Fatherhood, Privilege, and Rac(e)ism

Abstract

One Monday night, I am sitting around a table with a group of men at one of the monthly meetings with the Fathers’ Group, a support group for a dozen of men who have been meeting for 15 years. Each monthly meeting is about a particular topic. This one in particular is about parenting and the issues of race and racism. The meeting occurs after a consecutive string of high-profile police shootings of Black men happened throughout the country. Pete recalls out loud a private conversation with Mathias, who he is friends with, about the recent events, a conversation which “brought up the dynamics of us and how there’s so many … types of men that we are as parents, as men, as races”. The meeting’s agenda was to “raise awareness”. Mathias and Pete, two Black men, were running the meeting.