We argue that a series of societal changes over the last century resulted in the emergence of a class of very poor African Americans, whose experiences were quite different from those of poor European Americans and wealthier African Americans. Within this group of very poor African Americans, women had continued access to a fundamentally important life role, that of mother and/or care-giver. That role enabled them to meet basic personal needs such as for relatedness and competence (Ryan & Deci, 2002) and provided them with important incentives not to pursue the reinforcement associated with heavy alcohol consumption. In contrast, very poor African American men experienced extraordinarily high rates of unemployment, fundamental disruptions in their capacity to meet the basic life needs of competence and autonomy (Ryan & Deci, 2002), very few sources of reinforcement, and hence little incentive not to pursue the reinforcement associated with heavy drinking; placing them at heightened risk for problematic drinking and related problems.
