Barrington Salmon is an award-winning freelance journalist enjoying his 40th year as a paid professional writer. In that time, he has written more than 15,000 stories, media releases, speeches, and other written material in publications all over the United States and other parts of the world. Journalism is, and will always be, his first love. Dubbed the ‘Liberation Journalist’ by friend and filmmaker Catherine Murphy, Barrington has focused in the last several years on social justice, civil and human rights, politics, and other topics that are pertinent to African Americans and Africans in the Diaspora.
Most of his stories are hard news, but he has also written investigative pieces, columns, features, profiles, op-eds, press releases, editorials, public service announcements. He has also ghostwritten articles and edited one books and co-wrote the other.
Barrington has served as a staff writer/senior staff writer/columnist/op-ed writer with The Florida Phoenix; The Final Call; Sputnik News; the National Newspaper Publishers’ Association/Black Press USA ; Trice Edney Newswire; USA Today; Voice of America; the Washington Times; Tallahassee Democrat; Virgin Islands Daily News; and Tallahassee Magazine.
Barrington also spent more than two decades plying his craft as a public relations specialist and speechwriter for Mayor Marion S. Barry, Jr; for two superintendents at District of Columbia Public Schools; DC Water and Sewer Authority; the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission; Greater Washington Urban League; and the Thurgood Marshall Center.
Born in London, England to Jamaican parents, Barrington spent his formative years in London and Kingston, Jamaica. He has visited lived, studied, and worked in countries including Ghana, Ethiopia, Sudan, China, India, Italy, Israel, South Korea, the US Virgin Islands, Nepal, Thailand, Hong Kong, St. Lucia, Greece, Zanzibar, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Puerto Rico.
He lives in the Washington metropolitan area where he’s working on his book chronicling his four-decade writing journey, titled, “Ah Whol’ Heap Ah BS.”
In 2024, the wage gap between men and women — including in FL — is stagnant or widening
There is a universe of solutions available if politicians, powerbrokers, policymakers, the corporate elite, women and the public seek fundamental and far-reaching change
March 22, 2024
In 2024, most American women go to work, put in their hours, deal with a bunch of sexist crap and on payday receive a considerably lighter paycheck than men who perform the same tasks.
Why? Because of centuries-old wage and salary disparities that have dogged women for generations.
Currently, this wage gap is wide and getting wider.
Sadly, the gap hasn’t closed in any significant fashion for the past 30 years and an assortment of reports and studies show that at the current rate, women will not reach pay equity with white men until 2038, 2144 or 2153, depending on the U.S. state.
For every dollar that white, non-Hispanic men make, women working full time earn between 82 to 84 cents. Yet this data point is more complex because in 2022, Black women earn 67 cents for every dollar earned by white men but the wage gap widens to 65 cents on the dollar for Black women who hold doctorate degrees compared to white men with the same education.
According to analysis from the National Women’s Law Center, this gap translates to a loss of $53,334 a year, and more than $2.1 million over the course of an African-American woman’s 40-year career.
More generally, over their work lives, Black women without doctorates stand to lose between $800,000 and $1 million because of these gender disparities. July 27 is Black Women’s Equal Pay Day — marking how far into any given year Black women must work to be paid what white, non-Hispanic men were paid last year alone. The wage gap costs Black women $1,891 per month, $22,692 per year, and $907,680 over a 40-year career.
The disparities in wages and salaries are at a whole other level for Black women.
Larger numbers of Black women are earning more doctoral degrees than ever before, as illustrated by the 30% increase in the number of Black women doctoral recipients in 2019 versus 2010, according to the National Science Foundation.
But that has also come at a cost.
The National Women’s Law Center said while more Black women getting higher degrees is positive, there may also be a financial setback for African American women receiving higher degrees because they are also burdened with outsized student loans since they’re in school longer.
Meanwhile, Latinas working full-time were paid approximately 57 cents for every dollar earned by white, non-Hispanic men and when part-time workers are included in the comparison, Latinas only made 52 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men in 2022.
In the Free State of Florida, women don’t fare much better.
Florida ranks in the bottom third as it relates to the gender wage gap. A 2022 Employment and Earning index from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), Florida earned a D+ and ranked 44th on women’s labor force participation rate. With regards to reproductive rights, IWPR’s 2022 Reproductive Rights Index ranked Florida 22nd in the nation and gave the Sunshine State a C+ grade due to its many restrictions on abortion access and other reproductive rights implemented by Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republican legislative majority.
