MICHAEL BROWN SR. AND THE AGONY OF THE BLACK FATHER IN AMERICA

Esquire ^ | January 5 2014 | John H. Richardso

[MeshugeMikey]

MICHAEL BROWN SR. AND THE AGONY OF THE BLACK FATHER IN AMERICA

Thanksgiving at the Brown house, with family, friends, ham hocks, a little football, and an empty chair.

[MeshugeMikey]

so much drama so little time...

[Nervous Tick]

THE AGONY OF THE BLACK FATHER IN AMERICA

[Opinionated Blowhard]

Because they’re Americans and this is the day Americans consecrate to gratitude, the Brown family tries to stick to easy topics—food, sports, music, children, absent relatives—everything but the nightmare that has changed their lives forever.

Thank God I wasn't eating when I read this -- I would have choked.

[a fool in paradise]

Barack Obama’s father wasn’t in agony and that was in ‘murica over 50 years ago.

[KosmicKitty]

I would love to know how much time little Mikey spent with big Mikey prior to his demise.

How many Thanksgiving was little Mikey actually seated at dad’s table?

[workerbee]

Then Rev. DeVes Toon of Al Sharpton’s National Action Network arrives with an uncle of Oscar Grant’s—the man whose death at the hands of a California police officer was memorialized in the movie Fruitvale Station—and he describes his latest idea for a publicity campaign: pictures of families at their Thanksgiving tables with one seat empty, propping up a picture of their lost child. “You gotta keep the heat on them,” he says. Through peaceful means, he adds, although he believes the officer who killed his nephew never would have been convicted if not for the riots that followed his death. “In the back of their minds, they gotta smell the smoke. You know what I’m saying?”

I smell something, alright, but it ain't smoke.

[I want the USA back]

They will make fools of themselves just so they don’t have to admit the truth.

They blame Whitey for everything.

[Tilted Irish Kilt]

KosmicKitty:" How many Thanksgivings was little Mikey actually seated at dad’s table?"

That is EXACTLY the question !
The greatest loss in black families is the missing parent
who never took the time to teach responsibility .

[SamuraiScot]

. . . and an empty chair.

An evocation of Tiny Tim's sad household in A Christmas Carol, no doubt, in the vision of "Christmas Yet to Be."

Dude! Tiny Tim, get it? Skinny little kid of pure heart.

Not a gross, fat, angry, bragging, thieving, murderous, drug-addled monster.

[Dr. Thorne]

Maybe this black father should have spent a little more time being a real father. If so, his son might not a dead dope-smoking, thieving, violent, foul-mouthed thug criminal.

[Irenic]

Wasn’t the gentle giant being raised by his grandmother?

[Red Badger]

There’s an old saying:

Go hunting with your boy instead of hunting for your boy...................

[RightGeek]

He's sad because they had no blunts.

[MeshugeMikey]

I like that!!

none of these absent fathers ....really come anywhere near fulfilling their roles as Fathers.

[Mears]

A little football and an empty chair.

It’s enough to break your heart./s

.

[MeshugeMikey]

the choirboy couldnt make the rountrip

[HiTech RedNeck]

To read the story, you’d never think it was a case of absent parenting, though it does appear to cede that Michael went on a wild hair.

[MeshugeMikey]

who knew that Barack Obama...was visiting???

[HiTech RedNeck]

what happened to the lady who was “so religious she would only have gospel music in the house” — his mother?

Someone is telling a God sized lie here?

[MeshugeMikey]

probably very VERY Seldom...