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

           

John Q. Dir. Nick Cassavetes. Perf.

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

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