Black Dads: It’s time to go home!

By: Roy Douglas Malonson  During these times of unemployment, racial injustice, and instability within families, the need for fatherhood, especially Black fatherhood, is greater than ever. Millions of children across America live in households without a physically present father, and millions more live in a household with emotionally absent fathers.  But why is this? According to Fathers.com, 57.6% of Black children, 31.2% of Hispanic children, and 20.7% of white children live in homes absent of their biological fathers. The United States Census Bureau reports that 1 in 4 children (18.3 million children) across the country live without a biological, step, or adoptive father in the home. Children without fathers are four times more likely to be impoverished, seven times more likely to experience teen pregnancy, have a greater likelihood of behavioral issues, are more likely to commit crimes and be incarcerated, and face a greater chance of abusing drugs and alcohol. In the Black community specifically, single-parent homes are an epidemic and need to be addressed, but it’s important not to fall prey to misinformation and stereotypes surrounding Black fathers and their involvement in their children’s lives. First, let’s look at how it all began. As Dr. Umar Johnson so poignantly pointed out, the attack of the Black father and destruction of the Black family was “created by design.” We were married and in holy unions in Africa, remained each other’s rocks during slavery and reconstruction – with the Black man always being head of the household – primarily up until the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. After that, the United States government set its site on neutralizing the Black power base – which, of course, was the Black family.  Independent Black families were the financial backers of leaders like King, Marcus Garvey and movements like the Freedom Riders, and the government wanted to shut us down. In the 1970’s, Whites (the government) began to de-industrialize the Black communities, shutting down our factories and other independent businesses, and even took programs out of the high schools that taught Black students how to work with their hands or be […]

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