In other words, the prevalence of unwed black mothers is not attributable to differing sexual mores between whites and blacks, but rather to the fact that black women are living what Banks describes as a segregated existence. Asians, Latinos, and even black men are much more likely to marry outside their race. But black women, according to Banks, face social pressure to marry within their race - they are encouraged to marry "down" before they marry "out." And those social pressures do not apply to black men.
"Pressures to marry within a group are receding for all groups, including black men," Banks told me. "But for black women, they are seen as having a special responsibility to black men and to restore the black family, but those efforts are counterproductive and have been unsuccessful.
"They end up not marrying out but within the race. . . . A majority of college-educated black women who do marry marry a less-educated man."
Typically, Banks notes, the more educated a woman, the more likely she will marry. But that's not so with African American women. They're dealing with a shortage of potential male partners, which Banks surmises is caused by a high incarceration rate, interracial marriage (which he writes "depletes the pool of men for middle-class, college-educated black women"), and economic trends that have benefited women more than men (and that are much more pronounced among African Americans).
By his logic, the first family is unique in a way I didn't appreciate before reading the book. Regarding President and Michelle Obama, Banks writes: "As African Americans, they are extraordinary in the most ordinary way: They are a married couple raising their children together."
