page_title: African Americans
section_title: Social issues
hierarchical_section_title: African Americans / Social status / Social issues
caption_attribution_description: English: President Barack Obama, joined by First Lady Michelle Obama, their daughters, Sasha and Malia, and Michelle Obama's mother, Marian Robinson, prepares to read Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak on Monday, April 13. 2009, to children at the White House Easter Egg Roll.
context_page_description: African Americans are an ethnic group of Americans with total or partial ancestry from any of the black racial groups of Africa. The term African American generally denotes descendants of enslaved black people who are from the United States, even while some recent immigrants or their children may come to identify as African American or may identify differently.
  African Americans constitute the third largest ethnic group and the second largest racial group in the US, after White Americans and Hispanic and Latino Americans. Most African Americans are descendants of enslaved peoples within the boundaries of the present United States. On average, African Americans are of West/Central African and European descent, and some also have Native American ancestry. According to U.S. Census Bureau data, African immigrants generally do not self-identify as African American. The overwhelming majority of African immigrants identify instead with their own respective ethnicities. Immigrants from some Caribbean, Central American, and South American nations and their descendants may or may not also self-identify with the term.
context_section_description: After over 50 years, marriage rates for all Americans began to decline while divorce rates and out-of-wedlock births have climbed. These changes have been greatest among African Americans. After more than 70 years of racial parity black marriage rates began to fall behind whites. Single-parent households have become common, and according to U.S. census figures released in January 2010, only 38 percent of black children live with both their parents.
  In 2008, Democrats overwhelmingly voted 70% against California Proposition 8, African Americans voted 58% in favor of it while 42% voted against Proposition 8. On May 9, 2012, Barack Obama, the first black president, became the first U.S. president to support same-sex marriage. Since Obama's endorsement there has been a rapid growth in support for same-sex marriage among African Americans. As of 2012, 59% of African Americans support same-sex marriage, which is higher than support among the national average (53%) and white Americans (50%).
  Polls in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Maryland, Ohio, Florida, and Nevada have also shown an increase in support for same sex marriage among African Americans. On November 6, 2012, Maryland, Maine, and Washington all voted for approve of same-sex marriage, along with Minnesota rejecting a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Exit polls in Maryland show about 50% of African Americans voted for same-sex marriage, showing a vast evolution among African Americans on the issue and was crucial in helping pass same-sex marriage in Maryland.
  Black Americans hold far more conservative opinions on abortion, extramarital sex, and raising children out of wedlock than Democrats as a whole. On financial issues, however, African Americans are in line with Democrats, generally supporting a more progressive tax structure to provide more government spending on social services.
caption: President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, their daughters Malia and Sasha, and Michelle's mother, Marian Robinson at White House Easter Egg Roll
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