American Society In The 1950s

For a country that supposedly places such a high premium on individualism, America possesses an unusual infatuation with the family, one that stretches all the way back to the 1950s. Experiencing a blindness typically found only in teenagers, the America of that time perceived a flawless family unit and fell instantly in love. Like all besotted creatures, it quickly began to weave fancies about itself and the object of its attraction, stories about how everything was and always had been perfect between them, and how the peak of human progress had finally been achieved. Soon enough, those fancies took on the veil of reality for America, and when the family unit’s face started to change over the next few decades, it became understandably distraught.
America remembers with pride the moment the slaves were freed, the day the U.S. entered World War II to fight the Nazis, the years of the successful civil rights movement. What it tends to forget are the horrific circumstances that led to such heroic acts being necessary, such as the enslavement of millions of blacks, the stubborn isolationism attitude taken up by Americans in the 1940s, and the blatant racism present in everyday American society until the 1960s. With such a pride-nurturing memory system in place, it was only a matter of time before one generation of Americans became so arrogant as to think their family and society had at last reached perfection, and to label all future changes to them as depreciatory, which is precisely what happened in the 1950s, when the American society stretched towards its highest levels of prosperity and patriotism
It tends to forget that the end of the enslavement of African Americans did not put an end to the terrible conditions they lived with, and as a consequence, in the 1950s, a time of almost unparalleled wealth, over half of all African Americans families were living in poverty (Foner 1019). These families frequently ended up broken, not because of any weakness or flaw in their structure, but because they were quite violently torn apart by their environment. A recording of some of that suffering appears in Alex Kotlowitz’ biography, There are No Children Here, which tells the stories of two African American youths growing up in the housing projects of Chicago. These boys and their family constantly had to deal with the pressures exerted by gangs, drugs, and few funds, which lead many of their friends and family to turn to crime against their better judgement. Poverty, then, is a threat to the family, while at the same time being a long-standing component of American society. If America truly wishes to save the family then, it should look into reducing that part of