Father’s Day is here. It’s time to let the love flow in both word and deed in celebration of real men. I’m talking about men who do the work of raising their own biological children and even sometimes, perhaps more significantly, the kids who are not theirs by blood but who belong to them through the power of love. These three videos celebrate the bonds of fatherly love.
1. Porsha Olayiwola’s “Father’s American Dream” is a powerful examination of how neither politics, forced poverty nor separation will ever sever her father’s love from this daughter’s heart.
2. Women—myself included—sometimes overlook the fact that we have so many more opportunities for emotional intimacy than men do. We live in a culture laced with toxic ideas of masculinity, where disrespect and dominance of women and children masquerade as “being hard,” where being emotionally closed off is a badge of honor. This video is a way to share and to say, “I see you for the good dad you are.”
3. Beautiful. That’s the only word to describe Michelle Obama’s Father’s Day message to the dads who help hold it down in every way—around the house and on the job. It’s for the man in your life who does this for you and yours, especially those dads who didn’t have a dad present in their own lives to show them how to be a father and a man. This is a heartfelt recognition of the men, like Barack Obama, who figured out how to be a dedicated father all on their own. For the little man in your life whom you’re raising or helping to raise, it’s a beautiful portrait of what real men do. #BlackFathersDay.