The Lack of Black Fathers

Growing up without a father has been the reality to the majority of African-American children within the past few decades. Lack of responsibility and concern for their children has pushed fathers away and has made them become distant strangers to the little people they helped conceive. The epidemic of fatherless children has spread rapidly across the nation finding its way into every corner and crack of the American homeland affecting more and more children everyday. However, black men are beginning to take a stand on being a Black father.

Many people want them and not many have them, the discipline, the beauty and the fortune of having a father. Too many women have had to stand in the welfare lines down at the county offices while holding their crying babies to get food stamps because their jobs just don't pay enough. Too many women have had to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders because they just didn't know how to raise a man. Too many fathers have walked away from their responsibilities making life almost unbearable for the mother and her fatherless child.

Campaigns have been launched to support the effort to get Black fathers to step up. In 2004, The National Fatherhood Initiative started an insulting billboard and bus-card campaign portraying the disappointment little black children have for their fathers who are not there. The billboards read, "Easter Bunny, Tooth fairy. Daddy. Eventually kids stop believing in things they don't see." Another billboard stated, "Dear Daddy. My Mommy can't be my daddy too." Both billboards show little black children's photos on them next to the quotes.

Billboards haven't been the only approaches to encourage fathers to step up to the plate, Books such as, Black Fathers in Contemporary American Society: Strengths, Weaknesses, and Strategies for Change, have hit the markets in hopes of helping change the ever increasing number of fatherless children. This book was established by Obie Clayton, Ronald Mincy, and Daven Blankenhorn, and is a collection of essays from the 1998 conference on Black fatherhood held at the Historically Black all male college Morehouse in Atlanta, GA. The many authors of the book have contributed by providing essays that reflects the benefits of fatherhood and marriage. The book is divided into three important parts: a structural analysis of the decreasing numbers of responsible Black fathers; an exploration of the economic and social benefits of marriage for Black men; and solutions for making Black men active fathers.

Society has its own concerns with Black men not wanting to take on the role of being a father, however, people sometimes fail to look at many of the situations why men are choosing not to be. Some men claim that their economic status isn't enough to be able to provide child support for their children. Some men claim that the women who they got pregnant are selfish and greedy and will not let them see their children. Some men claim that because they didn't have a father they do not know how to be one. Whatever the case may be is it enough to let these brothers off the hook?

Prison is another reason why so many young children are growing up without fathers. If a father is selling drugs and committing crimes, how can a person really expect that they will be around long enough to take care of their children? Death is also a huge factor in the lack of Black fathers in America. Due to gang and drug violence, young Black males in certain parts of the country are more susceptible to dying than seeing their children graduate from high school.

Not all Black fathers have abandoned their children. Many are stepping up to the plate and raising their children the best way that they can, despite their own lack of having a father growing up. Often time's people will hear a Black man say, "I didn't have a father, so I am going to be the best one I can be." And many of these Black men are living up to this goal. There are young and single Black men trying to raise their children on their own. Sometimes the men who do want to step up to the plate are pushed away by restrictive legal rights and lack of recognition.

Baby daddy is just another degradable slang term for some of the Black fathers in America. The meaning of a baby daddy is when a man fathers a child but only comes around every now and then if at all to take care of them. The increasing numbers of baby daddies is due to the decreasing numbers of marriages in the Black community. Marriage is an important aspect of a person's life, however, many people do not have the example of how to have a successful marriage in this day and age.

It is important that we as humans help the children who lack fathers by volunteering our time and effort to give them as much of a well-rounded life as possible. It is also important that we encourage those who have left the role of fatherhood to come back and build a nurturing relationship with their children. It is important for fathers to understand the importance of the role, which God has given them to take on in this life. All men must realize that they are providers and protectors of women and children and that they are the foundation that helps us build up respectable contributing members to society.