Stereotypes surrounding Black fatherhood are being broken down in Profiled: The Black Man, a four-part docuseries executive produced by Tina Knowles-Lawson for Discovery+. The second episode, “Black Men Are Absent Fathers,” will premiere February 19 and features interviews with the founders of St. Louis-based organization Dear Fathers, which is dedicated to telling stories of Black fatherhood and addressing stereotypes that have permeated society. The founders of the organization knew this docuseries and specific episode made for a perfect space to share their message.
“This docuseries aligns with exactly what we’re doing at Dear Fathers, and it’s breaking stereotypes,” co-founder Brad Edwards says. “The mainstream media has you believe that the Black man is in this particular box, and it’s not the best-looking box. But, through the docuseries, we’re able to really shed light on what the real majority is versus that minority that some media outlets choose to show everyone.”
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Founded in September 2019, Dear Fathers is a platform committed to sharing the stories of Black fathers and empowering that community by providing resources to uplift Black men. Growing up with absentee fathers, co-founders Jesse Alex and Lamar Johnson Jr. channeled their adversity into helping nurture other Black men in the St. Louis community.
“Me and Lamar would have tons of conversations about who we wanted to be as Black men and Black fathers as two Black guys who grew up without dads,” Alex says. “So, in those conversations, we just developed a passion about talking about fatherhood and things of that nature. We were like ‘Alright, we want to create a platform where Black men and Black fathers can share their stories that hopefully more people can learn from and relate to.’”
Tina Knowles-Lawson, executive producer of Profiled: The Black Man, followed Dear Fathers on social media before the organization was selected to be included in the docuseries. After seeing Knowles-Lawson post about the four-part series, Edwards knew this production had Dear Fathers written all over it.
“It was definitely something we were honored to be a part of,” Edwards says. “We feel like the stars aligned so much in what we’re doing, and it was really just more of a confirmation that what we’re doing is on the right path.”
The first episode of Profiled: The Black Man was entitled “Black Men are Dangerous,” and centered around debunking the misconception that Black men are inherently violent. The second episode revolves around Black fatherhood, and will explore and invalidate the stereotype that Black men often fall into the category of being absentee fathers.
“I mainly talked about the reason for starting the platform, but then also talked about what the platform encompasses when it comes to the Black father and what we’ve learned from hearing the stories of Black fathers through our platform and what we hear from guys through our mental resources,” Alex says. “My perspective was talking about the platform in general, what we’ve been able to create, what we’ve learned from Black fathers through having this platform and hearing these stories.”
It can be argued that Alex and Johnson Jr. dismantle stereotypes surrounding the Black father simply by working within their roles at Dear Fathers. Though the two men grew up without fathers, they still have a reverence and respect for Black fatherhood in the local community.
“Even with having an absent father, like with Jesse and Lamar, it doesn’t mean that they’re going to go out there and be delinquents and they’re going to not graduate from school and be whatever society wants to say they are,” Edwards says. “You have two Black men that went without that and are putting an emphasis on fathers being present, and I think that’s something special in itself, in just how the platform was created by these two.”
