Black Male-Black Female Conflict

Who is to blame? Currently, there is no dearth of attention directed to Black male-Black female relationships. Books, magazine articles, academic journal articles, public forums, radio programs, television shows, and everyday conversations have been devoted to Black male-Black female relationships for several years. Despite the fact that the topic has been discussed over the past several decades by some authors (e.g., Frazier, 1939; Drake and Cayton, 1945; Grier and Cobb, 1968), Wallace's Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman has been the point of departure for many contemporary discussions of the topic since its publication in 1979. Actually, Wallace's analysis was not so different in content from other analyses of Black male-Black female relationships (e.g., Drake and Cayton's analysis of lower-class life in Black Metropolis). But Wallace's analysis was timely. Coming so soon on the heels of the Black movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and, at a time when many Black male-inspired gains for Blacks were disappearing rapidly, the book was explosive. Its theme, too, was provocative. Instead of repeating