Black Women, Black Love

America's War on African American Marriage

By: Dianne M Stewart

Narrated by: Tracey Leigh

In this analysis of social history, examine the complex lineage of America's oppression of Black companionship.
According to the 2010 US census, more than seventy percent of Black women in America are unmarried. Black Women, Black Love reveals how four centuries of laws, policies, and customs have created that crisis.
Dianne Stewart begins in the colonial era, when slave owners denied Blacks the right to marry, divided families, and, in many cases, raped enslaved women and girls. Later, during Reconstruction and the ensuing decades, violence split up couples again as millions embarked on the Great Migration north, where the welfare system mandated that women remain single in order to receive government support. And no institution has forbidden Black love as effectively as the prison-industrial complex, which removes Black men en masse from the pool of marriageable partners.
Prodigiously researched and deeply felt, Black Women, Black Love reveals how white supremacy has systematically broken the heart of Black America, and it proposes strategies for dismantling the structural forces that have plagued Black love and marriage for centuries.

Critic reviews

“Stewart marshals substantial evidence to back up her thesis—proof of a centuries-long assault on Black love and marriage that in her hands takes the form of persuasive case histories of women, past and present.... It offers a fresh and surprising look at the economic, spiritual, structural and emotional constraints on the hundreds of thousands of Black women for whom love and marriage are neither blithely expected nor easy. In that, it feels not so much necessary as needed.”—New York Times

"Powerful, persuasive, and devastatingly haunting. Dianne M. Stewart has placed a historical and structural lens on the most personal, intimate areas of our lives and brought them into clear focus."—Carol Anderson, New York Times-bestselling author of White Rage

"Black Women, Black Love is profoundly necessary and long overdue. Dianne M. Stewart decimates popular myths about Black love and marriage. She reveals through data, history, and compelling storytelling that structural racism and patriarchy -- beginning with slavery and continuing through racist welfare policies, mass incarceration, and more -- have consistently thwarted the efforts of Black women to marry and sustain healthy, loving relationships."—Michelle Alexander, New York Times-bestselling author of The New Jim Crow

"Dianne M. Stewart's compelling Black Women, Black Love is the first Black feminist/womanist analysis of the structural barriers that make marriage for heterosexual African American women elusive, even impossible, within a racist, sexist America. In painstaking detail, she makes the provocative case that our persistent marital dilemmas over four centuries should be seen as a hidden civil rights issue. Her exploration of the concept of 'forbidden Black love' is nuanced, moving, and attentive to a broad range of variables. Personal narratives enhance her solid, though unsettling, arguments about America's persistent war on Black marriage, as well as 'undesired singlehood' for generations of women who love Black men."—Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Anna Julia Cooper Professor of Women's Studies, Spelman College, and coauthor of Gender Talk

Worth every listening minute

This was a very enlightening book about black love I encourage you all to listen to this book it was awesome.

Informative, but you need your dictionary if you don’t have a huge vocabulary.

The first two chapters were very hard to listen to. I Felt like I was traumatizing my soul with the first two chapters. The remaining chapters were very informative about how the black family has been destroyed slowly over many decades. This book has inspired me to strive for better things in life. This book is written for someone with a huge vocabulary, so you may need to have your dictionary handy to refer to frequently.

An important contribution

This book makes an important contribution to our understanding of the plummeting marriage rates among African Americans in particular. It provides the historical, structural causes that must be considered.

If you are a black woman—- listen to this!!!!!!

My goodness… well researched, powerful, will change your mindset. Make sure you takes notes while listening to this audiobook.

Love Love

Loved it so much bought the audio version and the hard back! Kudos to the author for writing about a topic that the African Americans so often do not want to talk about

History that has to always be talked about

Some may feel the information and the way it's presented is something that is always repeated and it's the same tropes a lot of black men and women are aware of. I come from the point of view that this is information that has to be always be talked about. The reason being, if we stop talking about it, then we will stop talking about it.

Black Women, Black Love is one of those books when you first start to listen to it, is extremely hard to get through, mainly because it is a history of slavery and all of the harshnesses that black women and men went through. The opening prologue really will test you and if you can and want to handle the information. If you think this isn't worth it or feel that the information is cherry-picked to support a narrative, then this won't be the book for you.

The narrator's tone was straightforward, did add certain inflections at certain times to change the mood of the text. For me, it made sense, can't say whether or not, I found it necessary or not. It didn't take away from my listening experience in general.
If you feel that you want to learn more about the problems that black women and for that fact, black men are continually struggling through, then take the time and give this a listen.

Overall this book is quality information and very worth the time to listen to it. It is history that can't be forgotten and always needs to be remembered. Dianne Stewart does attempt to provide some ideas on improving the lives of black women for a better future, but even she does realize it's not an easy fix. Even with that being the case, she does attempt to come up with some solutions, which can be looked at for the future and hopefully beyond.

Yo!!

She explained my current state & the historical reasons behind it. Must read for all black women.

An educational experience

This book makes so many connections between our nation’s history of racism and how it has negatively impacted the black family. We must do the work to turn things around so that our communities can heal and grow.

Eye opener

I never realized that it truly isn't the Black woman's fault that no one loves us. It's been taught for over 400 years that we are at the bottom of every list. Not even our men love us. The reasons given in this audio is why, even though I have three sons, I don't fully support the Black live matter movement

History repeats itself

I liked the way the story is written. It gives a history lesson to help bring the reader up to speed and connect the dots to the plentiful problems we face as black women.

It has also challenged me to confront some of my own beliefs and desires.

If you are a deep thinker, this book is emotionally heavy to process in the beginning.

It ignited a rage inside of me for the experiences we collectively shared, but it also helped give hope towards the end of the book. I think every black woman who is in this predicament should read this book.