AN AGENDA FOR BLACK WOMEN AND THE FAMILY
The family is the first and strongest social institution.
It is a trinity not a duality. It is time to restore normalcy!
We must examine the quality of our parenting and community building. We must examine the direction which we are turning and the forces that have shifted our families. It is time to reclaim our fathers, our men. It is time to put away ego and economics. Put that man back in his rightful place in the Universe; with his family unit. Hold him tight and do not let him go! He has been trained to believe that he does belong there, and his role exit was acceptable. There will be resistance by all parties; man, woman, and child once he returns.
It is time to build and restore the legacy of our families. It must be one that is positive and transformational. The cycle that has continuously perpetuated for the last fifty years has to be broken. Restoration and accountability need to begin with love. It is mandatory that our expectations increase. A sense of urgency must be constructed around reorienting the black family. We must not let the government dictate our household. If we are going to exist in this land for the next two generations or the two hundred years, we have got to be greater than the current condition.
We need mass reentry of an alpha male and father in our homes. The Obama Administration sought initiatives and strategies to promote responsible fathering.
Promote and create positive opportunities for fathers to engage in the intellectual, emotional and financial well-being of their children.
Support and sustain stable and healthy environments for children and parents, particularly by strengthening the economic stability of low-income fathers and supporting healthy relationships between parents.
Strengthen and solidify relationships among fathers, children, and families early in a child’s life.
Support and encourage disconnected fathers to reconnect with their children and families.
Use convening power to coordinate communication and high impact engagement efforts that promote a positive culture shift around fatherhood (The White House, 2012).
A woman’s member is among her most powerful, divine, and nature-given faculty.
The next generation must hear a new song. It must sing like:
You are and will continue to be more economically sound than previous and current generations.
Because of Brown v. The Board of Education in Topeka, Kansas, you graduated from any college or university in the United States of America.
Your father is in the household, because we decided to stop shacking up and raising children in a single parent household. We chose to marry.
Son and daughter, you are a leader in this family. You are to reclaim and amplify the vital role of family, culture and spirituality of the African American community (African American Leadership Forum, 2011).
Hard times will come, but it is what you do in the difficult days to change the direction of your course. Demonstrate good and moral character in spite of the challenges and controversies you will face.
Love the color of your skin, because it is the color of greatness. You are my child and you are beautiful.
Chattel slavery and forced labor no longer exist globally, but you will never have mental slavery, opportunity slavery, drug addiction and distribution slavery, alcoholic slavery, obesity slavery, or any other ill that could reduce the quality of your life.
Allow heartache and poor circumstances to be your motivator, not an excuse.
From the mother, “Son, I want you to be the same kind of man your father is and better.” From the father, “Daughter, I want you to be the same kind of woman your mother is and better.”
The kinky, tight curled hair on your head is beautiful. Embrace it!
No drugs or alcohol came into this household, because they could have destroyed this family. They could have led to your incarceration, your death, an addiction, gambling, and caused you to be a poor example of this family.
We exercise and eat healthy, because we are trying to fight off generations of heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic diseases and ailments.
