Vanessa S. Jones at The Boston Globe noticed
that a crop of reality shows purporting to showcase rappers as fathers and heads
of household has popped up. Rev. Run, Irv Gotti and Snoop Dog all bring
their own brand of hip-hop fathering to middle-America—f'r shizzle.
I'm still
waiting for the reality show about single fatherhood. After all, we know the
black nuclear family is rare and nearly extinct: co-parenting arrangements are
the new reality. This topic, not so far removed from me, as I am in a custody
fight. The truth is that more and more, black men are fighting for—and getting
–custody of their children. Black fatherhood these days looks more like the Will Smith-produced sitcom,
with a committed couple and a baby-mama or baby-daddy who has to be managed.
Single black fatherhood seems to run counter to conventional
wisdom that suggests black men have sex with their track shoes on and bolt for
the door butt-naked moments after conception. When we read about single black
fathers, the words "irresponsible," "dead beat" or "absentee" seem to naturally permeate the conversation.
News items about famous hip-hop dads like Sean Combs
and 50 Cent seem to focus on the
amount of child support they pay. We don't read a lot about hip-hop dads
like Busta Rhymes, who
fought for custody of his kids. Of the homeboys in my crew, all have kids,
few have wives but most have baby-mamas, and some even have custody. And it's
not all babies and cream—it's a real struggle: The kind of drama that would make
compelling television.
Don't you agree?
