But there’s next-to-no Canadian data on black fathers. The founder of the Black Daddies Club support group intends to change that with a research project.
The Black Daddies Club was founded in 2007 by Brandon Hay in response to the lack of forums and spaces for Black men to discuss parenting issues as well as the issues facing the Black Community as a whole. Brandon told Notable.ca that the Black Daddies Club “creates safe spaces for black fathers for us to speak about our challenges as well as victories as parents, also to work with the media to create an alternate, more positive image of black fathers.”
Brandon Hay’s leadership on the issues related to Black fathers comes from his own personal experiences and observations. He’s the married father of three sons. But he acknowledged to the Toronto Star that many Black fathers can face a range of challenging issues:
In Canada, “I definitely think we are ahead of a lot of places. But we’re definitely not where we want to be . . . we have fathers who want to be financial providers but can’t find that long-term work for whatever reason. We have dads who are parenting but can’t be fully engaged. Sometimes there are issues around employment and housing.”
He understands how young fathers, if they didn’t grow up with their own dads, can feel insecure or unsure of their parenting skills.
But Brandon also says that stereotypes related to Black fathers persist, including “the stereotype that we don’t exist, that we don’t want to play a role.” He also hosted a recent adults-only evening event on the taboo topics of monogamy and infidelity within Black communities.
The City of Toronto has approved a grant for Brandon Hay and co-researchers Lance McCready (associate professor, University of Toronto OISE) and Carl James (professor, York University) to conduct research into the experiences and challenges of Black fathers. Denise Campbell, City of Toronto director of community resources, told The Globe and Mail that the research will attempt to “fill a gap in information about this community from a Canadian perspective”–and that that was among the reasons for the city providing funding.
The research is occurring against a backdrop of violence and tragedy for Black communities in and around Toronto. A series of gun-related deaths have focused attention on young Black men–as both perpetrators and victims of crime. Columnist Michael Gee wrote in The Globe and Mail:
Pockets of the city where unemployment and dropout rates are high, where many sons grow up without a father, where gangs and guns are all around, have become dangerous traps for what social workers call at-risk youth. More often than not, they turn on each other. Black-on-black violence is a disfiguring stain on the face of the city’s multicultural success. It is an uncomfortable truth that, as a welcoming and liberal city, we prefer to ignore. The political class won’t talk about it for fear of being labelled racist. The media are almost as cowed.
Royson James, a columnist for the Toronto Star, focused directly on the concept of what he called the “magic bullet”–equipping each black family with “a functioning father and a good man.” But his column concluded with a sense of despair:
Let’s say that the magic bullet — one that reversed gunplay — was to equip each black family with a functioning father and a good man. What would you do with that information?
Who’s going to be the surrogate to teach the boys to be men? How long would it take? The cost? The absolute, single-minded, broad-based, all-in mission at all levels of society to accomplish what many cultures do without thinking — what many dying on our streets can’t find because it’s been extracted from their minds.
“I’m flying blindfolded in the dark, hoping I don’t crash,” a young man in the play said Saturday night.
So are we all.
Leaders from Toronto’s Black communities gathered on February 21, 2013, in response to the ongoing violence among Black youth. The African Canadian Coalition of Community Organizations said its presentation was directed to all three levels of government and that it won’t accept “false promises.” The group claims that 75 per cent of youth murders are in the African Canadian community, which should be regarded as a crisis – but it’s not.
We speak with Brandon Hay, founder of the Black Daddies Club.
Image of Brandon Hay from Notable.ca
RELATED | Letters to the editor: Gun victims getting younger | Share: New premier urged to make Black youth violence a priority | Huffington Post: Brandon’s Hay’s blog posts |
video
Redefining Fatherhood: Brandon Hay at TEDx Toronto
Black Daddies Club Research Project – Montage teaser part 1
