'Father's Day?' Film Addresses Issues of Fatherless Homes

Actresses Ashley Shante and Squeaky Moore are hoping their new film "Father's Day?" will encourage discussion about what they call "the elephant in the room," namely the absence of black fathers from an alarming number of African-American homes.

"No one is mentioning the elephant," Moore, coproducer of the film, told The Huffington Post. "We want to hit them with a story to understand the emotional impact."

The short film was produced by Dear Diary Productions, a film production company Shante founded, whose objective is to raise awareness about the impact of fatherlessness on the black community.

Various reports have been published about the percentage of black babies born to unmarried mothers, with percentages varying from the high 60s to low 70s. According to a study of childbearing among unmarried mothers by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, 72 percent of black babies were born to unwed mothers in 2010.

The statistics have fueled further discussion about the context of the figures and the overall numbers of black women, both married and unmarried, who are having children.

Moore said she feels the statistical debate is a distraction from the real problem. Although the movie's trailer highlights the numbers, both women say they want to focus more on the emotional results of growing up without a father.

"I think the problem is the argument over the accuracy of the number," Shante explained. "People tend to focus on that more than the issue itself.

"It's not about women vs. the number," Shante said. "What's most important is the emotional issues that we're not looking at. Why are [black women] deciding not to have children? I think we're missing the point, and that is that most of these issues are stemming from the bigger problem, which is fatherlessness."

Both actresses grew up in fatherless homes, although under different circumstances. Shante's father was absent, while Moore's father was killed by a drunk driver when she was 13 years old. Each of them faced trials in their adult lives as a result, ranging from their behavior in romantic relationships to being embarrassment of having siblings by different fathers.

In order to move forward as a community, Shante said that both men and women must be held accountable for their actions and future generations need to try to break the cycle.

The film, scheduled for release in March 2012, features the acting talents of Justin A. Davis of "Boardwalk Empire" and award-winning actress and director Rosalyn Coleman. Shante and Moore plan to submit the movie to the Sundance Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival and others, with hopes of eventually pushing it into theaters.

"I wanna see this topic become popular," said Shante. "I want it to be popular, to where it's on TV, to where it's talked about so much that it puts shame on anyone who isn't acting accordingly."

Comments

[ockase]

01:58 PM on 11/10/2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2C0zSzrErs
Maybe stuff like this is a reason they bail? Awesome song, crank that child support!!

[scrufty]

03:56 PM on 11/08/2011

People need to stop treating having sex as a sport. I have heard to many people brag about being with this person or that person. Both our men and women are guilty. Its just easy for the man to run away, not so much for the mother.

Newborns to single mothers in my community has been on the rise for a long time. One would think just seeing other single mothers struggling so hard would be a deterrent.

[MINDGAMES 2011]

05:54 PM on 11/06/2011

I read an article about an elephant sanctuary. It reported on the impact that the absence of the male elephant bulls has on the elephant society. The younger males were out of control ,very violent.. The younger female elephants began to give birth at earlier and earlier ages. It went on to tell of how female matriarch elephants took the leading roles and held the society together the best they could. It was only when the male elephant bulls were reintroduced to the society that order was restored. http://www.elephants.com/media/NewYorkTimes_10_7_06.htm

[MINDGAMES 2011]

06:47 PM on 11/06/2011

Up to 90 percent of male elephant deaths are now attributable to other male elephants. Killing each other. Sound familiar.

[realitycheck101a]

06:55 PM on 11/06/2011

Wow, I read that too! I was amazed at how it mirrors what's happening in society today. An experiment from the 40's, by John B. Calhoun, EXACTLY mirrors what's happening in the
inner-cities. It had to do with the effects of overcrowding on societal structure.

"Normal social discourse within the mouse community broke down, and with it the ability of mice to form social bonds. The failures and dropouts congregated in large groups in the middle of the enclosure, their listless withdrawal occasionally interrupted by spasms and waves of pointless violence. The victims of these random attacks became attackers. Left on their own in nests subject to invasion, nursing females attacked their own young. Procreation slumped, infant abandonment and mortality soared. Lone females retreated to isolated nesting boxes on penthouse levels. Other males, a group Calhoun termed “the beautiful ones,” never sought sex and never fought—they just ate, slept, and groomed, wrapped in narcissistic introspection. Elsewhere, cannibalism, pansexualism, and violence became endemic. Mouse society had collapsed. "

http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/42/wiles.php

The only difference is that with humans, procreation soars...

[jf12]

09:29 AM on 11/06/2011

"Are [black women] deciding not to have children" in fatherless homes?

