Debunking The Black M.I.A. Myth - And Response (3)

  • Thursday, June 18, 2015

Father's Day is only three days away. There's no more a better time than now to speak on the myth "black dads M.I.A." that's been circling for far too long.  

One of the many tragedies and devastation I've witnessed in the breakdown of the black family for the past three or four decades is the role mass incarceration has played. Like an invading, occupying, destabilizing force breaks down and destroys a country, mass incarceration has basically done the same to black communities throughout the U.S.  

Most of those dads aren't M.I.A. They're being held hostage and for ransom in jails and prisons all across America. Unless America does away with its for profit prisons and that "Prison Industrial Complex" and  the way it incarcerates it citizens, the family breakdown, and not only of black families, but white, browns and others will only worsen.  

To all the dads out there, those who are there, those who want to be but can't: Happy Father's Day. 

Brenda Washington 

* * * 

Brenda Washington hit on one problem but missed the rest of the story. I agree that there are too many people behind bars that should not be there, both black and white. However, that is just the tip of the iceberg and some people really need to be behind bars to help make this a safer place for those of us who play well with others. 

Black fathers M.I.A. is not a myth. If you will go back to the sixties and compare the statistics of black fathers in the home compared to the same numbers today, you will realize that there has been a real breakdown of the family structure in the black community. The same exists in the white community, and while the numbers are not the same, both are far too high. 

In my opinion, a correlation exists between these numbers and Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society.” If you want to see a real “for profit” center, which is funded with taxpayer money, check out Planned Parenthood.  The name itself is an oxymoron as they are not about helping to plan a family, rather aborting babies, two-thirds of which are from a black mother. This is a real tragedy regardless of race. How many Ben Carsons, Bessie Smiths, George Washington Carvers, Denzel Washingtons have not be born because Planned Parenthood aborted them? 

Although I do agree that there are far too many people behind bars, there are far greater problems we need to address. Today is Juneteenth, the 150th anniversary of Union General Gordon Granger, a veteran of the Campaign for Chattanooga, entering the city of Galveston, Texas, bringing the word to the city’s enslaved people that they were officially free. Let’s celebrate that today. 

J. Pat Williams 

* * *

With all due respect Ms. Washington, the black MIA father is not a myth, it is a fact.  While I agree that there is inordinate amount of black men in jail, versus white, Asian, or other races, you would have us all believe that these men are all just innocent victims of the system, taken away and incarcerated for no reason at all and that they are being held hostage for ransom...seriously, to what end?  Who benefits from that?  

Why are there now over 72 percent of black children born out of wedlock? Is that the "system's" fault?  

It is time for the black community to take the blinders off and stop being victims and blaming everyone else for the issues in the black community and take responsibility for itself.  

John Fricke 

* * *  

People want the black father to be out of the picture to make themselves feel better for some reason when in fact the black father in the household and indeed more involved in the kids lives more then any other races. Please read the research done by the CDC.  

And a majority are in jail due to a breakdown in the child support system, which locks up fathers for not being about to afford payments, not taking into consideration that the fathers have to be able to afford to live also. 

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/01/16/3175831/myth-absent-black-father/ 

Lynesha Lake

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