The Love Jones Cohort and singlehood are family law issues

This article reviews the changing Black family and households. The core theme is to understand the uniqueness of those single and living alone in the Black middle class-the "Love Jones Cohort"-and how their intersecting identities of race, class, gender, and singleness inform their lifestyle, shape how they manage life decisions, and their relationship to policy as well as family law and family court. This essay moves beyond the popularized and omnipresent inquiry: "Why are Black women not getting married?" or "Why are there so many single professional Black women?" This line of questioning throws the spotlight squarely on Black women's individual dating practices, while often ignoring structural factors that undergird those decision-making processes. It implies that because of the individual actions of the Love Jones Cohort, specifically Black women, they are somehow at a deficiency if they are not married and child-free, rendering them invisible as a family. This article discusses the legal implications of the presence of the Love Jones Cohort. The concept of the family needs to be reframed, culturally and structurally, to include the growing number of persons who remain single and live alone. Living alone and single comes with personal freedoms and risks. Understand how structural factors constrain personal choices so that those single and living alone are not discriminated against in, family law, family court, and other legal matters. Adopt an intersectional lens to understand that singlehood looks differently for some people and is shaped by intersecting and marginalizing identities.