(ThySistas.com) Society goes to great lengths to try to make us believe black men don’t love their families…that they abandon their children. There is plenty of discussion about the necessity of sons having their fathers in the home. However, many of us know for a fact that there are so many wonderful black men that love their children and adore their wife. This society doesn’t want us to acknowledge the greatness in black men as the patriarchs of their families. We need to recognize that there are many sisters that grew up with strong, honorable, protective fathers.
Some of us know what it means to have a man love us unconditionally for as long as we have been alive. As we celebrate Father’s Day this year, we have to take a moment to discuss what having that amazing father around means to a daughter. Mothers are strong no doubt, but there are so many of us that inherited a different kind of strength from our fathers.
Many of us had the privilege of seeing our fathers work hard, and sacrifice for their family. They took the time to do homework, encourage us in our extracurricular activities, they were a shoulder to cry on when the world (or that boy) had been cruel, and many of us learned how to deal with a bully from our dad. For some of us dad took us on our first date, and he showed us what to expect from a man, in conjunction with us watching him love our mother. We may have been “daddy’s girls” but he demanded that we do our best in all we put our hands to, and work hard to achieve our goals. In this we learned a different kind of grit from dad. We knew if we were harmed, or wronged dad would not back down when it came to defending us. We rested knowing we were safe because dad saw to it. Granted many of had a friend(s) that didn’t have a father like ours, and our dad stepped into that role for them also. Many of our friends called our dad “dad” and found refuge in our home. For some of us this was our understanding of family, and community. Our fathers impacted every single day of our life raising the bar for our greatness as we matured.
The time of the year has come, again, whereby we celebrate fathers for everything they do for their family, and our communities. This isn’t the time to rant about dead beat dads or try to commemorate single moms. Its time to be fair to fathers. In May we don’t talk about dead beat mom, and they exist more than we want to mention. Single fathers are not making it their business to drag the mother of their children. There are many men raising children alone, but they can honor mothers and all they mean to the community for Mother’s Day. Just as no man can take the place of a mother…no mother can take the place of a father.
Let’s return the favor today by killing the negativity on Father’s Day. It’s time we dispel that myth that black fathers don’t exist. They are everywhere loving their children, providing for their family, and working along side black women to fight for our communities. Take the time to uplift, and encourage black fathers as they continue to impact the lives of their children, and all of our children.
Staff Writer; Christian Starr
May connect with this sister over at Facebook; https://www.facebook.com/christian.pierre.9809 and also Twitter; http://twitter.com/MrzZeta.