Are Black Men Abandoning Their Children?
As America celebrates June 20, as “Father’s Day,” scores of New York City African-American men are expressing concerns about recent data that predicts that about 80% of African- American children will spend part of their childhood living without a father. An Atlanta-based clearinghouse for the empowerment of African-American men and boys declared that many black men are abandoning the role of fatherhood.
However, attorney-at-law, Maurice Maitland explains, “no one willfully abandons their kids. I don’t think they are abandoning. Sometimes they have a baby-mother situation as they sleep around with too many different women.
These men therefore lack the resources to take of the children.” Senior Pastor of the North Bronx Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Horace Russell, says the
biblical plan is to have both parents involved in the life of a child.
Russell further claims that many black men are only interested in sex, and since they do not have to carry the child, they disappear and move on to the next woman. “It’s the cycle of poverty,” he concludes.
“Statistically, 40% of our black men are abandoning their kids,” says Queens District 31 Councilman, James Sanders Jr. “Any percentage is a bad percentage, but 40% is a crisis. There are many reasons why black men are
leaving their kids, but none is forgivable. Economically, some can’t
support, so they abandon their children.
We all need to draw a stronger line. When men talk about leaving,
we all need to tell them that it’s wrong. Every man should make the
effort to be a good father,” Councilman Sanders states. Bronx comedian, Crazy Norman says “the system has a lot to do with it. Police can see you on
the street, pull you over, and you get a record. Sometimes we get ourselves
into trouble. But some of us don’t have a father figure. The mother was the mother and the father. You do need family. This has been going on for centuries.
Years ago, a father would leave and say he’s going to Cuba for five
days, and never return. But you can look at this in different ways and
dissect it. Sometimes the men did not abandon, but he was not in a
relationship with the woman.”
However, networking engineer, Norman Blake believes that today’s
society tells its black men that they are not needed. “The image portrayed
is that fathers are just needed for money. There are many black men who are not grounded. They don’t feel important. If they saw the importance of fatherhood, they would be more willing to step up,” says the father of four.
“It’s a psychological issue that needs to be addressed by men as individuals,” says movie producer, Bees Hive. “This [separation] stems down from slavery when slave masters separated the men from their women and children. When you separate the man from the family, the family is vulnerable because the
strength is gone,” Bees Hive states.
Many people claim that Father’s Day is not appreciated. “Sometimes fathers don’t even remember Father’s Day,” says Melbourne Francis. “Fathers don’t place as much emphasis on their holiday as mothers do.” “Father’s Day is not as valued as Mother’s Day but it should be just as important,” says student
Dejean B.
However, businessman Aaron Golding disagrees. “I wouldn’t say there is little support for Father’s Day. Mother’s Day just gets more
support. The mother entails a broader sense of responsibility.
They often nurture and bond with their child more because they carried the child. Society places more emphasis on the role of the mother. Fathers are not always recognized.” “Women are, and often expected to be rewarded for nine months of carrying a child, something that men can’t do. Men are
mostly bread winners and are away
from home a lot more than mothers,so their roles are undermined,” says
a mother of two, Keisha Blake.
