some black men. He’s already angered some with comments like this:
“It’s time for black women to stop being held hostage to the deficiencies of black men.”
I applaud his effort toward a truly new, and economically and socially relevant conversation. And of course an inconvenient one.
Update: Someone forwarded me this fine Time interview of Professor Banks.
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