[natalienjackson]

05:22 PM on 11/05/2011

sorry the moderators posted out of order..hope its able to be followed

[natalienjackson]

05:20 PM on 11/05/2011

but perhaps one of the most dmaging to my community has been the pivot away from referring to unwed mothers in my community as such to being lumped in with divorced mothers and widows for the now all encompassing term "single mother". With this for example came the unintended consequence of empowering generations of women towards acceptance of the current “babymama” phenomena. You see referring to an unwed mother as a single mother is empowering in that it createss the narrative of a “strong black woman that made it in spite of…”. So if a child attends college it is the testatment of the strength of a single mother..if the same child were to become incarcerated it is an indictment of the colossal failure of men/fathers. Unbelieveable! Another uninteneded consequence is the current “boy crisis” where the education disparity is growing, male suicide is increasing and the anti-male bias and bashing in society continues to become common practice.

[natalienjackson]

04:24 PM on 11/05/2011

Our community has been held hostage by feminist idealogues for decades and we now see the detrimental impact of buying into this ideology and the subsequent policies. We now have an illegitimacy rate approaching 80% and yet we continue to leave out critical pieces of the discussion that would lead to a radical change in our community.
While these feminist pushed for women’s roles to evolve in society we maintained an expectation that men’s would remain the same. Men are still expected to be chivalrous, protectors and providers. We love men not for who they are but what they can do for us. So we send them to war to die or we allow for no-fault divorce and the redistribution of their assets. We (women) continue to make choices that lead to negative consequences but enjoy the comfort of having someone to place blame on and a system that holds men financially accountable while abdicating us of any responsibility.. It is an interesting dichotomy where we declared independence, bodily autonomy, an “ability to stand on our own”, while at the same time continuing to hold onto the idea of ourselves and our children as victims of ill intended men, not our own personal CHOICES.

[natalienjackson]

04:22 PM on 11/05/2011

Once upon a time the social contract was marriage with man+woman+child=family..And now this has been replaced with woman+child+child+child support=family? Oh yes I’m tired because I will no longer accept this epidemic and shift in values as merely an deficiency of “manhood” and sexual irresponsibility of men in our community.
I am old enough to remember a time when the social contract that had existed for thousands of years between man and woman was the crux of healthy vital societies/communities. No, everything was not perfect, but children were more likely to be raised within the structure of family. The current conflicts between men and women and the subsequent break down of black family was not as prevalent as it has become. Something happened as the women’s liberation movement began to push more aggressively for “equality” and for the rights of women to have their roles evolve in society. With this push the social contract was broken on one side. While men continued to be held to an expectation that would honor their side of the social contract, radical feminist ideologues began to reshape the thinking of society with growing influence in education, policy and in my personal experience even the feminization of the social sciences.

[natalienjackson]

04:19 PM on 11/05/2011

Interesting... I posted about the negative impact of feminism and many of the unintended consequences of womens liberation/sexual revolution and the comments were not approved. Hmmm

[natalienjackson]

04:03 PM on 11/05/2011

A sentiment expressed by a few in my field of study is the idea that “hurt people, hurt people.” We are hurting in our community and as it stands now we continue the cycle without ever really looking at some of the real problems.
Do a little research, work on increasing our capacity for perspective taking, engage in more objective dialogue, seek truth and share .
Signed,
A sista long tired of of the devastation exacted on my community by feminism.

[realitycheck101a]

05:05 PM on 11/07/2011

What's your field of study? (A sincere question.) Your posts raise some very interesting points.
Your posts provide a perspective that people may not have even been aware of.

[natalienjackson]

11:11 AM on 11/10/2011

clinical psychology..ive spent a great deal of time advocating for womens issues but my experiences in community mental health where I was afforded oportunities to work with boys and young men. My work with them truly yaught me compassion and certainly led me to begin thinkinh more critically about the issues in our community.

[natalienjackson]

04:03 PM on 11/05/2011

What is coming, is the tipping point where men and boys will inevitably begin to aggressively “push back.” A society that despises its men runs the risk of creating a society of despicable men. The good thing is that there are a growing number of men and women that no longer will accept the lowered expectations and dependency upon these ideologues that have contributed to the rapid deterioration of our families, community, values and subsequent economic decline.
I have stood in the trenches alongside many men in the fight for a womans right to “choice”… these men that fight so passionately would have their rights not even welcome in discussions regarding reproduction by the very women for whom they fight so passionately. There is a growing coalition and together we can achieve true equality for all that “TRULY BELIEVE” in fairness. We can no longer dismiss our mens voices from the discussion focusing on their behavior without any exploration of the underlying causes, their feelings, and continue to make assumptions about their feelings. Feminism has contributed largely in part to the current gender conflicts and hurts in our community.

