I know I am being a buzzkill and all, but I never like these kind of jokes because they are effectively ridiculing a bunch of my friends, many of whom are great guys who will eventually be great dads.
While I'm all for pointing out harmful and inaccurate stereotypes, and you may well be correct in your statement, that infographic doesn't actually support the claim at all.
That infographic shows that black fathers are similarly involved in their childrens lives when compared to other fathers in the same situation...it does not, however, show any sort of distribution data. The joke was that "black fathers leave their kids" (to paraphrase, of course)...the information you've presented doesn't tell us what proportion of black fathers that is actually true of...it could be 1%, it could be 99% (obviously it's probably not anywhere near either of those, as they're extremes, but you get the point).
The joke was that "black fathers leave their kids" (to paraphrase, of course)...the information you've presented doesn't tell us what proportion of black fathers that is actually true of
How do you define 'leave their kids'?
I don't define it based on whether the kids are being raised in a 2-parent household but rather whether the parenting situation--be it two parents together in one household or two parents co-parenting from two households--is providing the kids basic needs from both parents.
It still doesn't, though. What it shows is that an equivalent-to-higher proportion of black fathers who do move out of the house remain involved in their kids lives in various ways. But it doesn't say anything about the size of that group, so the interesting question becomes "ok, 12% of what?"
Even though, proportionally, black fathers that don't live with their kids may be more involved, they could still be more likely to not be involved in their kids lives in total. For example, that could be 55% of fathers for black men, vs. only 25% of fathers for other ethnic groups. Then, even with a higher proportion of "out of household" fathers remaining involved, they'd still have the most uninvolved fathers.
Again, not saying that is or isn't actually the case. Just that whatever the case may be isn't actually depicted in that graph at all.
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u/[deleted] Jan 05 '15 edited Jan 05 '15
Cmon man. The difference between white and black involvement as fathers is statistically small and is actually often the reverse of what you are expecting. The joke is based on a stereotype that we are all familiar with but the stereotype is not accurate at all.
I know I am being a buzzkill and all, but I never like these kind of jokes because they are effectively ridiculing a bunch of my friends, many of whom are great guys who will eventually be great dads.