mooner's: December 2010

Reflections

Honestly, i had a limited idea of what it means to be masculine till this class. Though i like to read, i never really came across an article or journal that elaborated on the topic. All the course readings have been adequately helpful in raising my understanding about social issues and misrepresentations. My research papers which i would say without pride that i didn't impress myself enough with my source. Especially after writing on my second research, I later came to find out that I can't print my second source because they are more Google related than the school library media center but in the nut shell I wouldn't hesitate to say was a very great experience acquainting with the topic and the research. Last and most importantly of all, I send a lot of gratitude to the instructor Ms.Bogacka who goes out of her way to provide resources and idea guidance into vivid details to facilitate the learning process and progress of the class.

UPDATE OF PART 2 OF RESEARCH PAPER 2: Recognition of the efforts of the black man in child growth and development

SHAMOON BABA

ENG 101.0800

MAGDALENA BOGACKA

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY RESEARCH: Recognition of the effort of black men in the lives of their children

John Q. Dir. Nick Cassavetes. Perf.

Denzel Washington, Robert Duvall, Gabriela Oltean. New Line Cinema.2005.Film

After years of working and living on low income wages, an intimate father’s son is face with death if his abnormally growing heart is not changed for a new one. Since the insurance company wouldn’t cover the cost of the surgical transplant, he is faced with the challenge of coming up with the funds for the surgery. Not being able to forfeit the cost of the treatment, he takes charge of the surgery room to ensure the safety of his son

As world widely researched and evaluated of intimate fathers, the basic result of the kind of bond shared between the father and his family becomes unbreakable to the extent that the father/husband is ready to do everything to safe keep his family. This is a man who is very close to his son. Playing the role of father and friend.

Evidently as modern fathering is professing that a father’s involvement can be measured by what he does with and for his child is more important than co-residence. As displayed by the way Denzel and his son projected in this drama filled movie

Conner Michael E., and Joseph L White “Demographic trends conceal father participation in black community” Black fathers: an invisible presence in America”.2006.Web

This ebook from Conner and White discusses how black men are being disregarded when it comes to fatherly roles in households.Black men are seen as incompetent for the kind of esteem they are supposed to be rated when considering father and son interactions and household work. An advocation for the acknowledgment of the contributions being made by black men in the lives of their children.

Supporting my thesis at its core, black men do very well contribute to the lives of their children and if a serious marriage, their nuclear family. In the case of his child, the black man still goes ahead to be available for his child regardless of the fact that he is not with the child's mother. data have shown, black men have high divorce and unemployment rate. A factor that shouldn't be estimated in evaluating father and son relationship since the basic point is to let the son have an intimate knowledge of masculinity.

Though engulfed in a history of degradation and socioeconomic suffering, social scientist and researchers tend to deprive black men of some due recognitions like active fathering roles in nuclear and extended households. It might be of great importance for researchers to really broaden their scope of investigations and method of assessment on father and child relation with proper attention paid to the mannerisms of their relation and not the environment nor the literal or primitive perception.

final draft

Shamoon Baba

Eng 101.0800

Magdalene Bogacka

December 10, 2010

Recognition of the efforts of the black man in child growth and development

When I was scanning through Coltrane’s Fathering: Paradoxes, Contradiction, and Dilemmas, I stumbled upon the acknowledgement of the efforts and participation of black fathers in active child growth and development. This translated to me that researchers are beginning to extend their investigations beyond the predominant race mainly the white. At the second paragraph in his variation: Levels of Predictors of Fathers’ Involvement, he states that most contemporary research on fathering covered only the middle-class white families. But researchers, likewise him, are getting the big picture of the similarity across family types. One can easily jump into conclusion to think of white men as the ones who should per se possess the “know how” to child growth and development but evidently the black man has challenged the negative image of irresponsibility by means of expressing the phenomenal relations they have with their biological offspring as studies have shown. I therefore give a reaffirming support to the earlier point stated by Coltrane on noticed behaviors of black fathers. Gathering two backing sources to support my stance, I present the movie John Q which exhibits a profound father and son relationship. The movies will serve as visual support to my position. The second source is from a book by Michael E Conner and Joseph L White titled Black fathers: an invisible presence in America. With this, I advocate for the works of black fathers to be recognized by researchers and social scientists toward the betterment of the black community

The recognition of black fathers was not exalted or celebrated until the turning point of recent years. The core behavioral skills are expression of love and commitment to their families. These fatherly elements about black fathers are characterized in the movie John Q. Denzel Washington (John Quincy) plays the father of a little boy and a good family man. He shares love and responsibilities in the growth and development of their only child who unfortunately faces a life threatening cardiovascular issues which required 75,000 dollars to perform a heart transplanting surgery. Since the company he worked for had their health insurance policy changed and the pending policy didn’t cover such high bills, the father is faced with the challenge of raising the money to facilitate his son’s surgery or he gets released from the hospital to go home and await his death. A vivid display of what a father would do for and with a child is played perfectly by Denzel. At the first quarter of the movies, father relates to son with deep love and guidance. Playing a “double bind” of loving and strict parenting, Denzel expresses the deep seated fatherly love for his son and his wife. This serves as an embedded behavior of typical black males that are not incorporated in the evaluation of fatherly participation and growth of child by the media or not being given the adequate support to make others copy from. It is rather unfortunate that the father in this movie had to take a violent approach to solving his son’s health problem but upon second thoughts, I find the his action- though not right-to be a tangible evidence of how deep his love runs for his son and family and what he is willing to do to ensure their safety.

Black people in general are more associated with violence and crime. This indeed makes it quite a bit of a contradiction to other ethnicities or mostly white men to recognize the fact that black fathers likewise black men with such incriminating history, should be acknowledged for in-depth participation in activities child nurturing, growth and development. Yet the contributions made by black men in the lives of their children and families in terms good fathering elements are far more than what the literally minded would perceive of them. As Conner and White have observed and stated under their subtopic: Fathers in Contemporary America: Invincible but Present. It reads that black men have risen to assume special places in their children’s lives. This as a root cause leads to black men keeping their commitment to their children’s wellbeing and safety. Be it that they reside with them or not. The irony of the situation Conner and White are explaining is: black men who live outside the home and who father and the manner in which they father are consistently ignored. To fully comprehend with fathering in the black community means active researchers and social scientist might have to see it imperative to expand their scopes and borders of their investigations. It is melancholic to know that African American men who don’t reside with their children but are enthused about fathering roles are not considered by researchers who investigate on fathering. Demographic trend concealing father participation in the black community according to Conner and White shows that most Africa American children growing up in a contemporary society do no live in the same household with their biological fathers or fathers reside with them temporarily. Only a small number of black men live with their children throughout childhood. As a degrading factor of research on fathering, black men stay active with their children’s growth although they might not have custody of the children

My point is, black fathers, regardless that they live with their children or not but are very well concerned with their children’s growth and development are supposed to be esteemed as high as fathers who reside with their children and wives. Disputing the major misunderstanding between the negative absent father pictures of black men in fathering roles emerged from structured interviews, narrations, biographical sketches, community based observations and ethnographical investigations. Studies have also shown high level of father and child interaction among the black community as compared to other ethnicities furthermore black men do more house work than the white man.

Works Cited

Coltrane, Schott “Fathering: Paradoxes, Contradictions, and Dilemmas. Men’s Lives 8^th ed. Michail S. Kimmel and Michael A. Messner. New York. Allyn &Bacon 2008. 432-449.Print