[natalienjackson]

04:01 PM on 11/05/2011

Feminist began to assert the notion that patriarchal oppression was responsible for many of society’s ills and at its most radical end that the social contract that had protected marriage and family was merely constructed for the benefit of those that sought to keep women “oppressed.” We swallowed hook line and sinker and began enjoying rights without responsible which is best characterized in the feminist mantra “my body my choice”….someone elses responsibility? And what do we have to show for being “sexually liberated” with COMPLETE control over reproduction (20+options for birth control pre-conception and access to safe abortions or adoption post conception)? An illigitimacy rate that increased exponentially over several decades aggresively approaching 8 in 10 while we continue to reduce it to merely a "need for black men to man up." Our community has been held hostage by feminist idealogues for decades and we now see the detrimental impact of buying into this ideology and the subsequent policies.
Oh and these young men may not be able to fully understand the message but they are starting to demonstrate more outward objections to the comparative difference in expectation that society has place on them. But one will never hear this injected into conversations regarding equality by idealogues.

[natalienjackson]

03:59 PM on 11/05/2011

• I cannot speak of the specific impact of feminism on other communities as a non-member of those communities but as a woman of color I can speak of its impact on my community. Our community has long been held hostage by feminist ideologues. Many feminist would have society believe that anti the ideology is the equivalent of anti-woman. The two are not synonymous.
I first began my advocacy of creating an awareness of the negative impact of feminism on society (the black/brown community in particular) in the early years of my clinical practice and in various academic circles.I began to see a paradigm shift that led to less gender neutrality in various treatment modalities. This shift was parallel to the “change” that was taking place in society’s feminist influenced thinking as a whole. The shift to focusing exploration of womens issues in the context of their relationship to the men in their lives was indicative of society’s eventual progression towards the current “blame game” that takes place in many gender focused discussions. We began emphasizing accountability for men while extending them very little compassion. This was ruthless of course and it is respecting men but not necessarily loving them. On the other hand society began to emphasize compassion for women while extending them very little accountability.. it is infantilizing and it is loving women but not necessarily respecting them. (Goldich, 2011)

[coptic777]

07:39 PM on 11/04/2011

Google "myths about divorce" numerous studies come up explaining one of the myths is that men just up & leave the family when in fact the vast majority of family break ups is due to women mostly being just not wanting the husband any longer & the laws support them. Then google "Post-Divorce Wealth Gap Was Wrong, Agrees Author". That brings up the seattle times article where weitzman (a feminist of coarse) was busted w/ a false study showing women as victims. To this day even the supreme court relies on this study regarding family law & welfare even though it is known to be false. This film is a joke it takes none of these factors into account from what I can tell. We have condoms, the day after pill (45 bucks) month after pill etc.plus the fact that a woman can get paid if she has a baby from a man or the state. Plus next to free housing free food etc. & this is not due to black women? False studies the law backing you free living. Motive & opportunity yet your gonna tell me it's just black men. Nice try cupcake.

[coptic777]

07:38 PM on 11/04/2011

Around 70% of all divorces are initiated by WOMEN not men. This is because the laws favor women through alimony, child support, welfare etc. A woman named Lenore Weitzman did a study which is the basis for alimony & child support guidelines today. This is where the impression that deadbeat dads are all around talk we hear in the media on the street etc. comes from. The stud said that women were deprived because men were up & leaving living the high & not supporting his children. Guess what? The entire study was false & Lenore Weitzman even admits it! She also admits that her study helped increase the divorce rate in this country....

[Kowens1000]

07:27 PM on 11/05/2011

Just because women initiate the "legal process" of divorce does NOT prove that they caused the dissolution of the marriage.

Men have been known to participate in all sorts of neglectful and destructive behavior without formally 'divorcing' their wives. That doesn't mean that they aren't just as responsible for the break-up as the women who actually file the paperwork.

[TarzanWannaBe]

02:59 PM on 11/06/2011

Of course, "aren't just as responsible". That was not asserted. However, considering the consequences in court, certainly not as apt. That's what is usually implied by this reference. Hope I'm helpful to you by clearing that up.

[realitycheck101a]

05:30 PM on 11/07/2011

I agree. Too many men continue to fool around with other women, just like they never said the words,"I do." That's probably the main reason so many women want a divorce. Too many women turn a blind eye to extramarital affairs "for the sake of the children" or because a divorce would put them in the "working poor" catagory. There are numerous factors...