New Book Says 'Marriage Is For White People'

African-American author pens black love's eulogy.

Black women are in college. Black men are in jail. Black women are too independent. Black men are gay. Yes, you've heard these as well as a gazillion other reasons why Black women aren't getting married as much as their white counterparts. Relationship experts, social scientists and Soledad O'Brien will have you to believe that Black women have absolutely no hope in walking down the aisle with a capable partner.

But author Ralph Richard Banks wants the sistas to know that they do have hope, just not with black men. His book "Is Marriage For White People?" not only infers that white people are better at marriage (never mind that whites are the majority in America where the divorce rate is near 50%) but that black women need to stop "taking one for the team" and date outside of their race more.

Why? Because of pesky studies like the ones that say that there are more black men in jail than college and that black women are more likely to finish school and get a better job than their male partners.

To that, Banks, a black man who is married to a black woman, suggests that black women marry out, instead of down. "It's time for black women to stop being held hostage to the deficiencies of black men," he says in the book.

Banks goes on to point to reasons why black women remain the least likely group to marry outside of their race, citing that white men may not understand cultural norms like hair extensions or simply put, they may not have enough "swag." Their children not coming out "black enough" was also found to raise flags.

Like most studies of this nature, Banks pretty much suggests that black women have absolutely nothing to do with why black women aren't getting married. So don't expect for his book or research to find anything but reasons why black men are messing up everything.