When American Doyin Richards posted a photo of him carrying his baby while brushing another daughter’s hair on Twitter, he did not expect it to go viral. At that time, he was taking the month of October off from his corporate job to bond with his 3-month old daughter.
That particular morning, he took the selfie to prove to his wife that he could manage preparing the eldest daughter, 2, for school while cradling his baby. The couple had a good laugh, but many didn’t find it funny. A lot of uncharitable souls on the Internet gave hateful and racist comments, branding him a ‘deadbeat’ who probably sells drugs.
- “He probably rented those kids. They don’t even look like him.”
- “I would bet anything that you’re a deadbeat.”
- “OK buddy, cute picture. Now why don’t you hand the children back to their mom so you can go back to selling drugs or your bootleg rap CDs?”
- “So do you do this for all of your illegitimate kids?”
The 39 years old father was shocked with the racist and mean comments, stereotyping African American fathers as financially irresponsible or a street thug, attacking him for not marrying out of his race. He also didn’t realize that being a stay-at-home father would receive such stigma.
Through his blog Daddy Doin’ Work, which chronicles his adventures as first-time father raising his daughters, Richards hoped that “people will view a man’s love for fatherhood for what it is instead of thinking there’s something ‘fishy’ going on.”
"Until we can get to the point where men and women can complete the same parenting tasks and the reactions are the same, we will have problems. If you want to create a statue for me for taking care of my daughters, create one for the moms who are doing the same damn thing every day for their kids without receiving a 'Thank you' or an 'Ooooh' or 'Ahhhh.' These behaviors should be expected of moms and dads. No exceptions."
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