“Being a black dad in today’s society means facing the challenges that all fathers face while also battling against the issues specific to black dads. These issues include but are not limited to: teaching my children to see their own beauty in a society that teaches them they are not beautiful, combating the false stereotypes that surround black dads, teaching my black son who is white passing, how to navigate white spaces that don’t see his blackness, worrying that we will be treated less than human when encountered by police, living in the reality that a traffic stop could mean my children grow up fatherless, working my ass off to be a phenomenal dad just to be seen as an ordinary one by society. And understanding in a society that believes differently, that I am an amazing black dad and I am not an anomaly. I am not special in this regard. I am part of the majority of great black dads.
The BLM movement has impacted me by making me more vigilant in understanding my rights. It has taught me to be sure to record every police encounter I have, and it has inspired me to do my own research and form my own opinions and conclusions on policing, sentencing, and political candidates.
My hopes for raising my children in this day and age are that they will be seen and embraced as whole people by all of society. I hope they will be afforded every liberty, allowance, opportunity and right that their rich, white, male counterparts are.”
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