A very painful documentary about the effects of the absence of a black father in the lives of eight young women. Although it's an African American documentary, the problem of the absentee black father is also an issue in many black European communities.
Dear Daddy is a feature length documentary about the life long effects of fatherlessness on women. The film follows the dramatic journeys of eight young women from the tough city streets of Washington,DC as they struggle to overcome poverty, poor educational systems, no healthcare, and the most difficult life circumstance they have been dealt… the absence of their fathers.
According to the blog of the film, 82.3% is the number of African American children born since 1990 that will not live in the same home as their biological fathers before graduating High School.
Check out the full story at http://whatblackmenthink.com
Needless to say, there are black men who do care for their families.
To end, a video from the UK about Black Fatherhood in the 21st Century
Slavery + Jim Crow + The crack epidemic of the 80's + Males being excluded from welfare & public housing households + Racism + Black Irresponsibility + The Negative aspects of rap culture + Race-based drug laws, etc... Gave birth to the high number of Afr. American males in prison, but also gave birth to the high number of slack Afr. American females. A good number of low-income Afr. American women get all of their advice about men from women who never really had one.
ReplyDeleteThis results in very poor dating decisions. People like to cry out that the father is always leaving the home, but in most cases these women are having children in the street, THE FATHER WAS NEVER IN THE HOME. 'And thus the cycle begins, the mother clings to victim-hood, blames all her problems on men and never addresses her own recklessness, which is then passed on to the daughter. Not only is the daughter now fatherless, but she gets constant misguided dating advice from an unstable mother.
Interesting comment BlackAndy, but I can’t believe that 82.3% of the AA families are in such a situation.
ReplyDeleteNot True. Only 42% of black households in the U.S., consist of Married Couples, 80% of black fathers are involved in their children's lives. Just because the Mom and Dad ain't together, don't mean they can't co-parent. Millions of black men and women co-parent everyday. There's no excuse for not parenting, for neither the Mom or the Dad. Anytime a parent doesn't parent, it creates problems.
Delete@Afro-Europe
ReplyDeleteBelieve it...
http://www.unc.edu/depts/econ/profs/blau/demog%20paper%20version%203.pdf
Well unfortunately this is the reality of so many African Americans. What BlackAndy said is so true… But not in all cases. The sad part is that most people don’t know what it is to have a father in the house. I was so blessed to have a father in the house. I depended on him and even to this day rely on his guidance. But what always gets me is the fact of how can you have a child out there and just leave him. That is something I will never understand to this day. I know if it were me I would be there for my child no matter what. Mainly because I’m very family oriented and that child would be a part of me. It is also sad to say that Black men here in America just don’t care. Some do but the vast majority don’t…its that simple because if you did you would be responsible. But the system was set up for the Black man to fall… Like BlackAndy said….so much has contributed to all of this.
ReplyDeleteJanks Morton, thanks very much for the information. Let me begin to say that the documentary makes the pain very visible.
ReplyDeleteBut about the 82.3%. In the report you mentioned I read that that the percentages are based on interviews with 4,480 women.
From that population of 4,480 women, 36.5% of white women ever experienced an episode of being single with children, compared to 82.3% of black women. But the stats don't show who long that episode was. Theoretically it could be one year.
So if you put everything together you can't conclude that 82.3% of the African American children will not live in the same home as their biological fathers before graduating High School.
Beside I googled a few stats and found the stats in “Children in single-parent families by race (Percent) – 2009 . Data Provided by: National KIDS COUNT Program”
Non-Hispanic White 24%
Black or African American 67%
In Europe (the UK and the Netherlands) the percentage of Caribbean families is around 50%, for African families it’s 36%.
So African-American and Caribbean families seem the have the same absentee father problem, while we don’t have huge drug problems, didn’t experience Jim Crow Laws and live in far more less segregated societies than the American society.
So negroamor4u, I agree you can blame the system, but it can't be the whole story.
The marriage rate for African American families in the USA at the time of WW2 was 90%.
ReplyDeleteTim
Afro-Caribbean Americans don't have the same fatherless home issues as American BLACKS. Yes there are single parent homes among them no doubt, but most of the Haitian kids in America had both parents in the house, even if it's a MOM and a stepdad. Jamaicans and Haitians in New York City have majority 2 parent homes. That's why when look at Jamaican Families In Brooklyn, Queens, and in the Bronx and even in Manhattan, you'll find many of them to be educated working professionals and business owners. That's a FACT.
ReplyDelete