What is Parenting?

Listen Siblings, I come in peace,

“Powerful people never educate powerless people in what they need that they can use to take the power away from powerful people; it’s too much to expect. If I was in power, I would not educate people in how to take my powers away.” — Dr. John Henrik Clarke

Dr. John Henrik Clarke is right and wrong.  Powerful Occidentals and Occidentalist are not wont to educate the Powerless; but Originals and Originalists don’t mind: We are the teachers of the World.  Nevertheless, his words are poignant related to “Parenting” and African people.  No matter what you think, our people need you to teach what “Good Parenting” is.  In a few minutes you’ll learn how.  Write the ABS to help build African Blood Siblings Community Centers, places of learning and African liberties.  Subscribe, share, love.

What is Parenting?
By Onitaset Kumat

Picture a woman pushing an empty stroller with a toddler-aged boy walking beside. The mother asks, “Do you want to ride in the stroller? If so I can get you ice cream and we’ll move quicker.” The son negatively responds and the mother obliges. Did you begin to picture the woman as white-skinned? You are correct. But do you know why? Because you think that is European-styled “parenting.”

It is. But whether it is good or bad parenting is a debate all its own. That is, if you do not understand what parenting is. We like to think that the example of a child dictating to an adult is bad parenting. But do you understand what parenting is and how it can be good or bad? We have swaths of young people whose entire introduction to African culture is through the lens and voice of European people: the classic example of which is Hip Hop. We have a plethora of teens whose example of the high-life comes from the immoral and unchaste local legends. We have classrooms replete with young scholars who couldn’t even read a television guide or fathom making their own half-and-half. We have far too many broken households with absentee Fathers and stand off-ish Mothers. It remains to be seen whether we understand good parenting when our communities are as desolate and dishonorable as they are.

We have discussed this subject quite closely before. In “What is a Sibling. Shouldn’t ‘Brother’ and ‘Sister’ have a meaning?” we articulated the meaning of Siblings, learning that normally we don’t use the word “Siblings” correctly. A Sibling is like the forest which protects all acorns, an adult which socializes all “nephews” and “nieces.” In “How you can save the African Family,” socialization from Uncles and Aunts are explained. Socialization is the deliberate development of a person to benefit self and society. Our people today lack socialization. Parenting is another deficiency altogether. Without understanding parenting, we injure our race by raising men and women who lack that right-minded purpose that good parenting instills.

So, what is parenting? As crazy as it sounds, perhaps the mass media can help us. We can watch hundreds of episodes of 227, The Cosby Show, The Parkers, The Jeffersons, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Meet the Browns, Are We There Yet?, Good Times, One on One, Reed Between the Lines and other Black television shows. But will we find parenting, or better said, “Good parenting?” No. This “no” is perhaps the most fiendish truth related to the state of Black entertainment. Even commendable examples of African families, as per “The Cosby Show,” don’t show “good parenting.” Sure, what’s seen is the disciplining of children and support for their pursuits in integrating into European society, but if this is parenting, it’s not “good parenting.”

So school and entertainment are out of the question for where we will learn of “Good Parenting.” This Newsletter can point you the right way. But what about your Community? You can read this article, share this article, and those you read it to and share it with can read and share the article, but will it reach your whole Community? More, will your reading be able to put into practice the truth of “Good Parenting?” Is it alright for your Community to be without an African Blood Siblings Community Center, let alone a Community Center? Is it alright to live in dishonorable conditions due to inaction? Is it?

Good Parenting does more than ensure that a child is properly socialized to benefit self and society. Good Parenting does more than provide for a young person to grow into a respectable Elder of her Community rather than a statistic contributing to our shorter averaged lifespans. Good parenting does more than produce scholars in their respectful fields whom take the fruits of their labour back to the schools, parks, and industries of their local communities. Good parenting does more than what we usually perceive as good parenting.

With an African Blood Siblings Community Center we can finally understand how to behave with children and gratefully allow for others to teach our children. We’ll understand parenting and thus create for our people a wonderful life replete with worthwhile adults and that graceful human bond we all seek. No longer will we debate spanking, yelling, time-out or reasoning.

For Good Parenting does one thing which for some reason few of us understand today, but all of us understood yesterday. Good Parenting knows when not to hit a child, how to review a young person’s suitors, and where to support an adult’s residency. In the understanding of Good Parenting we understand where we daily err and how to properly think  and behave when being observed by or interacting with our younger generations; we understand to control ourselves to be rightly emulated and foster in our youth a sense of value which they need to take seriously. Good Parenting is very simply this: Good Parenting is the deliberate development of a Good Parent.