ABSTRACT
The black family has received placement on the policy agenda at different periods throughout history. The concern over the black family dates back to slavery when the enslaved were denied the right to form intact family structures. As a result, the black family occupies a strange position in the history of America’s race and gender legacy. Subsequently, throughout the years, there have been a number of commonalities binding the “concerns” over the black family. For example, the black family has been constructed as “deviant,” “pathological,” and in need of “fi xing.”
