[AccraGhana]

The popular narrative is so blame the current dysfunction on out of wedlock births. However, when people generally think of OOWB they picture a poor teenager or young adult living off welfare and public assistance. The truth of the matter is that many middle class women are choosing to have children while not married. The other thing to consider is that many couples live together, for a long time, producing children, without being married. Some friends of ours is getting married in August. They have a 4 year old and a nine year old. They have been living together for as long as we have known them. Both parents are working. Yet, statistically the kids fall into the category of born out of wedlock. I would argue that much of the growth of OOWB does not really fit the de facto stereo type or assumptions that are used in the popular narrative to explain the problems of the black community. Born out of wedlock is not synonymous with a fatherless home, and if it is, it is not necessarily synonymous with a poor women on welfare with no adult male presence in the life of the child. I think that there is a hardcore percentage, maybe about half of the OOWB among blacks, that probably fit the traditional stereotype, however, the other half does not. There are plenty of children being born to a well off mother and there are plenty of children living with both parents who happen not to be married. This is not to suggest that OOWB is not a problem but to say that the high percentage is not what it seems when you look closer at the realities.