General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA New Image of Black Fatherhood [PHOTOS]
This photo essay is part of Life Cycles of Inequity: A Colorlines Series on Black Men. In this installment, we explore and challenge the notion that black families face a crisis of fatherhood. The installment includes a dispatch from Baltimore, in which four dads challenge the easy assumption that all children of unwed mothers have absent fathers.
In June of 2013 I started photographing black men and their children and created The Fatherhood Project, the online home for photos that capture them in ordinary moments. A single dad helping his daughter with math homework during a break at work. A dad teaching his daughter how to walk as they wait to see a doctor. A father and son chilling on a stoop.
Why photograph black men and their children? Whats extraordinary about these subjects?
For starters, black men taking care of our children is, on some level, revolutionaryand a form of resistance to the legacies of laws and other tools used to hinder our ability to parent. During the trans-Atlantic slave trade, for example, fathers were routinely separated from their children as family members were sold. And currently, disproportionately and consistently high incarceration and unemployment rates for black men have made it difficult, if not impossible for many to parent. Theres also the disproportionately high rate of homicide among black men, whether by people in their own communities or at the hands of the state. My own father was murdered by a cop a couple of weeks before my 15th birthday.
As New York Times writer Brent Staples asked in a tweet this past Fathers Day: Imagine yourself jailed on a low-level Rockefeller-era drug charge. Now a felon: denied a job, housing and the vote. How would you Father
Read More:http://colorlines.com/archives/2014/11/portraits_of_everyday_fatherhood.html
Daniel Beaty - Knock, Knock on Def Jam Poetry
The video. A must see. I posted this awhile back in AA. Moving.
H2O Man
(73,323 posts)Recommended!
riderinthestorm
(23,272 posts)handmade34
(22,755 posts)yesterday going through security at Philly airport (wish I had carried a camera with me so I could add a photo) the AA Man in front of me holding a sweet little girl of about 1yo placed her on the conveyor belt as he got his things out to put in the tray I had a big smile for an obviously loving father doing his fatherly things
sheshe2
(83,341 posts)I wish you had a camera too. Would have been a great image.
uppityperson
(115,674 posts)out loud. Great photos, thank you.
sheshe2
(83,341 posts)And, thank you uppity.
brer cat
(24,401 posts)Thanks for sharing, sheshe. k&r
Ilsa
(61,675 posts)I bet the soft beard tickled and baby laaaaughed!!!...
Tarheel_Dem
(31,207 posts)BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)MerryBlooms
(11,728 posts)napkinz
(17,199 posts)nt
napkinz
(17,199 posts)thanks sheshe for sharing!
Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)ismnotwasm
(41,921 posts)lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)Wella
(1,827 posts)Thanks for posting!
notadmblnd
(23,720 posts)He was such a proud daddy. The second pic never would have happened, our baby didn't like his daddy's beard.
Thanks for the walk down memory lane!
myrna minx
(22,772 posts)Number23
(24,544 posts)of Americans is seen as actually "revolutionary" to others.
K&R
sheshe2
(83,341 posts)Two favorites to share with you...love this site. Great music too.
Fatherhood
Six Little Babies
http://3chicspolitico.com/
Those pictures, they take your breath away.
Number23
(24,544 posts)How astonishingly beautiful. The man AND that gorgeous child. Absolutely perfect.
sheshe2
(83,341 posts)As I said, it takes my breath away, such beauty. I go to that site daily and always seek out that image. I posted it once before here. I would post it a million times.
ND-Dem
(4,571 posts)napkinz
(17,199 posts)nt