My latest book, “Dear Father, Dear Son,” focuses on the importance of fathers — and the increasing number of children who grow up in homes without one. Juan Williams of Fox News understands this — sort of. He gets the “what,” but not the “why.”
Williams, in a Wall Street Journal piece called “Race and the Gun Debate,” writes:
“Gun-related violence and murders are concentrated among blacks and Latinos in big cities. Murders with guns are the No. 1 cause of death for African-American men between the ages of 15 and 34.
But talking about race in the context of guns would also mean taking on a subject that can’t be addressed by passing a law: the family-breakdown issues that lead too many minority children to find social status and power in guns.”
Williams is, of course, right.
There is a direct link between no father in the home and an increased chance that the child will drop out of high school, go on welfare and have a criminal record. This is particularly acute in the black community, where over 70 percent of black kids are born outside of wedlock.
In some communities, like southeast Washington, D.C, a staggering 84 percent of children live in homes without a father.
Roland Warren is the former head of National Fatherhood Initiative. Warren, a black man, read “Dear Father, Dear Son.” He called it “powerful” and said that it ought to be required reading in middle and high schools in America.
And Vincent DiCaro, vice president of the NFI, told the Washington Times: “(People) look at a child in need, in poverty or failing in school, and ask, ‘What can we do to help?’ But what we do is ask, ‘Why does that child need help in the first place?’ And the answer is often it’s because (the child lacks) a responsible and involved father…”
Read More: Larry Elder, news.investors.com
Here we go again…The "Moynihan Thesis" that the problem with Black families is that Black women are running them is a relic that it's high time we abandoned. That Black children are at risk can just as easily be explained by the fact that single-parent household face additional stresses and stains that make it difficult to provide adequate support for children — it's not necessarily that there is no man present. Many have fallen victim to the notion that having a man in the household is paramount over all other concerns — even if that man happens to be a pathetic excuse for a human being. If the man of the house is capable of providing the loving support and guidance necessary to raise children into healthy adults, then well and good. If not, the household is FAR better off without him. What is necessary is that parents (and children) have adequate support — not that there has to be a father in the home at all costs.
Wow so awsome
Fatherhood matters…
Republicans for a compassionate justice system!! End the war on drugs!!
i 100% agree.