Latest news with #DopeBlackDads
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
I sent one Whatsapp message of thanks to a group of Black dads and everything changed
Yahoo News – Insights speaks directly to the people with an inside track on the big issues. Here, Marvyn Harrison explains how a Whatsapp message started a movement for Black dads. Marvyn Harrison is the founder of Dope Black Dads and Dope Black Men. He is a regular contributor to Good Morning Britain, Steph's Packed Lunch, The Kick Off, and BBC 5Live. He has published two children's books with Pan Macmillan Kids, "I Love Me" and "The Best Me", and is soon to announce another book focused on helping men with personal transformation. On Father's Day 2018, I sent a message to a few friends, thanking them for being examples of fatherhood I could admire. At the time, it came from a place of unease. I wasn't sure if I was doing enough — for my children, for their mother, or for myself. I felt disconnected — present in action but not fully in energy. I remember that day clearly. I was exhausted when someone shared an image on Instagram: a father pushing his child on a swing. He looked tired too, but he was there — fully present. That image stayed with me. It captured something I couldn't yet name: the quiet persistence it takes to keep showing up with love, even when no one is watching. ADVERTISEMENT Advertisement I grew up in East London, Hackney, as one of four children raised by my Jamaican mother and grandmother. My father wasn't present. It was the women in my life who built my foundations: shaping my values, showing me how to move through the world, and instilling care — especially for those pushed to the margins. So that day, when I messaged a few close friends to say, 'Thank you for being visions of fathers I can follow,' it wasn't just appreciation — it was reaching out. "Dads get overlooked — and Black dads rarely get credit,' wrote one friend. The response was immediate: messages of gratitude, honesty, vulnerability. It became clear that this wasn't just my experience. There was a hunger among Black fathers for a space to be seen, heard, and understood — without judgment. ADVERTISEMENT Advertisement A WhatsApp group wasn't enough. Within months, I went to a studio, gathered a few friends, and recorded our first conversation. That's how Dope Black Dads began. I worked as an advertising strategist at a major agency until 2020, and I loved solving problems. But I made a career shift to find more joy and freedom — freedom to interpret data through my lens as a working-class, Black father from London. We launched in October 2018, during Black History Month. Today, over 60 contributors from around the world join in — from co-parenting and blended families to race, sex, and identity. What started as a WhatsApp group of 23 Black fathers in London has grown into a global digital community of 40,000 men discussing Black fatherhood. (Image supplied) The First Time I Saw Myself on Stage The first stage production I ever saw that made me think about Fatherhood was Barbershop Chronicles. Watching Black men of all ages simply being themselves — playful, vulnerable, angry, joyful — was transformative. It was more than entertainment; it was a mirror. That experience affirmed what we were creating through Dope Black Dads: a space where Black men could be fully themselves without apology. Where honesty was valued over perfection, not just through one-dimensional narratives. ADVERTISEMENT Advertisement When I heard about the Black girl who was strip-searched in school, it brought me to reflective silence. Moments of pride — like seeing Lewis Hamilton acknowledge his mother's maiden name — remind me why it's so necessary to hold space, speak up, and stay present. The community changed me. It also sparked something wider: the birth of Dope Black Mums, Dope Black Women, Dope Black Men, and Dope Black Queers — each creating spaces on their own for connection, growth, and support. We started talking about therapy, money, intimacy, mental health — topics that would've been taboo among men just a decade ago. This work also forced us to confront what we'd absorbed about identity: ideas about manhood, success, and emotion. We had to unlearn the myth that strength meant silence, or that value came from financial stability alone. Therapy became necessary, not optional. We started showing up differently, for each other and ourselves. If someone was stuck — in a job, relationship, or emotionally — we sat with him. Fatherhood and the Future Raising my son, now nine, and my daughter, seven, I want them to know they don't have to choose between strength and softness. They can be both. Marvyn Harrison says he and his partner are building a home where care is the foundation, not the afterthought. (Image supplied) The release of Adolescence and the BBC documentary The Angry Black Man? reminded me why this work matters. The anger was never just about rage — it was about boys expected to be tough before they're ready. About being misunderstood, unseen. These projects made it impossible to ignore how often young male emotion is misread — especially when it's Black. ADVERTISEMENT Advertisement We can't wait for institutions to catch up. At 41, I'm raising children in a society that still struggles to fully see us. I feel both the weight and the gift of this work. My partner and I are building a home where care is the foundation, not the afterthought. Where being strong doesn't mean being silent. What started as a WhatsApp group of 23 Black fathers in London has grown into a global digital community of 40,000 men discussing Black fatherhood. It started with a message of gratitude. It became a movement. And it's still growing — because we refuse to leave each other behind. *As told to Rabina Khan
