"She borrowed my gangsta, then sold it on eBay," Very Smart Brothas' Panama Jackson says in a piece reflecting on his relationship with his 4-year-old girl.
Through my daughter I've had the pleasure of re-examining all sorts of interesting things about lots of facets of myself. From the music I'm listening to, to my own worldview which admittedly has needed some tweaking, and HOW I think about issues relating to women …
While she's obviously still too young to directly impact my worldview, her existence and having the pleasure of being apart of her growth as a person has forced me to set aside a lot of my own views on what makes me a man and where I should draw the line.
Maybe I needed that because the whole man's man thing only works if you don't have to raise a little girl who will become a woman. Which … well is my job. While I've spent all this time doing my thing on some rah rah I'll slap you just for living, now my kid loves planes so I love planes too. You can't be out robbing people when your kid squeals because she sees a plane and you look up, smile and say awwww … that's a plane.
She borrowed my gangsta, then sold it on EBay. And now I'm out here defenseless in these streets like I'm coming in this game on some modeling sh*t. Or like this. No really, like that.
God gave me a daughter because I needed one. And that's alright.
Read Panama Jackson's entire piece at Very Smart Brothas.
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Panama Jackson is the co-founder and senior editor of VerySmartBrothas.com. He lives in Washington, D.C., and believes the children are our future.