Ralph Richard Banks > Quotes

“When Nightline went to Atlanta in 2010 to interview successful black women there about why they we're unmarried, the women reported that the problem wasn't meeting me; it was exclusivity.”
― Ralph Richard banks, Is Marriage for White People?: How the African American Marriage Decline Affects Everyone

“The new view of marriage is reflected in the findings of a 2007 survey by the Pew Research Center. Throughout history and across different societies children have been pivotal to the prevailing conception of marriage. Yet when respondants to the Pew survey were provided with a list of items and asked to identify which were "very important " to a successful marriage, they ranked children near the bottom of the list. Practically every other consideration-- shared religious beliefs, shared interests, a happy sexual relationship-- ranked more important than children.”
― Ralph Richard Banks, Is Marriage for White People?: How the African American Marriage Decline Affects Everyone

“When Nightline went to Atlanta in 2010 to interview successful black women there about why they we're unmarried, the women reported that the problem wasn't meeting men; it was exclusivity.”
― Ralph Richard banks, Is Marriage for White People?: How the African American Marriage Decline Affects Everyone

“Contemporary marriages tend to be between socioeconomic equals, a development made possible by the advanced education of women and their increased entry into high-status professions. Doctors used to expect to marry nurses; today they look to marry doctors.”
― Ralph Richard Banks, Is Marriage for White People?: How the African American Marriage Decline Affects Everyone

“These men can maintain absurdly high standards because they are under no pressure to commit - the options are endless. Why cash in when you can continue to play? In my conversations with men, they typically didn't put it so bluntly. Instead, they made oblique references to how much fun it is to be single. They talked about not being in any rush to marry, about cherishing their freedom. They talked about their hesitancy to commit to marriage when they've seen so many go wrong. They talked about how difficult it is to find the right woman, a quest ironically rendered more challenging by the knowledge that there are so many of them out there.”
― Ralph Richard Banks, Is Marriage for White People?: How the African American Marriage Decline Affects Everyone

“You've gotta put up with so much mess from these men.”
― Ralph Richard Banks, Is Marriage for White People?: How the African American Marriage Decline Affects Everyone