An Introspection of African American Culture

A conversation with a friend of five years progressed from The Godfather, cookies, and clams to race and family life in a matter of moments, thus forcing introspection on my part of what makes up more than half of my bloodlines. Many racial stereotypes come by way of statistics, to which a degree I am a part of, though not by any choice of mine. My father is African-American and I've never had a relationship with him, meaning I was raised with a single mother along with my brother. The discussion that transpired surrounded the family demographic, both immediate and otherwise, of African-Americans in comparison to others.

The manner in which my friend relayed everything to me was that she wanted to be a part of a family that was as close knit as the Corleone's. For sake of background discussion, she too was raised by a single mother, though she has a relationship with her father. The introspection was forced when I looked towards my beleaguered family relations with my father's side of the family, due in no small part to the fact that I truly only know my father's name and face. The reasoning behind this is the man never sought me out while I was young and as I grew older I became apathetic and didn't care to meet him any longer. However, while I was apathetic, my older brother clearly held a wealth of resentment and anger from what I assume to be memories of him leaving.

The stereotype is that all black men leave their children, which is utterly ridiculous. However, in the urban environment, I've yet to observe the close knit family unity that is practiced in the previously mentioned Italian families and even in many Hispanic families. During the course of the discussion with my friend she brought up the fact that it's simply a part of their culture. Nothing could be truer, but when using the American south as an example, the African-American family dynamic is very much the same. Family reunions, cookouts and many other things are always commonplace. On the other hand, I rarely experience these events in the concrete jungle or any metropolis.