The Color of Family Ties

Many political commentators often complain that minority families are usually nontraditional and
dysfunctional while traditional nuclear families (like the one depicted in Norman Rockwell's Freedom from
Fear) are the only ones capable of supportive relationships and strong family connections. In their essay,
"The Color of Family Ties: Race, Class, Gender, and Extended Family Involvement," Naomi Gerstel and
Natalia Sarkisian make an effort to offer evidence that nontraditional minority families who rely on extended
family members (such as Latina or African single mothers) can actually function quite well and enjoy
support and strong emotional ties. In their essay, they make several generalizations about traditional and
nontraditional white and minority families.
For this essay, identify two claims they make that you can agree with and back up with evidence drawing on
personal experience and observation and then find two other claims that you disagree with or find
problematic and explain why using personal experience and observation or evidence obtained from a
scholarly journal using ELAC's databases.