Let’s quickly dispense with the absent father stereotype that stalks African American dads, families and communities.
For at least the last 10 years, report after report has shown that Black fathers are more involved in their children’s lives than white and even Latino fathers. Through the deindustrialization years that put Black fathers out of work in the post-Civil Rights Movement period; through the years of addiction that followed in the wake of Vietnam and so many brothers having their station in life, their sense of themselves, snatched away; through the years when wolves of government descended upon impoverished Black home claiming they were there to help, but actually forced Black mothers to send their husbands and partners out of the family or else their children would not be able to eat; through the years of targeted policing and mass incarceration, the involvement of Black dads in their children’s lives has consistently taken the number one spot.… Read more
