It's Father's Day again. A day on which fathers are supposed to be celebrated for what they do.
Unfortunately a very vocal minority in the black community will take the day as a chance to slam black fathers. They will forget that Father's Day is a day to celebrate fathers and leave all that negativity alone. It is because of those people in OUR own community that many who are not African American believe that black men are not good fathers.
I think far to often our society confuses a man who can't make it work with the mother of his child with a bad father. That is not the case at all.
What's sad is that the majority of black children can remember and have had great experience with their fathers whether Dad lives with them or not although some would have you believe otherwise. Most black fathers just like fathers of every race do their best by their children. Not all may win father of the year but they are still important in their lives.
If we stop and think about it we see black fathers involved in their children's lives everyday. We see them them taking their kids to school. We see them with their kids at the park. We see these men sacrifice spending time with their children to because they work two or three jobs to provide for their kids. But what we don't see is these men being praised.
There's a nasty group of people who will wonder why a man should be praised for doing what he is supposed to do have a double standard when it comes to praising mothers.
I say this for all the black men who are good fathers and those trying to be good fathers out there. WE DO EXIST! We are not a anomaly. If you don't want to praise or even acknowledge us that's fine we know what we do.
But I do praise and acknowledge those men out their trying to be the best fathers they can be. Some in our society may not appreciate you but your kids will and that's all that counts.
HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!
George L. COOK III AfricanAmericanReports.com
