I remember that clearly from the time she said it. It was a big deal in the left of center type publications I was reading and the news I was watching, very controversial. In my mind it's almost like the beginning of the big split between the rising "third way" Dems and "anti-third way" progressives. I am sure now that is a faulty impression, because I was relying only on a few sources, much fewer than today with the internet, but that I have it still reflects how much commotion it caused.

Because the Reagan Dems were seen as going over to Reagan because of the whole Moynihan report scenario of generations of babies raising babies on welfare--Reagan's "welfare queen" shit"--and third way presenting that the men involved were kicked out of the whole family inclusion thing in order for the babies having babies to receive welfare. And that in the end was the main cause of high crime in ghettoes. That men had basically become breeders (thinking now how that narrative was almost like a flip of Handmaid's Tale.) That the two-parent family and respect for men's role was crucial in repairing this. It was really behind the "Third Way" promotion of Earned Income Credit, for one example, to make ghetto fathers feel responsible again and have respect again. Rather than just handing out subsidies for teenage mothers to stay home and have generations of them "on the dole".

And Clinton and Clintonites did win eventually win back a significant number of  Reagan Dem type voters selling this Third Way thinking, to reform the way welfare was being handled, saying it had destroyed the black family. And at the same time this is a big discussion in Dem circles, that this was an important way of getting back lost voters who were staunch Dems, Toni Morrison comes out and doesn't just make defensive excuses like: that's not true, that's the not the real problem, she says: it's great, nothing wrong with babies having babies and nothing wrong with government supporting single mothers. It was basically seen as saying: who needs men? that the matriarchal ghetto culture that had developed was a good thing and worth government support. It was seen as a pretty outrageous thing to say in political circles.

Big picture, away from politics, one thing it did do is address the whole feminist issue of women not being able to "have it all", career and family. The conundrum that it actually is physically healthier for women to have their children when they are young and not focus on career then. And the full statement is proof that Toni was pointing that out, too, in how she talks about how there is no reason women can't  have their babies young and stay-at-home raise them (with government support implied) and then go on to other things after they are grown.

It was really seen as an "up yours" to Third Way thinking in general, and to the Moynihan report thinking. Almost seen as saying: maybe you're all wrong, maybe ghetto culture has actually figured out the way things should be...matriarchal family set up...

(Edit to fix typo)