# PASTOR COREY BROOKS: How the welfare state broke the Black family, and how to fix it

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/pastor-corey-brooks-how-the-welfare-state-broke-the-black-family-and-how-to-fix-it/
- Published: 2026-11-10T15:00:32+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-10T17:25:16+00:00
- Original publisher: Fox News (publisher lean: Right)
- Original article: https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/pastor-corey-brooks-welfare-state-broke-black-family-fix
- Topics: World

## Key points

- Brooks blames welfare policy for weakening Black family structures.
- He cites a rise from 22% in 1960 to more than triple.
- He argues benefit rules changed incentives around marriage and fatherhood.

## Summary

Pastor Corey Brooks argues that government welfare policies introduced through the Great Society and War on Poverty weakened Black family life by rewarding dependency and discouraging marriage and fatherhood. He contrasts this with explanations that emphasise slavery and segregation, and says the policy shift from equal opportunity towards race-based remedies created long-term state management rather than individual development.

Brooks cites US Census data showing that 22% of Black children lived in single-parent homes in 1960, and says the figure more than tripled over the following three decades. Drawing on Thomas Sowell and Shelby Steele, he argues that benefit rules altered incentives around work and family formation; from his work on Chicago’s South Side, he describes many households headed by single mothers and links fatherlessness to problems facing young people. These are the author’s arguments and interpretations of the figures.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.