The Guardian
01-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
British men urged to join ‘Dad strike' calling for more paternity leave
British fathers are being urged to join the world's first 'Dad strike' to protest about the UK's statutory paternity leave, which campaigners say is the least generous in Europe. Fathers are planning to protest with their babies outside the Department for Business and Trade in London on 11 June in an effort to force the government to improve leave for dads and non-birthing partners. The strike, organised by campaign group the Dad Shift, is being hailed as a 'revolutionary' moment in the UK's gender equality movement, with organisers arguing that women will continue to face maternity discrimination if low take-up of paternity and parental leave continues. Ministers were accused of 'betraying' new fathers this week after it emerged that a promised 'day one' right to paternity leave would not include the right to statutory pay under Labour's flagship employment rights bill. George Gabriel, from the Dad Shift, said low paternity leave pay meant many fathers could not afford to take any time off after the birth of their children. Research by the group shows that the average British father spends 43% fewer waking hours with their child in the first year of life – 1,403 hours compared with 3,293 for the average mother. 'The UK's rubbish paternity leave system means from the day our kids arrive most fathers are forced to make an impossible choice – between going out to work and provide for our families, and providing them with the one thing that matters most, our presence,' said Gabriel. Eligible UK fathers and non-birthing parents currently get two weeks on less than half the minimum wage, with self-employed co-parents not qualifying for state support. Eligible mothers on maternity leave receive 90% of their average weekly earnings for the first six weeks, then £187.18 for 33 weeks. Society and companies were far ahead of the government, said Gabriel. According to new polling by Whitestone for the Dad Shift, most children under 11 are picked up from school or nursery every day by their mothers, even though 86% of respondents agree 'it's better when both parents have opportunities to be equally active caregivers'. Companies are increasingly offering partners better parental leave, with the BBC offering 52 weeks on a pay structure, while Aviva's co-parents get 52 weeks with the first 26 weeks at full pay, according to a Paternity League Table released this week by the childcare provider Koru Kids. Barclays, HSBC, KPMG, and BDO LLP offer only two weeks on full pay. Marvyn Harrison, a self-employed father of two and a founder of the podcast Dope Black Dads, said the strike would play a key role in showing fathers who wanted to spend more time with their kids that they were not on their own. 'The most important thing we have to do is awaken men to the problem,' he said. 'Fighting for paternity leave and paternity pay is a [way] for us to start to interrupt how we over commit in the workplace and don't commit enough in our families.' UK paternity leave, at £187.18 a week, is the least-generous statutory offer in Europe, with the UK ranked 40th out of 43 countries in the OECD. It accounts for 1.9% of all government spending on parental leave, with the rest spent on maternity leave. According to the Fatherhood Institute, which is campaigning for six weeks' well-paid leave in the baby's first year, this leaves an average-earning, full-time working father more than £1,000 worse off. Take-up is also low compared with other countries. For every 100 babies born, only 31.6 men receive statutory paternity pay, compared with an average of 57 men in the 18 OECD with available data, according to evidence the group provided to the women and equalities select committee. Companies are being urged to give fathers the afternoon off work to strike, with the communications agency The Romans and On The Tools, a platform for plumbers, electricians and other trades, pledging their support. 'So many dads in our industry feel they're missing out on crucial time with their children,' said Lee Wilcox, the chief executive of On the Tools Pete Target, who works in local government, said he was going to strike because he remembered how he felt when, after two weeks with his newborn baby, he suddenly found himself thrust back into work. 'Being apart from my baby felt awful,' he said. 'I was busy bonding with him and it was a massive wrench.' He hopes the strike will start a dads' revolution, and force the government to listen. 'No more gritting teeth and just kind of pushing through,' he said. 'It's time to be more open about the struggles dads face and to show up and say, 'This is what we need. We have needs too'.'
