The Black Nuclear Family

The family unit has become a symbol in the United States that has become synonymous with the American Dream. For so long, many can't remember when that wasn't the case. Every time you see a picture of this "American Dream," you may see a pattern. When the idea of living that perfect life with the white picket fence in the middle to an upper-class neighborhood with a family of your own is always capitalized by a white family being behind that fence, how can anyone see that as attainable if you never a family that may look like yours? All of this essentially comes down to looking at the bigger picture. Why is the portrayal of Black families different from White families? 

"According to a study by the non-profit civil rights advocacy group Color of Change and Family Story, an organization that advocates for families today, which looked at more than 800 local and national US news stories and opinion pieces between January 2015 and December 2016 (published online, in print, and on TV), the media overwhelmingly depicted black families as poor and dependent on welfare, black fathers as absent, and consistently overhyped the link between black families and criminality. However, when it comes to white families, the picture painted is often of social stability" (Mohdin, 2017). 

When Black families in America represent just 27% of the poor of the population but represent 59% of the poor in the media, while White people, who make up 66% of the poor across the country but just 17% of the poor portrayed in American media, it can't do anything but leave you baffled and confused. 

Source: 

https://qz.com/1158041/study-media-portrayal-of-black-families-versus-white-families-in-the-us