Written by Dahleen Glanton
This Father’s Day, I’d like to do something that is long overdue. I’m going to praise African-American men.
Not my own father, who had a profound effect on my life, but the countless other black men who strive, even under the most challenging circumstances, to be good dads.
Some people will argue that such men are rare, or that they do not exist.
They blame the violence and other social ills of impoverished communities on the absence of black men in their children’s lives. They pretend as though single-parent homes are exclusive to African-Americans, and use this misinformation to make moral judgments about black women and the men who father their children.
They paint all black men with one broad stroke, as chronic baby-makers who abandon their responsibilities even before their children are born. And they paint the sons of these black men with the same brush, condemning them to repeat the mistakes learned from their birth fathers.
They ignore the accomplishments of men like Barack Obama, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Dr. Ben Carson, baseball great Jackie Robinson, playwright August Wilson, Stevie Wonder and Malcolm X — all raised without their biological fathers in the home and became great men.
I could say that the common stereotype of the black man as a deadbeat father is only a myth. But the truth is much more sinister. It is a lie that was planted the moment black men set foot on American soil as slaves, and it has been cultivated for generations with plenty of help from the media.
Could some black men do a better job of raising their children? Absolutely. But so could some white men, Hispanic men, Asian men and others.
Studies have shown that a father’s involvement increases a child’s chances for academic success and reduces the chances of delinquency and substance abuse. But it is not a panacea for all the social issues that contribute to violence and other issues that plague poor African-American communities. Factors such as joblessness, economic disinvestment and institutional racism are beyond any father’s control.
It is indeed troubling, though, that nearly 70 percent of black children are born out of wedlock, according to government statistics. The number far exceeds the 29 percent of white children, 53 percent of Hispanic children and 12 percent of Asian children born in similar circumstances.
But marital status doesn’t tell the whole story.
Statistics also show that 36 percent of white males divorce. But no one questions their relationship with the children they leave behind. The truth is there is no evidence proving that black men who never married their child’s mother care less about their children than white men who divorced theirs.
Five years ago, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a report that debunked several stereotypes about black fathers. According to the report, African-American dads, in fact, spend more time in their children’s day-to-day lives than those in other ethnic groups.
The survey, which was conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics, found that 70 percent of African-American fathers who live with young children bathed, diapered, dressed or helped their kids use the toilet every day, compared with 60 percent of white fathers and 45 percent of Latino fathers.
While all fathers, regardless of race, who live away from their children tend to spend less time with them, the study found that black fathers are no less involved in their children’s lives than other dads. More than half of black fathers talk to their kids about their day several times a week or more. That’s a higher percentage than white or Latino fathers who live apart from their children.
The Pew Research Center found similar evidence of black father involvement. Though black fathers are more likely to live apart from their children, 67 percent of them see their kids at least once a month, compared with 59 percent of white fathers and 32 percent of Hispanic fathers.
What can we surmise from this? There are lots of good African-American fathers out there.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr071.pdf