Today, Moynihan claims vindication. The black family did, by his standards, fall apart. It was wrong to compare white and black family structures in 1960, but you can draw the same conclusions comparing 1960 and 1990 black families. And Moynihan doesn't go around repeating what are now seen as the more sexist parts of his earlier work. Nevertheless, he rightly claims a good portion of his vindication.
Ideas have consequences.
Only in authentic Black families can black children learn the coping skills necessary to survive in a white racist society, they argued. He doesn't say precisely what he was half wrong about, but he avoids all the bitter condemnation of Moyhinianism that characterized all the black nationalist family studies of the 70s. It's big of Billingsley to admit he was wrong, but he ought to add that he is sorry. In spite of Billingsley's call for the great awakening of both the Blacks and the Whites, the problems of the Black family still persist just the same or even worse. His hitorical perspective makes us appreciate the feeling of people- hood shared by the Blacks.