# "You shook my hand -- and you looked me square in the eye."  Asshole Army Ad.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-shook-my-hand-and-you-looked-me-square-in-the-eye-asshole-army-ad/352768>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [April 15, 2006, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-shook-my-hand-and-you-looked-me-square-in-the-eye-asshole-army-ad/352768 "2006-04-15T08:19:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 6

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**Author:** ![Evil\_One](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/45deac/32.png) [@Evil\_One](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_One)\
**Post date:** [April 18, 2006, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-shook-my-hand-and-you-looked-me-square-in-the-eye-asshole-army-ad/352768/101 "2006-04-18T15:05:01Z")

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[QUOTE=mhendo]  
Every time i see it, the whole feeling is that it’s just the kid and his mother. Of course, this _is_ in fact the case in many American families; it just struck me as a little cynical that they chose to portray the black family in this way.  
[/QUOTE]

You can’t fault the army for wanting to get it’s moneys worth with the advertising. The single-parent female led model is the most common type of family among african-americans.

Anyone asking for a cite can go to the US Census Bureau website.

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**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\
**Post date:** [April 18, 2006, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-shook-my-hand-and-you-looked-me-square-in-the-eye-asshole-army-ad/352768/102 "2006-04-18T15:39:13Z")

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[Not quite](http://www.prb.org/AmeristatTemplate.cfm?Section=Children1&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=8277)

> [@](#):
>
> (AmeriStat, March 2003) About 8 percent of American households can be categorized as female-headed households with children, but there is significant variation in the share of female-headed households by race and ethnicity. In 2002, about 5 percent of non-Hispanic white and Asian households were headed by women with children. \*\*In contrast, single mothers with kids accounted for 22 percent of all black households. \*\* The percentage of Hispanic households headed by women with kids falls in between these two estimates, at about 14 percent.
> 
> Over the past 25 years, the percentage of female-headed households with children has increased particularly rapidly among blacks, but this trend appears to have slowed during the last five years.

(bolding mine)

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**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\
**Post date:** [April 18, 2006, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-shook-my-hand-and-you-looked-me-square-in-the-eye-asshole-army-ad/352768/103 "2006-04-18T17:01:08Z")

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“Son, you did two things you’ve never done before. You bounced a basketball off my head, and called me a fucking pussy. I guess you’re a man now…”

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