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Rewriting the Image of Black Fathers Via the Ol NBA.

June 10, 2015 by  
Filed under News, Opinion, Sports, Weekly Columns

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(ThyBlackMan.com) Derrick Rose, Chris Paul and Stephen Curry are unofficial symbols for black fatherhood via the NBA, and they are repeatedly being attacked for bringing their children to the press conference podium to answer reporters’ questions. Much ado has recently been made about Stephen Curry bringing his 2-year-old precocious daughter, Riley, to the podium table. People are complaining that it’s unprofessional because at times he appears distracted by her frolicking, and that her “adorableness” is becoming the center of attention versus the moves he made on the court.

Need I remind America that historically Black men were snatched from their families during the slave era, and the image of black fathers has been repeatedly distorted and tarnished ever since. Everyone from President Barack Obama to Bill Cosby to the average Joe on the streets, has chastised black men for not taking care of their responsibility, abandoning their children, and having multiple children with different women. We’ve heard that nonsense so much that we believe good black fathers don’t exist. I’m sick and tired of stories highlighting black men as deadbeat fathers, and the rhetoric needs to change! Why not start with the NBA and/or other professional players?

These superstar athletes have a national podium to rewrite the image of black fathers by showcasing black fathers spending time with their children, loving their child, and exposing them to different professions and professionals. Excuse me, but has anyone ever stephen-curry-riley-daughter-2015heard of Take Your Child To Work Day? This is a variation of that, so why slam their actions?

One writer for ESPN, a Black woman named Jemele Hill, lamented her frustration with players bringing the children to the podium. She said that players have other opportunities to showcase their children and parenting skills, and reporters only have about 20 minutes to get their story from the interview. Furthermore, she claims that editors don’t care if a story is “short on details” because players were preoccupied with their children, so please don’t bring them to the podium.

My response to her, and to the world, is that yes, reporters need to do their job. But we must understand the bigger picture. The average Joe doesn’t get an opportunity to see Black men interact with their children on a national level. In fact, we enjoy seeing these images of black men and their children. So let’s give these superstar athletes the space to use their national podium to showcase that #BLACKFATHERSMATTER until we have enough black fathers collectively rewriting the image for us all.

Written by Dr. Tiffany D. Sanders

Official website; http://www.twitter.com/DrTiffanyS


Comments

4 Responses to “Rewriting the Image of Black Fathers Via the Ol NBA.”
  1. Independent_Systems says:

    Rewriting the ‘image’

    * Sponsored by the African-American film Hoodwinked (The image will never die because it is a mirage, few stats are ever shown about white males)

    * He could be an abusive father or still a deadbeat. Just because he brings his kid in public hes deemed a ‘good’ black father, as opposed to what the “stats” tell us? WTH?

    “My response to her…

    * Your response to violating 20 minutes of professional NBA interview time is poor racial self-pity of perceived racial paternal inferiority?

    The average Joe doesn’t get an opportunity to see Black men interact with their children on a national level

    * Really not a single opportunity?..The Tankards? Empire? Obama? Blackish? Why do they have SEE anything? They have to see we are not animals or something? The people you are trying to convince are klansmen and republicans that will never give in.

    #BLACKFATHERSMATTER

    *More of this jive twitter turkey? 22 years later we are drying our ‘dirty laundry’? At least have some character originality or it becomes trivial on the face of it not to mention its predecessors faults.

    Rewriting the Image of Black Fathers Via the Ol NBA.

    *The Ol expression is lame when used to describe everything on the site. It falsely portrays wisdom when 1/3 of the articles have none

    “Need I remind America that historically Black men were snatched from their families during the slave era”

    *Do some of us blacks fetish-ize slavery? Its irrelevant to this article. Stop mentioning it as if it was 40 years ago. Ironically 40 years after slavery we were 40 times better then we are now! (owning businesses etc)

  2. reality_check says:

    Uh, I’m all for displays of black fatherhood, but this article is nonsensical. The obligatory post-game press conference is NOT the time to display your children. stop trying to make this into a bigger issue. This is about one man’s need to display his daughter because HE thinks she’s oh-so-adorable that the world must see.

    It’s unprofessional. The first time was okay, but after that you’re just showing off.

  3. hoodgirl says:

    Beautiful Article!

  4. Thank you so much for the article. I am going to share it as Fathers have not recovered from the propaganda labeling us all as deadbeats. Unfortunately our community still has an alarming rate of children born out of wedlock. However; more than ever Fathers are standing up and fighting for their parental rights. Resources are scare and we have a long way to go but We are not alone. We are changing the world one FATHER at a time. We are Fathers United a non profit organization founded to assist Fathers.

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