Okay Mr. Holder, I Hear You...So What Are You Going To Do To Help It?

I am referencing this article: http://www.mainjustice.com/2009/12/14/holder-calls-on-black-fathers-to-take-responsibility/

So US Attorney General Eric Holder, in a speech before the congregation of the Memorial Presbyterian Church in Queens, N.Y., made a call for black men to step up and raise their children. He stated that “Too many men in the black community have created children and left them to be raised by caring mothers. It should simply be unacceptable for a man to have a child and then not play an integral part in the raising and nurturing of the child.”

Now on the surface, this sounds good. Men should step up and be involved in their families. Women should never have to go it alone. However, speeches like this...and the ones made by Obama and Bill Cosby before...leave a bad taste in my mouth.

We all KNOW there is a problem with absentee fathers in the black community. There are deadbeats out there. Got it. But let's look deeper. The Bill Cosby style "Lets go rant and rave about what niggas aren't doing" approach doesn't help or solve anything and just alienates people more. The whole notion that talking shit to someone is going to spur them to do better just doesn't work. Speeches are nice. And they may even be accurate in their sentiments. But if Eric Holder wanted to do something, then he needs to go talk with his boss, our President, push for funding for more parenting programs, mentoring programs for teenage and young adult fathers. Do SOMETHING. Our president is bailing out banks, maybe be can break a little bread off to fund some programs that can help teach some of these young men the ins and outs of parenting. Maybe they can take the lead in a positive way and implore professional black men to reach out and mentor and set an example.

I's real easy to look at people who are down and state the obvious. One reason why Bill Cobsy's rants never impressed me. Another reason why I yawned when Obama said the same thing. Talking about a problem without searching for any answers comes across as waste (and please don't come with the Clarence Thomas "pull yourself by your bootstraps" shit as an answer. Some folks are in a cycle that has been going on for multiple generations and need help breaking it.)

So the next time a Black figure wants to tell Black people about themselves or talk about what Black folks aren't doing, here's hoping they have a plan to actually make the situation better.