Obamas Comments on Black Males Fan Old Stereotypes

Presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama thundered to vigorous applause from a Fathers Day Chicago church crowd that black fathers dont engage with their children. A month before Obama made this stereotypical and plainly false assertion, Boston University professor Rebekah Levine Coley, in a comprehensive study on the black family, found that black fathers who don't reside in the home are more likely to sustain regular contact with their children than fathers of any other racial group. This was not an obscure study buried in the pages of a musty academic journal. It was widely cited in a feature article on black fathers in a May issue of Newsweek. So there was no excuse to spout this myth.

But Obamas talk about the alleged irresponsibility of black fathers isnt new. In stump speeches, he has attacked black fathers for their alleged dereliction, irresponsibility and negligence. Whether Obama is trying to shore up his family values credentials with conservatives, is venting personal anger over his own experience of being raised without a father, or has a genuine concern about the much-touted black family breakup is anybodys guess. But Obama clearly is fixated on the ever-popular notion of the absentee black father. And that fixation is fed by a mix of truth, half-truths and outright distortion.

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