its very essential to ahve a father at the beggining and the end of time, most kids like me from the black community are very disadvantaged to grow up with no one u can look up too. fatherly love is very crucial ion ones life however adressing 9it as only the blaack fathers not taking responsibilities is wrong look at it this way. in a school mixed of blach and white kids take tyhe percenatge of black or white kids coming from a home with both parents well statistics in my school shows that many black kids have got both mom and dad compared to the white ones so the responsibilities so its for everyone not just black people

Thank Heavens for this website,clearly there are African Americans somewhere other than at my house who don't exuse boorish and bad comments by other blacks or bad behavior in general.I only read one comment that I would say practices that excuse the black ,find a reason why he/she said it.I do not care what you think about Jesse's(i shall no longer address him as reverend)main thought who is to blame for the state of runaway sperm donors in the community(I'm an African American father of five).The comment "... I'm going to cut his "..uts" off is reprehensible no matter who says it or where.It deserves to be condemned. When a "minister of God",uses such language and that same minister has spent his lifetime in politics,and has himself fathered a child out-of -wedlock,at a time when he was married(an adulterer)he in my view has forefeited the right to the title of "minister".In the past I had nothing but admiration for Jackson.

Now on to the substance to try to absolve AA's from responsibility and blame it on the government,which has not provided education,or jobs,Insults the majority no matter how small of AA men who work and take care of the offspring and try to be a part of their lives. It also ignores the Shawn Kemp's and others who are million dollar athelete's and who father mutiple children by multiple women,who they don't take care of.Some do finacially and others don't but the overwhelming majority are not part of their offsprings lives even if they do finaciaaly take care of them.Just today their was a report of a young man 29 formerly with the Denver Broncos;he violated the drug policy previously,but Denver backed him he played last season but was released after the season ended because of "attitude problems", being caught with MJ. This will most likely be a violation of the NFL drug policy and lead to a 1 year suspension from football.Can he comeback (skill level)after 1 year not playing at the age of 30 going on 31? What makes this story tie-in here he has NINE children by 9 different mothers.A few years ago a football team he played on gave him a salary advance to pay back child support most likely to keep him out of jail.There will be all kinds of excuses I am sure for his behavior but the bottom line is if you have any concern for the issue you bring into the world you are aware of the drug policy you try to follow it so that you can earn those hughe dollars and take care of your family. Or as Allan Iverson said in response to a question, "...I have to be careful what I say and do because I have a daughter who is old (mature)enough to understand what she hears on television so I cannot say stupid things.."(as close as I can get to the actual statement.There is a man who knows and accepts what it takes to be a father.

I, as an educated Black woman who was once a single mother, am personally sick and tired of the drama surrounding what our Black leaders have to say about the failing ways of our people. When Bill Cosby said be accountable, there was an uproar because he said it in front of "company". When Barack Obama said be accountable, in front of "family", there is still an uproar and sadly coming from one of our own leaders. We're damned if we do and damned if we don't. I want someone to tell me how to get the "be accountable" message to those who need it without worrying about hurting feelings or stepping on toes.

Neither Bill nor Barack said what they said as a way of demeaning or denigrating those on the lower end of the class system or otherwise. What they said was meant to be a wake up call, to point out that pink elephant in the room that most people choose to ignore. Apparently some of our people, those that these messages apply to, need to be slapped in the face with it because obviously subtleness does not work.

Further, for Jesse Jackson to make such comments is yet another demonstration of the hater-ism within the Black community. I often say that if Black people would stop being in competition with one another and work together sometimes we wouldn't be in the situation we're in now. We're too busy trying to stay on top of the heap while making sure the next brother doesn't pass us by we can't see the damage being done in the meantime. It seems that Jesse is playing the role of the brother that can't stand to see another brother pass him by. Such a sad, sad day amidst one of the most uplifting, enlightening, and historical times in the history of this country.

I'm an Obama supporter, but I agree with Rev. Jackson that Obama talks down to black people. He has referred to young black men who don't vote as "Cousin Pookies." Is that any way to try to encourage them to be involved in the election process? His Father's Day speech focused on the black men who aren't doing right and did not uplift the vast majority of the ones who are. Black people don't have a monoply on dysfunctional families, but his speech would give the impression they do. I hope Obama is sincere in wanting to see black families strenghtened. His scolding of black people comes across as a campaign ploy to win over white voters in the same way that Ronald Reagan talked about "Welfare Queens."

It was fitting that Obama made his remarks about fatherhood on father's day. In my opinion he did not put an entire race of people down as indicated by ND Thomas and his data is correct about too many fathers missing. Missing fathers puts our youth at great risk for other problems. This is a wake up call from a role model who speaks truth from the heart showing us that we can do anything we want when we have that drive.