But a critic who points out that this so-called culture is defeatist and damaging because it leads to high drop-out rates, record black-on-black murder statistics and a record number of out-of-wedlock births is dismissed as a prude and a censor.

NPR: Redefining What It Means to Be Black in America

And the problem of out-of-wedlock births is not only a black problem, as Charles Murray shows in his new book.

WSJ: 'Right Wing Lice'

So, what did change, starting around 1960, to account for the decline in marriage rates, the sharp increase in divorce, and the explosion of out-of-wedlock births?

FORBES: The Real Marriage Crisis Is Economics, Not Gay Marriage

In 2010 the percentage of out-of-wedlock births was 41%.

FORBES: The Real Marriage Crisis Is Economics, Not Gay Marriage

In speaking about social breakdown in those minority communities, the president put the gun issue in the context of high rates of out-of-wedlock births that lead to high rates of childhood poverty.

WSJ: Juan Williams: Race and the Gun Debate

Families are smaller, birthrates have dropped, divorce and out-of-wedlock births have soared.

WSJ: Has the Sexual Revolution Been Good for Women? Mary Eberstadt: No

Let's also talk about her figures on out-of-wedlock births.

NPR: Immigration Bill Collapses, Debate Continues

Whereas 62% of all births in Iceland occur out of wedlock and 38% in Britain, in Japan the rate is just 1%.

ECONOMIST: Social conventions and demography add to the sclerosis

Most entrants have addresses supplied, mottoes are (sometimes oddly) translated and again, for the first time children born out of wedlock (more than 30% of all births in Britain, these days, though still quite a bit less common among the upper class) are sometimes acknowledged.

ECONOMIST: M��lords, ladies and gentlemen