With Father’s Day just upon us, a recent public conversation about the stigma of mental health in the black community emphasized the significant impact absent fathers have on a child’s emotional wellness.
“It’s time for us to have a conversation that’s been delayed and long overdue,” said Josh Landon, a Fox 2 News anchor, as moderator of the June 1 event in Corktown, a district of Detroit. “I want to have a kitchen table conversation on the unaddressed mental health awareness in our community. Let’s remove the social stigma and share positive reflections.”
The panel was hosted by the Detroit Police Athletic League in partnership with the National Association of Black Journalists as part of the group’s “Black Male Media Project,” an effort to help create a more positive narrative for black males in media. Each of the panelists had a background in children and mental health.
Panelist Dr. Curtis Longs, a staff psychiatrist of the Juvenile Assessment Center of Wayne County, said that almost all of the young black males he’s encountered in a juvenile detention facility had never met or barely know their father.
A 2018 report by the Administration for Children and Families shows 48% of non-Hispanic black children lived in a mother-only household, compared to 25% of Hispanic children and 18% of non-Hispanic white children.
When The Daily Signal asked Longs about the prominence of fatherless black families, he said:
The answer is it’s devastating. If I can just have a list of kids that I’ve seen and look at their record and all of this stuff, and you see this kid, they know you’re going to talk about their dad. When it’s all said and done, these kids, bigger than I am, will start crying. It’s devastating not to be in our kids lives.
Panelist Karlin …read more
From:: Daily Signal – Feed