The Importance Of A Father In African American Society

Fatherless homes in the black community is at 57.6% (NCF, 2017). One of many issues of a fatherless home is children have less structure and lack of discipline; i.e. Chicago. The children suffer the most. I believe children need both parents in the household to be complete (“not all”). I believe if women have father’s in their lives (a positive male figure at minimum) it could help their decision in choosing the right mate will help this issue.

The role of the father, a male figure in a child’s life is a very crucial role that has been diminishing over the years. An absent father can be defined in two ways; the father is physically not present, or the father is physically present, but emotionally present. To an adolescent, a father is an idolized figure, someone they look up to (Feud, 1921), thus when such a figure is an absent one, it can and will negatively affect a child’s development. Many of the problems we face in society today, such as crime and delinquency, poor academic achievement, divorce, drug use, early pregnancy and sexual activity can be attributed to fathers being absent during adolescent development (Popenoe, 1996; Whitehead, 1993). The percentage of

There are invaluable life lessons to be learned before one even reaches the age of eighteen; lessons that range of the difference between right and wrong, which friends are the right friends, and the importance of faith. But what influences the questions and answers asked and given during this critical beginning to an individual’s life? Family values built around the influence of the modern age, ethnic background and religion shape an individual and the values they will pass on to future generations.

African Americans have endured many trials and tribulations over the centuries. Our people have suffered from war, violence, and anguish simply because of the color of our skin. Our history has been so blatantly missing from textbooks and the K-12th grade educational atmosphere. Our educational system continues to neglect the history of our African American ancestors and fail to provide them with the educational resources to inform them of our past and allow them to learn about the true origins of our culture. We have made many significant contributions to the world but those have also been highly ignored as well.

The number of two-parent African American households is dissolving. According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the black family has declined from 80% in 1890 to 39% in 1990. The result of conflict, and warring souls in the African American community, this trend can be stopped and reversed. The African American family must first gain an understanding of what is causing this dissolution, then they can be taught about what principals and skills they must adapt in order to reverse it. Once this is accomplished, the black family must be given opportunities to share this information. By taking these steps, two-parent African American families would once again be prevalent in the United States.

With a missing male role model (father figure), the oldest child of a set of multiples tends to take on the other parents responsibities making the younger siblings look at them as a parental figure. This could mean doing simple chores like keeping the house clean, all the way to helping out financially. This phenomenon is called parentification. Parentification is all too common in African American families today. The missing father figure is seen as one of the main reasons for African Americans disciplinary problems, psychological health, and lowered academic success. Without the knowledge of how to behave in certain situations, the mental/emotional strain, and the already low academic achievement, many black students feel that college is unnecessary and causes them to bring up the question, “How will my family survive without me?”

The successful education process starts with the family in the home and community, and continues in school and throughout life. The extent to which Black parents become actively involved in the education of Black male children is the extent to which the destruction of potentially millions of young Black men will stop. When young Black men realize they have become expendable, are we ready for their reaction? The United States does not tolerate young Black men being unproductive or counter-productive to the goals of mainstream society. Black males are suspended, expelled and failed in schools at rates that are two to five times higher than students of other races and go to jail at rates five to ten times higher than people of other races ().Jackson, Phillip. “The Massive Failure of

This article climbs into the struggle of young black males. Many issues that are recurring such as early school dropout, delinquency, poverty, unemployment, incarceration, fatherless, and they don’t have much of a chance to lead a successful life. Most black males are set up to fail at this rate and all this leads to a need to develop interventions to save those lost lives of the young black communities.

Family dynamics across all races are complex. For the state of the black family is made even more complicated by a history rooted in slavery. Fractured families were born out of a system where husbands were taken away, jailed or killed, leaving the family weakened with a mother and/or grandmother at the helm. While these historical facts may be true; that the black family is weak, can be argued. Yet, the family for many in the black community and other communities of color extend to include a large number of kin. On the other hand, it can also be argued that since families were ripped apart during the slave trade it created an opportunity for setting up networks of support and family units to include members who may not be blood related. You often hear black people refer to an elder as “aunt” or “uncle” these networks were put in place as protective factors in the event that parents were sold there was an assurance that someone would care for the children. To an extent this behavior continues to this day as we see many fathers sentenced to long jail terms for petty crimes or killed. The family structure makeup may be a blood relative and it may also be kin of another kind. LaShawnDa Pittman discusses how these factors shape the African-American family and how slavery impacted the role of the mother and father within the family system. During slavery there wasn’t any possibility of childhood. Children were socialized to begin work at the age of

In today's world, there is such a big emphasis on education and its importance. And there should be an emphasis. Unfortunately, not everyone has the same attitude about receiving a good education. This article attempts to discuss the attitudes of African American's towards education when a stable family structure is absent.

Within the inner cities of America, it appears the ages of most parents in the inner cities are becoming younger and younger. With nearly 40% of Black men incarcerated, the women-to-men ratio is unbalanced (Bureau of Prisons, 2012). According to the 2010 Census, Black single mothers with children account for a staggering seventy percent of households within urban cities. These mothers are far more likely than married mothers to be poor, relying on governmental assistance, with no father figure to help raise their children to be upstanding citizens in society. “Even after a post-welfare-reform decline in child poverty, they are also more likely to pass that poverty on to their children” (Hymowitz, 2005).

A father’s role in a child’s life is extremely important when it comes to a child’s development. With so much emphasis placed on young black boys needing their fathers during crucial developmental ages, the rate of our young black girls growing up without fathers is staggering and overlooked. What is an absent father? The definition is quite simple; an absent father can be defined as a father who is not present in the life of their child whether it is physically, emotionally, or both. Although the absence of a father is detrimental in any child’s life, the absence of such in a young black girl’s life is even more crucial. The absent father in a black girl’s life leads to, in some cases, promiscuity and teenage pregnancy, poverty, and

For various reasons, many children in the United States are living without their fathers in their homes or absent from their lives entirely. This is an issue all across the world and the children are having to deal with the disadvantages caused by the lack of support from their fathers. This issue has a significant effect on society and can be viewed and interpreted from the three sociological perspectives. As a result of many studies, it was found that children raised in father absent homes almost universally experience disadvantages such as: worse health, poorer academic achievement, and a less enjoyable educational experience. There are many variables that need to be taken into effect when considering

Slavery is a period of time where people were bought, sold, and treated as property for many years. Slaves were given no rights once so ever from the time they were captured, purchased, or born. Slavery existed in many countries such as contemporary Africa, Mali, Haiti, Niger, Sudan, and Mauritania. Although slavery was equally devastating in many different countries one form of slavery that stands out the most for American history is slavery in the New World. Slaves were shipped from various locations in Africa and also different islands of the West Indies. Contrary to belief, there was a method in Africa specifically Goree Island, where wealthy Africans would sell out other Africans from their country into slavery. These “merchants”

Growing up without a father or strong male role model in the United States is extremely difficult. Fatherless children are disadvantaged in American society and face a greater struggle to become successful in their personal, educational, and professional lives. The decline of fatherhood in one of the most unexpected and extraordinary trends of our time. Its dimensions can be captured in a single statistic: In just three decades, between 1960 and 1990, the percentage of children living apart from their