The average black father seems to have one narrative in our society. He is an “irresponsible, fatherless, multiple baby mama having, child support dodging deadbeat dad who also happens to have a criminal record. However, some black fathers are stepping up to challenge this false narrative. One black father, Ben Dixon, admits in a video shared on “The Benjamin Dixon Show” that he was offended when some one told him that he was a "good example of a black father." Dixon states, “It bothered me because I am not a great example of a black father. I am an average example of a black father.”
He states that there are indeed bad fathers, in every race, but proclaims that “that’s the exception and not the rule." Dixon offered some great insight in regards to why this narrative is indeed misleading and harmful to the black community. He states, "It’s important that they make you believe that the only thing wrong in the black community is the absence of black fathers, because it deflects and distracts away from the real problem...which is the social, economic plight of African Americans... the fact that unemployment in black communities is higher than in any other community in the United States... the fact that crime is disproportionately an economic problem, and not just a color problem. They not only want you to think that African American fathers are absent, they want you to think that we are criminals because it helps perpetuate their political agenda. It helps them maintain the idea in your mind that we’re criminal, that we’re lazy, that we don’t take care of our children, but that’s a false narrative. That’s a lie, and the facts don’t back it up.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Huffington Post writer, Danielle Cadet also challenged this racially biased narrative of the black father in an article entitled “Five Lies We Should Stop Telling about Black Fatherhood. One of the biggest lies in my opinion that Cadet mentioned is that “ Black fathers aren’t involved in their children’s lives.” Studies, however, have found that black fathers spend more time with their children on a daily basis than fathers from other racial groups. Moreover, there is no data that suggests that black fathers significantly differ from white fathers. The Pew Research Center found that "67 percent of dads who don’t live with their kids see them at least once a month, compared to 59 percent of white dads and just 32 percent of Hispanic dads” (Huffington Post). Also many people use the statistic that black fathers are more likely to be separated from their kids as proof that there is a problem with black fatherhood. However, as stated before, black fathers are very well present in their children’s lives and studies suggest that "the number of black dads living apart from their kids stems from structural systems of inequality and poverty,” not ill feelings or beliefs towards parenting (Think Progress).
With blacks constantly being portrayed in a negative light in the media, it is extremely hard to combat the black father stereotype. However, if more good black fathers make an effort to share their personal stories of loving and supporting their families then we will move one step closer to trashing this false narrative.
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