Model Minorties Love.Hate.Love Their Fathers.

Our fathers. We wouldn't be here without them right?!?!?! Well. I thought of putting together a post listing books and songs that speak on what it means to be a father. First up. Is Ed Og and the Bull Dogs, be a "Father to your Child".

I got a Uncle who will tell you inna heart beat, that "Be A Father to your Child" is his all time favorite rap song. He is old school. In his heart music needs to have a positive message. While I don't agree 100%, I do understand his reasoning. Where is Ed OG? Didn't he put out a EP Pete Rock?


Second is RM Harris's series of Books. Now RM is one of those dudes that let you know from jump street that he is writing about the brotha's and that he loves them, the all good AND the all bad.
RM Harris is on some other sh*t now. However his first novels, are written so lovingly about black men, abandonment and trying to hold your family together in face is insurmountable obstacles. (Did I just use insurmountable inna sentence? I need to stop going to school).
The next up is. His book Finding Makeba by Alexis D. Pate. Finding Makeba is beautiful. It is about rediscovering your daughter. Thinking that you can live without your her only to learn that she is a essential part of your life.

In a Philadelphia bookstore, African American writer Ben Crestfield asks a young woman for her name so that he can autograph a copy of his first novel for her. When she replies, "Makeba Crestfield," he realizes she's his only child, the daughter he hasn't seen and he left her mother when Makeba was 10. Ben's novel is the thinly disguised story of his marriage to 19-year-old Helen, who was pregnant with Makeba when he was a 22-year-old part-time English major studying on the G.I. Bill in the 1970s, and how the relationship unraveled over the next decade as he tried to be both an artist and a responsible family man, churning out copy at an ad agency to pay the bills.

The next up is, writer who, if I were his friend, I would e-mail him every day and tell him that you need to write about being a Black Male Father, who IS committed to raising his son, who is largely motivated by the fact that his OWN father left him. Maybe I will summon him with this post. Smile.

Samori Maceo-Paul Coates is the big-headed result of my union with Kenyatta Matthews. We met during a mutual stint at Howard University and have been together ever since. Before we met, she had a dim view of men as fathers. Her plan for parenthood was basically: get pregnant by some dude and then conveniently lose him. A father would only complicate things, she thought. When she got pregnant with Samori, I was able to convince her otherwise, but during my time as a dad, I have given my share of evidence to bolster her original view, and today's trip in the rain only promises to add another letter to the file.

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On a personal note. I scared the bejesus out of my father last week . I did not call him back and I was going through that 'ish getting grades back and adjusting to a "few" new jobs. He panicked. It was the first time, since 9/11, that he showed up at my moms front door, first thing in the morning. Real Talk.

Suffice it is to say he got a taste of what it was like to try and contact me, and I was unreachable. Historically, he has been the one who dissapeared on me. He conceeded that, in an ironic twist, he got a taste of it last week. Full disclosure. I did not do it on purpose. In fact, I never thought of it like that until he brought it up.

It was very comforting for him to concede how panick inducing it is to try and contact your father/daughter, when you know they are going through some 'ish, and you can't reach 'em.

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How 'yall spending fathers day blog fam-a-lam? Its hot all-across the country. Summer here. The feet are out!
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Blogger is really tryna rock with me yall. I have been trynin' to post this post since Friday. Come on blogger, don't start tynaa front, just when the comments section start poppin off.
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