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FYS Joke Midterm (Nemo…
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Nemo
movie title screen stating "Finding My Dad" featuring young African American child.) Citation 1.
Why?
This stereotype stems from the times beginning with slavery in America, and continues on all the way into the era of racialized mass incarceration.
The absent father narrative helps to explain the performance in education, as well as incarceration and unemployment rates. (Citation 2)
This table represents the population of certain racial or ethnic groups in the entire United States population, in comparison to the population that are incarcerated within those groups.(Citation 3)
"Although family breakdown was not the immediate cause of the American prison boom, mass incarceration has had potentially profound effects on the family life of those caught in the web of the criminal justice system." (Western, Wildeman 2009) (Citation 5)
If the trends of racialized mass incarceration continue today, 1 in 3 African American men will spend time in prison during their lifetime.(Citation 7)
The war on drugs is another vital aspect of the racialized mass incarceration.
The "War on Drugs" started as a way to rid of the drug problem in the United States but statistics show that there is a significant difference in the number of white people using drugs compared to black people; as well as the rate of incarceration for the use of such drugs. (Citation 7)
Studies show that about 14 million white people use drugs, compared to the 2.6 million African Americans although the incarceration rates show that African Americans are put in prison for drug offenses at 10 times the rate. (Citation 7)
In the times of slavery, there was no such thing as a "standard" family dynamic. (Citation 4)
Fathers were known to live several miles away on a distant plantation and walk to see his family on semi-rare occasions. This was because of his obligation to provide labor for an owner took priority over his personal needs. (Citation 4)
It was common for slave owners to encourage marriage because the couple would increase their profits if they ever chose to sell. (Citation 4)
The threat of being split up and sold was a constant fear within families, and when this did happen children were often taken away from their parents, or vice versa. Either way this adds to the 'absent father' narrative. (Citation 4)
What?
This joke resembles a stereotype among the Black community. The stereotype of the absent father has been created through multiple scenarios, and is often found portrayed in jokes on Twitter and other forms of social media.
The impression society has on black men is also imposed on black fathers and when children of color act negatively, particularly boys, it is automatically assumed that there is an absent father. (Citation 2)
Positive depictions of black fatherhood are often ignored or dismissed as strange or abnormal. Even though according to research, black fathers actually do more “dad stuff” than fathers from other ethnic groups. Yet they still suffer from the stigma of the absent father stereotype. (Citation 2)
There is a large disproportionality among incarceration rates among young black and Latino fathers who are ending up in jail and prisons. (Citation 6)
This is evidence that there is an unrealistic stereotypical, or racial prejudice against people, in this case men, of color and their roles in the world. This is what leads to "absent dad" jokes, memes, comments, and plots.
Citations:
CITATION 1:Google Images. "Finding My Dad.
https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&id=6C7424C87ABA2E39DAABFE2F2AF4517AD92EEC68&thid=OIP.5p7b1vGyC9lN6-bCJeWU4AHaE1&mediaurl=https%3A%2F%2Fpics.onsizzle.com%2Fdiswep-pixar-finding-my-dad-thats-messed-up-%F0%9F%98%82-2951057.png&exph=326&expw=500&q=finding+my+dad+meme&selectedindex=0&ajaxhist=0&vt=0&eim=1,2,6
CITATION 2: Harrison, Louis, and Anthony L. Brown. “Will the Real Black Dad Please Show Up?” UT News, August 24, 2018.
https://news.utexas.edu/2017/06/19/will-the-real-black-dad-please-show-up/
.
CITATION 3: Bobo, Lawrence D., and Victor Thompson. "Racialized mass incarceration: Poverty, prejudice, and punishment." Doing race 21 (2010): 322-355.
CITATION 4: "How Slavery Affected African American Families, Freedom's Story, Teacherserve, National Humanities Center". 2019. Nationalhumanitiescenter.Org.
http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/freedom/1609-1865/essays/aafamilies.htm
.
CITATION 5: Western, Bruce, and Christopher Wildeman. “The Black Family and Mass Incarceration.” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 621, no. 1 (January 2009): 221–42.
CITATION 6: Nurse, Anne. Fatherhood arrested: Parenting from within the juvenile justice system. Vanderbilt University Press, 2002.
CITATION 7: Tucker, Ronnie B. "The color of mass incarceration." ethn stud rev 37, no. 1 (2017): 135-149.
Background Knowledge:
Who?: This joke, given the delivery and the style of joke that it is most likely originated from a younger generation person, and rose to fame in the world of social media. This is extremely common in the world of memes.
When?: Dad jokes have been "around" for years, and this meme can probably be sourced to approximately the 2010's era.
Frame of Reference: To understand this meme, you would have to understand the common stereotype of African American absent fathers, mainly due to mass incarceration, among other things.