00:03:41.480I would say that I generally say I'm a typical American.
00:03:46.120I was working a regular IT job but kind of got involved in the culture war.
00:03:52.840Just watching you guys, watching other podcasts and just learning.
00:03:56.520And there became a moment where I felt like my voice, someone who's actually saying things that I wanted to be heard, wasn't actually saying it.
00:04:06.920Especially after the death of George Floyd.
00:04:08.760The narrative went from this was an incident that is unfortunate and maybe we need to look at police reform to the narrative of Black men are constantly in fear, we're always in danger, and that racism is the number one issue affecting us.
00:04:24.680And I thought that narrative was insulting. I thought that narrative was incomplete and not true whatsoever.
00:04:34.280The number one issue facing Black Americans is family. We have a dysfunctional family issue as far as separation goes.
00:04:42.600And I wanted the opportunity to talk about it and write about it, but write about it in a way that is of substance.
00:04:50.040You know, there are people who I generally agree with, maybe even conservatives who talk about family values and the importance of fathers and men, but I always felt like it was incomplete.
00:04:59.960They said it like it was something that people are just supposed to know, rather than explaining so people fully understand the ramifications of not having both parents within the home.
00:05:10.040So, I wrote my book to actually tell my personal story, and also examine and analyze a whole bunch of different areas of what we would consider Black culture.
00:05:21.720But I'm very open about my childhood and how it affected me, and I think it sticks out for people who read it because most of the time people don't talk about this thing.
00:05:30.360They pretend that everything was fine. They pretend that everything was fine, you know, they made it through, I'm alive, and everything is fine after that.
00:05:37.520But I wanted to paint a realistic picture that my life was tumultuous because my father wasn't there.
00:05:47.100I remember a woman who came to my mother and said, you can stay with me and my trailer, I have one room.
00:05:55.400And so myself, my mom, and my sister stayed in one room for at least a month or so before my mom got back on her feet.
00:06:02.400But I remember bouncing in and out of hotels, you know, just to have some place to sleep, meanwhile going to school, and my mom's working.
00:06:11.360So, you know, having one income earner within the home can put you in that risk of going in and out of homelessness and fighting for survival.
00:06:22.200But I just couldn't stand the narrative of single parenthood as being this wonderful achievement.
00:06:29.940And no matter what you do, everything is fine, and we're incapable of saying that, hey, maybe this isn't the best idea for your children.
00:06:37.680And we've put so much on female empowerment that we ignore the kids.
00:06:41.600And one of the interesting things about your story as well is you became a dad at quite a young age yourself.
00:09:25.460Assured, being like a very sure of yourself.
00:09:30.440Protecting people, especially people you care about, people you love, protect your children.
00:09:35.980That's why I talk so much about the need to, you know, fight against mutilating children.
00:09:41.720Because our job as men is to stick up for our kids and not allow perverts to come in and tell you to, you know, chop up your kids because they feel off.
00:09:53.200You know, we need to protect our families.
00:09:55.220We need to protect our children and our society.
00:09:58.200But as far as being a man, I mean, those are just a few things that are highly important.
00:10:03.740And we were talking about single mothers.
00:10:06.400And as a teacher, I saw the effect that not having a father in the home had on young boys.
00:10:12.800Why is it, do you think, that we just keep perpetuating this myth?
00:10:20.440I mean, I think it's as simple as that.
00:10:23.100When you have one sex that is infallible, then, like, nothing ever changes.
00:10:29.100You can only have change when you can recognize mistakes.
00:10:32.640But if they don't make mistakes, we can't change.
00:10:34.760And everything that they do is perfect, so we can criticize it.
00:10:37.260You know what, it's weird because I agree with you that, yes, there is a taboo about making criticisms of female behavior.
00:10:43.940But I also think that single parenthood is quite often, as it was in your case, well, look, I don't know, maybe it wasn't, but quite often the fault of the man, actually.
00:10:52.920And it's the man that wasn't there and the man that, now, look, you might say the woman, you know, behaved in certain ways that made sure he wasn't there.
00:11:01.800Often it's just a man who can get away with having kids with multiple women.
00:11:05.220So is it really a case of it's like the women's fault that they're single mothers or is that, was it, maybe that's not even what you were saying.
00:11:12.720So that's actually a great point to bring up.
00:11:15.200And I'll use, I don't think I'm talking too much out of turn, but I'll use my mom as an example.
00:11:21.080Not too long ago, I asked my mom, did you ever want to get married?
00:11:25.220She said, no, I always wanted two kids.
00:11:27.300And so for me, that tells me that she wasn't marriage minded.
00:52:51.260And if I can get up one day and just sit down and write and express myself and put myself out there for criticism and be critical of the world around me and have some success because of it, like, why can't other people do it?
00:53:04.680But, you know, you have to become an example for your kids.
00:53:07.660If you sit back and you cower and you cry and complain and you do nothing about it, you're teaching that to your kids as well.
00:53:14.440So I tell my son to question everything, including me, and do something about it.
00:53:19.480If you don't like how something is, go and do something about it.
00:53:23.320But don't sit there and complain, right?
00:53:26.160And if I'm going to tell him that, I have to do it as well.
