Strange Fruit #256: Toxic Black Fatherhood On TV

"Theo, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life!" It's the big laugh line from a famous scene in "The Cosby Show" pilot, delivered by the show's patriarch just after his teenage son makes a heartfelt plea for acceptance, even if he doesn't follow the life path his dad wants for him. For writer Kieran Scarlett, it's just another example of the worst kind of black TV dad: Rigid. Impatient. Always policing their sons' performance of masculinity. Kieran finds more recent examples in "Black-Ish," and recently wrote about the phenomenon for Rewire News, in a piece called ‘Black-ish,’ Cliff Huxtable, and Me: The Problem of TV’s Cruel-to-Be-Kind Black Father. Kieran joins us this week to talk about how pop culture portrayals affect -- and reflect -- real-world fatherhood. But it's not just dads who struggle (and sometimes fail) to get parenting right all the time, as illustrated by an Instagram post by Olivyah Bowens. The photo shows 23-year-old Olivyah with her 2-year-old daughter, who's having a meltdown. The caption begins, "No one teaches you how to love a child you didn't plan to have." The post clearly resonated with other parents; it quickly went viral and has over 14,000 likes. On today's show, we chat with Olivyah about being a young mom, and what caring for babies can teach us about how to be more grown up ourselves.