The father of all lies

Dr Orville
Taylor, Columnist

It is the one day of the year when the majority of Jamaican fathers feel some measly effort to feel special. There is no gala, flowers or fanfare. Indeed, Father's Day often passes with a whimper compared to Mother's Day, and it is like a very patronising and condescending afterthought.

amaican fathers are the worst, and the majority of women, where 80-odd per cent of their children are born out of wedlock, have to raise their children all by themselves, while their 'wutliss bayby faada dem' spend their money and time drinking, womanising and neglecting their children. At least, so we are led to believe.

Then, another set of 'experts', reeking of knowledge in lower intestinal products, squeeze out dumb catchphrases like the 'breakdown of the family.' Oftentimes, well-intentioned do-gooders, stepping from their areas of expertise, cite statistics from the great USA and equate 'illegitimacy' with delinquent fathering. It is a never-ending litany, fuelled by ignoramuses,

hysterical females and oftentimes by educated persons prejudiced by their own experiences or media images. These never undergo the inconvenience of simply checking the data to determine if any of their beliefs are based in fact.

So then, a week before Father's Day, medical
doctor Michael Coombs joined the list of those wanting to see
improvements in family life and waxed sociological in founding the
National Association for the Family (NAF). The NAF's noble intention is
to rebuild all 'pillars of family life', with the first stage being
're-engagement of fathers' and the preparation of young males for
fatherhood.

Thus, according to Coombs, "... In
households headed by females, we should see a shift ... downwards. The
ultimate impact would be the change in the female-headed households and
the involvement of our males, children born out of wedlock and ...
registration of births, including more fathers."

At
face value, nothing seems wrong, because better fathers and families
make better societies. Even without reading any introductory sociology
texts, there is a 1975 R&B song called You and Me, Me
and You by The Main Ingredient, which sings of happy couples
leading to happy families and countries. Nonetheless, in the same way
that social scientists must not hasten to make medical recommendations,
before first equipping ourselves with existing knowledge and data, so
should doctors do the converse.

There are some
assumptions inherent in Coombs' and others' pronouncements. First,
Jamaican fathers have supposedly become disengaged and thus have to be
re-engaged. Second, there was some pre-existing Jamaican family form
that has deteriorated over time. Huh? If the Jamaican family has broken
down, what was it like in the 1800s? Another apparent presumption is
that most households in this country are
female-headed.

Brilliant Jamaicans

As proof that we really should not to judge a book by
its cover, decades of brilliant Jamaicans have simply looked at Edith
Clarke's 1957 classic, My Mother who Fathered Me and,
like errant politicians, just decided to 'run with it'. Without
bothering to open the book, persons cite its cliched title, missing the
fact that Clarke wanted to explain why 30 per cent of households had no
residential father. Thus, the imposing finding was (do the math) that 70
per cent of Jamaican households had Pops living
there.

Jog your memories, readers; think of the 10
houses closest to where yours was. Bet you can't find any place in your
own experience where the majority of homes were without residential
fathers.

Today, 40-plus per cent of households are
female-headed. This means that more than half of houses have Daddy
living there. Nonetheless, the increase in females running households
reveals not male marginality, but the fact that young women are staying
outside of residential unions, delaying childbirth and taking advantage
of tertiary education and occupational opportunities. The average
household size decreased by one person over recent decades because of
this; not fathers' flight.

Moreover, there is a
plainly stupid tendency to assume that children born out of wedlock are
born to women who impregnate themselves by missing men. Being unmarried
doesn't mean that a man is not supportive. Furthermore, the typical
non-residential male contributes to the maintenance of his partner and
attempts to be in his children's lives.

An earlier
UNICEF report revealed that "... half of all children under the age of
six live with their fathers and ... four out of five fathers support
their children [of all ages] financially". Furthermore, around 65 per
cent of children "have both biological parents performing the chief
parenting role - even if both parents do not live in the same
household".

Plantation legacy

Given
our plantation legacy, it is a miracle that Jamaican black men show
these statistics. Slavery discouraged family bonds and encouraged male
marginality. Yet, apart from his sexual prowess, the black male has only
his status as a father. Most men are proud of fatherhood, and despite
the stereotypes, a delinquent father who 'don't mind him youth dem' is a
major target of stigma and shame among lower-class
men.

Men are so keen on being fathers that in DNA
tests, where they accept paternity for children resembling distant
ancestors and are simply verifying for legal purposes, 30 per cent of
them 'fail' despite studying for years. True, prior to 2008, there was
low registration of fathers on birth certificates. However, as I argued
to the then head of the Registrar General's Department (RGD), it was
because the process was cumbersome and men have difficulty getting time
off from work to do paternal things. How many employers routinely give
men relief to attend PTA meetings and other parental
functions?

Moreover, women's two-times higher
unemployment rates allow them greater visibility while the fathers
'rerk'. Thus, when the RGD made the process easier, registration of
fathers at birth jumped to 70 per cent. When we adjust the data for the
DNA 'failures', Jamaican fathers need a
break.

Furthermore, unmarried status does not mean
unsupportive or uncommitted. Missing the point, in 1944, Lady Huggins,
wife of then Governor John Huggins, alarmed by the almost 70 per cent of
children born out of wedlock, attempted to legitimise them and
distributed some 3,000 wedding rings via her Women's Federation Mass
Weddings Committee. Huggins' success is seen
today.

Finally, does anyone realise that a recent
prison study showed that only 37 per cent of inmates came from
mother-only homes? A third came from homes with both parents resident,
and if father-only households are added, 40 per cent of them lived with
their fathers.

So happy Father's Day to the good and
trying fathers. You are the majority.

Dr Orville
Taylor is senior lecturer in sociology at the UWI and a radio talk-show
host. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and
tayloronblackline@hotmail.com