Stopping the Relationship Cycle

The problems and challenges, that are going on in African American relationships, all relate to each other like a domino effect. Once something doesn't go right, it causes everything else to tumble as well, and leads to many issues. Solutions that I think can positively effect the black community consist of EDUCATING our young black women and men.

-Teach them our TRUE history

-Teach them what they really are worth and their value.

-Teach them how important their African American brothers and sisters are to their lives.

Blacks are feeding into the negative stereotypes, becoming what they hear. Some African American men believe all they can be are athletes because that is all society has taught them. If they only focus on sports then they are uneducated and unable to get a job. This causes the woman to have to step up in the household, making her the dominant person.

Issues that need to be addressed in counseling African Americans consist of the communication within their relationships, the stereotypes of African Americans, and the loss that women deal within these relationships. I felt like these issues would take more than just a realization of what the problem was, because they are so much deeper than what the surface shows. Unfortunately, we can't change history, but we can alter our future.

2 Anti-beliefs that relate to history:

"I'm not good enough to be loved"- This is something that African American woman still face with today because during slavery, they were raped, beat and treated any kind of way. Dehumanizing them making them lose sight of their true value and worth

"I'll lose anyone who gets close to me" - During slavery, families were torn apart, men watch their wives being raped, and women watched their husbands being beat. This statement means, to me, that anyone who loves me more than the average, cares for me more than I can imagine will be taking away.

An African American Man can be described as self-determined, family oriented, prideful, and spiritually humane. Though some men may have forgot or may have simply got off track to what a real man is, I believe they still exist.