Tyler Perry’s
Daddy’s Little Girls Tells an Important Truth About African-American
Fathers
By
Mike McCormick and Glenn Sacks© 2007
Tyler
Perry’s new movie Daddy’s Little Girls tells an important truth
about African-American fathers. The film, which reached number 5 on
the Media By Numbers list of top movies, is the story of Monty, a
blue collar African-American father played by Idris Elba. Monty
fights long and hard in family court to be a father to his three
adoring little girls.
Today African-American men are often excoriated--most recently by
presidential candidate Barack Obama--for being irresponsible towards
their children. Yet we don’t hear nearly enough about men like
Monty. These dads cherish their kids and, like Monty, often find
that the family law system prevents them from playing a meaningful
role in their lives.
In the movie, Monty is raising his three girls when his ex-wife, who
has drug and personality problems, decides to demand full custody.
As is typical, she goes to family court and wins, and Monty is given
only occasional visitation with his girls. He decides to fight this
and, with the help of a lady lawyer friend working pro bono, gets
his daughters away from their abusive mother and back with him. Of
the movie’s entire storyline, the only unusual part is the last
one—most fathers cannot get shared custody of their children, and
are relegated to being mere visitors in their children’s lives.
New research on minority inner city fathers demonstrates the harm
these family court norms are doing to African-American children. A
just-released Boston College study found that when nonresident
fathers are involved in their adolescent children’s lives, the
incidence of substance abuse, violence, crime, and truancy decreases
markedly. Most of the families in the study, which was published in
the journal Child Development, are low-income African-American and
Hispanic families. The study's lead author, professor Rebekah Levine
Coley, says the study found involved nonresident fathers to be “an
important protective factor for adolescents."
The study also found that when teens begin to slide towards
delinquency, nonresident fathers increase their involvement in
response. The researchers found such involvement to be
effective--the impact of father involvement was the greatest on the
kids who had previously been the most troubled.
The new study’s findings are consistent with a wealth of research on
the positive impact of fathers. A University of Chicago study of
crime in the African-American areas of 171 cities found that
fatherlessness was the strongest predictor of violent juvenile
crime. One study published in the Journal of Research in Crime and
Delinquency concluded that fatherlessness is so predictive of
juvenile crime that, as long as there is a father in the home,
children of poor and well-to-do families had similar juvenile crime
rates.
According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, 31% of
young women will become pregnant at least once during their teen
years. Anybody watching Daddy’s Little Girls would consider the
statistical likelihood that at least one of Monty’s three daughters
will become pregnant as a teenager. Research shows that the largest
single factor in preventing this is Monty.
According to a long-term study conducted in the United States and in
New Zealand and published in the journal Child Development, a
father’s presence greatly decreases the risk of teen pregnancy. The
study found that it mattered little whether the child was rich or
poor, black or white, born to a teen mother or an adult mother, or
raised by parents with functional or dysfunctional marriages. What
mattered was dad.
The way to preserve the loving bonds between these fathers and their
children is to institute a legal presumption of shared parenting in
divorce or separation. Under this presumption, as long as both
parents are fit, they will each have the right to spend roughly
equal physical time with their children.
It is sad but true that there are fathers, both black and white, who
do not come through for their children. While no judge or lawmaker
can turn a disinterested parent into a caring one, much can and
should be done to break down the many barriers which separate loving
fathers from their children.
This article appeared in the Wilmington Journal (4/6/07) and other
African-American newspapers.
Mike McCormick is the Executive Director of the American Coalition
for Fathers and Children, the world’s largest shared parenting
organization. Their website is www.acfc.org.
Glenn Sacks' columns on men's and fathers' issues have appeared in
dozens of America's largest newspapers. Glenn can be reached via his
website at www.GlennSacks.com or via email at Glenn@GlennSacks.com.
Glenn Sacks' columns on men's and fathers' issues have appeared in
dozens of America's largest newspapers. Glenn can be reached via his
website at www.GlennSacks.com or via email at Glenn@GlennSacks.com.
Copyright 2007 Glenn
Sacks, all rights reserved
