Um, are you serious Mr. Hutchinson? I agree with Mr. Obama on very few things, but this is one thing I praise him for…telling it how it is. The premise of your excuse-ridden article is that Obama (and Cosby, etc.) makes the mistake of making sweeping, stereotypical claims about black fathers, and that he “omits the words ‘some’, ‘those’, or ‘the offenders’” when speaking about black fathers. Um, right, he didn’t use those descriptors, instead he used the words “too many”. Are you saying that you disagree him that approximately 50% of black children growing up without fathers in their homes is too many? Or that the foundation of the black family is weaker because of it? Are you serious? Instead of applauding this in-your-face honesty (as his all-black audience did), you attempt negate his obviously sensible point by arguing that he doesn’t present sufficient evidence for his argument… I think the evidence is pretty obvious, and whether it’s “more than half” of black children as Mr. Obama says, or “slightly less than half” as you counter with your cited research, I think we should all agree that this is far “too many”. Instead of using the power of your pen to echo the sentiments, you choose to create ludicrous justifications for ‘why’ too many black fathers are abandoning their responsibilities, citing poverty and that black men lose their sense of manhood when they can’t ‘bring home the bacon’. Uh, so they abandon their families? That makes them feel more manly? Does that not condemn their children to certain poverty, therefore continuing the cycle? And what does this say about black mothers? Thank goodness these strong women don’t feel the same urge to abandon their children when the going gets tough or we’d be talking about a new epidemic of “no-parent” homes. But I guess that would just give you fodder for your next article on the justification of the breakdown of the moral fabric of society.
