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Friday, Nov. 06, 2009

YOUR SAY: Reasons for a negative male image

By William Jackson Sr.

Special to The Telegraph

We who are African-American and male are sized up to determine our power and our potential. It is our image in our society that elicits an emotional and sometimes negative response. That negative response, many times, can be attributed to the image we project.

Ÿ In Georgia, more than 339,000 children have female head of households. About 40 percent of those children have not seen their father in at least a year.

Ÿ In Georgia, more than 200,000 children have a father who is either in prison, on parole or on probation.

Ÿ Fatherless daughters are 92 percent more likely to fail in their own marriages. Fatherless men are 35 percent more likely to experience marital failure.

Ÿ More than 70 percent of all juveniles in state reform (YDC) institutions come from fatherless homes.

Ÿ Children raised without a father are more likely to have problems with the law.

Ÿ Seventy-two percent of adolescent murderers grew up without fathers.

Ÿ Children from fatherless homes make up 63 percent of youth suicides.

Ÿ Fatherless daughters are 64 percent more likely to give birth to an illegitimate child, allowing the cycle to trap another generation.

Ÿ Fatherless children are twice as likely to drop out of school

Fathers (black, white and others, but especially black men), help us come up with solutions to this ugly problem.

William Jackson Sr., is a resident of Warner Robins