Even President Obama, himself a fatherless child, has railed against this trend. In 2008 he said, “[Black fathers] have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men, and the foundations of our families are weaker because of it.”
Just how bad the situation is can be seen in this story in the Daily Mail yesterday on deadbeat dads. Here's the start of Linda Warren's report:
Three men in Tennessee have notched up a staggering 78 children by 46 different women between them - and are doing their best to squirm out of paying for a single one. Terry Turnage has 23 children with 17 different women, while Richard M. Colbert has 25 children with 18 women.
But Desmond Hatchett takes the record with 30 children with 11 women. On rare occasions, they pay a few dollars to the long-suffering mothers but mostly leave the state to pick up the slack - while one eludes his responsibilities altogether thanks to a stint in prison.
The latest deadbeat dad to emerge from the state is Turnage, who was summoned before a judge over child support payments for his 23 kids by 17 different women - but didn't show up to court.
Well, you get the message; these guys know how to do one thing very well, but as for bringing their children up; not so much.
The problem exists in Canada as well. At the time of the Eaton Centre shooting, the accused, Christopher Husbands, was living alone and his ex-girlfriend was bringing up his five-year old daughter. Whether he's guilty of the shooting the courts will decide, but we can already say with clarity he's guilty of not fathering his daughter.
I've written about this before, saying that fatherless families are the most important cause of youth crime. It's worth repeating:
The key problem, single-parent, female-led families and absent, irresponsible fathers.
This is why the Individual Rights Party is concerned that the rights of children are being ignored by the rush to divorce and the rise of single female-led families. We say it's bad for children to have only one parent and we know it's bad for society.
Of course to get a divorce, you first have to get married and young black men are increasingly failing to do even that. A black author, Stanford law professor Ralph Richard Banks, has written a book about it: Is Marriage for White People? Here's part of the blurb:
During the past half century, African Americans have become the most unmarried people in our nation. More than two out of every three black women are unmarried, and they are more than twice as likely as white women never to marry. The racial gap in marriage extends beyond the poor. Affluent and college educated African Americans are also less likely to marry or stay married than their white counterparts.
That harms black children and adults, and imperils the growth and stability of the black middle class.
Turning this situation around is going to take a degree of honesty and awareness of all sectors of society, blacks as well as whites.
We can't just pretend it isn't happening.
Posted By: DAVID JOHNSON
Wednesday, August 29th 2012 at 2:26PM
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