00:53:29.940It's interesting that you mentioned that because having my son had the exact same effect on me, like, right away because I went, okay, look, I oppose identity politics because I just think it's racist.
00:53:43.400And I've always done it and I've always said it and I've taken the risks and we've done the show together talking about it or whatever.
00:53:49.440But the moment he was born, I was like, wait, there are idiots out there who are going to judge him this pure thing that is just pure potentiality.
00:55:32.280But there is something wrong about wholly prejudging people based off of characteristics.
00:55:39.640And I think we've seen what happened in human history when we went down that path wholeheartedly.
00:55:43.900And also as well, the thing to bear in mind, Adam, is in a few years, this is not going to matter because we're all going to be transracial anyway.
00:55:49.680We're going to be able to identify as whatever we want.
00:57:18.480But I care that he's a good person and all these different things.
00:57:22.160You know, we were talking about Tennessee.
00:57:23.880One of my favorite things about living in Tennessee was that people just come up and talk to you.
00:57:29.600You know, and being from New Jersey, I'm not used to that.
00:57:31.860But I would be standing in line and some lady, she was an older white lady, she'd just come and talk to me and start telling me about her family.
00:57:41.380She just, she saw me as a person there and she was just communicating with me.
00:57:45.400And that's been my experience for a lot of different places that I've lived at.
00:57:48.960Obviously, I've had some racial incidences, but I could count them on one hand, thankfully.
00:57:57.120Maybe some people have a little bit more or maybe some people misinterpret things.
00:58:00.900But overall, Americans are generally good people who just want to go to work, take care of the kids and have enough economics to do some extra things.
00:58:10.500But this idea that, you know, we're these highly sinful people who are just waiting to do things and have these malevolent thoughts and, you know, I think that a lot of it is actually projection by the people who are delivering the message.
00:58:23.460And one thing that I want to touch on, which your son would be able to speak about, is the mixed race experience.
00:58:31.760Because if we start looking at everything through a racial lens, then we'll go, oh, this person is, you know, darker skinned African-American.
00:58:58.420So just explain to people who haven't heard of it what the one drop rule is, please, Adam.
00:59:02.080So the one drop rule is like, it's basically, I'm probably going to butcher it a little bit, but it's basically like if you have one drop of black blood, then you're black.
00:59:25.120And if someone meets my son, and he's pretty light skinned, but if they meet him and they find out that I'm black, then they would say, well, he's black.
00:59:33.400Or, you know, there's, you're a quarter black, you know, it's just like everything is about the one drop rule.
00:59:39.860And it's a, it's a weird dynamic to constantly see.
00:59:43.940And I almost feel like it, it, it erases people, like it erases people, people's individualism to kind of see things through the prism of how much blood do you have?
01:00:04.600Because if some groups are better than others, or some groups are worse than others, then naturally people will want to be in a particular group or will be forced to be in that group, as opposed to just going, I'm Daniel.
01:00:17.060You talk about, you know, people, the people, when we interviewed Bill Burr, when we went to America, this is the point that he made, which is like, he started playing all these black clubs.
01:00:25.980And initially, as a white guy who maybe hasn't been in that environment, you go, oh, these black people, blah, blah, blah.
01:00:31.260And then, once you're used to it, you start to see, oh, that's my, that guy, just like my friend Steve, who's an arsehole.
01:00:39.620And that's really the simple message is people are people.
01:00:42.660And, look, I think we've all really enjoyed this conversation.
01:00:46.260I think the conversation about family and parenting and masculinity and all of that is going to be a big part of not only the conversation going forward, I actually think it's a big part of the solution, too.
01:00:58.260I think if we can do what you're talking about, which is focus on encouraging people, not going back to the 1950s, but actually going forward.
01:01:07.560And going, what is the constructive view of the future?
01:01:10.780Well, it's got to be, you know, I, becoming a new parent has opened my eyes to how antenatal our society is.
01:01:36.080So, anyway, I just, I'm really glad we had this conversation.
01:01:39.040I think what you're talking about is going to be a big part of the way this issue gets talked about, but also a way that some of these things get resolved going forward.
01:01:47.040So, I really appreciate you coming on the show.
01:02:34.760Basically, I don't think people understand the safety aspect when it comes to having someone who is an adult, especially a male, brought into the home of a child that is not theirs.
01:02:45.560And, how much vulnerability that leaves, because predators look for vulnerabilities.
01:02:51.240And, men who are looking for children to, you know, basically prey off of, they're going to look for single mothers.
01:03:01.720And, I remember having this conversation on a podcast, and there were three guys there, and I was explaining how this would all work and how this is a major vulnerability.
01:03:10.000And, when I finished speaking, one of the guys said, you basically explained my childhood to a T.
01:03:15.140Everything that I explained as to what happens to these kids and how vulnerable they become, he basically went through.
01:03:23.340And, his story is the silent story that people don't feel comfortable talking about.
01:03:28.220So, for me, there's the childhood behavioral aspect, but safety, right?
01:03:36.120Children are safer with both of their natural parents within the home.
01:03:44.520But, I cannot deny the statistics that exist.
01:03:46.660It's not even close how much danger children are in when they're along with a parent who is not their biological parent, whether it be physical abuse or sexual abuse.