History of Feminism

He (Obama) talks about initiative, about ensuring that black men become "better husbands and fathers and well-educated hard-working good citizens." He says that we have got to "encourage responsible fatherhood."

I get tired of hearing about the epidemic of missing black fathers. It's always the same story, that old, tired, persistent-as-hell narrative, a troupe of vagabonds and thugs. It exists without context, without history.

Don't get me wrong. I don't want to dismiss the very real pain of children raised without fathers, including black fathers. It is undeniable that too many kids have been left behind by the men that created them. I see the aftermath in many of the men I've loved, black men who never knew their fathers.

But I want to remind America of how criminally short its memory can be. In theory, the good thing about this country is that we all have our own story to tell, and there exist a whole host of stories, both parallel and perpendicular to mine. Countless fragile intricacies that are sometimes unimaginable to me, other times too familiar.