IWPR officials said in its 2021 IWPR Employment and Earnings Index, which measures the economic standing of women across all 50 states, Florida could better deliver for women — and for all residents of the state — by expanding access to abortion and other reproductive healthcare.
Meanwhile, the COVID-19 global pandemic also had a deleterious effort on women’s fortunes.
In a 2023 commentary from Fortune.com, Katica Roy, the CEO of Pipeline, wrote that “we often forget to mention how the pandemic has obliterated decades of progress toward gender equity, thus draining $3.1 trillion from our economy …
“Women’s labor force participation dropped to 57.8% in November, and there are still 1.8 million women missing from the labor force since the start of the pandemic …the gender pay gap widened on average by five cents due to the pandemic, Roy wrote.
And “prior to the pandemic, gender pay equity represented a $512 billion opportunity for the U.S. economy. At the time, closing the gender pay equity gap would have lifted 50% more working women out of poverty, which would have been a boon for the 70% of the U.S. economy derived from consumer spending and the taxpayers who foot the bill for social welfare recipients.”
The cost to women and their families is considerable. One 2022 study found that Florida’s wage gap costs women nearly $17 billion a year. Another pinned the wage gap loss for women across the United States at more than $500 billion a year.
Anyone with half a brain would recognize that America benefits in countless ways if social, economic, gender and racial barriers against women, African Americans and members of marginalized communities are pulled down and allowed to blow away in the wind. But mainstream America has opted to ignore and not seriously consider, look at or attempt to irreversibly remove these thorny and seemingly intractable problems.
As we celebrate Women’s History Month and the 2024 edition of Equal Pay Day, it feels a lot like Groundhog Day with politicians, corporate honchos and others with the power to balance the scales offering platitudes and banalities instead of correcting an egregious wrong.
But there is a universe of solutions available if politicians, powerbrokers, policymakers, the corporate elite, women and the public really seek fundamental and far-reaching change.
These include: women asking for higher staring salaries and negotiating when offered a job; bumping up the minimum wage to lift up those women bunched in the lowest paying jobs; introducing or strengthening salary transparency laws; and having pay equity audits.
In the fall of 2023, for example, the Miami Herald reported that “Florida International University has been accused of gender pay discrimination against 163 women. While the Miami-based public university said it disagreed with the findings, it will pay $575,000 in back pay and interest to settle the allegation. That works out to $3,527.61 for each woman that the U.S. Department of Labor said was shorted on pay.”
Other solutions include creating ways for women to move up into leadership and senior positions in companies and organizations; providing high-quality, affordable and accessible childcare; improving gender, racial, and ethnic equity by elevating women and women of color in leadership positions; promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and prioritizing accessibility in hiring across federal and corporate workforces.
Lastly, businesses must support paid and broaden family and medical leave, paid sick leave, workplace flexibility, overtime protections, and predictable scheduling and expand women’s access to capital by multiplying resources and support for women entrepreneurs.
In the name of fairness, Americans should toss away the type of widespread reductive reasoning that each of us is competing for a shrinking piece of the proverbial pie. Achieving pay equity is not some type of hollow, irrational zero-sum game where whatever gains women earn means less for men.
At the end of the day, when women – half of America’s population – thrive, families blossom, economies prosper and communities across the nation thrive as well.
Source: This article was first published by Home • Florida Phoenix
Democrat’s political momentum threatens to overwhelm DeSantis, GOP by Barrington Salmon (
A maxim attributed to the Roman philosopher Seneca says luck happens when preparation meets opportunity.
This adage fits Democrats’ rising fortunes perfectly. After an agonizing period of fretfulness and deep depression, Dems find themselves in a place few could have imagined six months ago.
Until three weeks ago, Americans faced the grim prospect of two old white men — each bringing traits voters didn’t want or desire — locked in a bitter contest to decide who would lead the country. Poll after poll illustrated the depth of public unease about President Joe Biden, 81, going up against former President Donald Trump, 78.
Then something unexpected happened: Biden, bowing to concentrated pressure from Democratic leadership, rank-and-file politicians, and big-money donors, abandoned his chase for a second term. He promptly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, triggering the reawakening of the Democratic Party.
Over a whirlwind three weeks, the party has experienced a metamorphosis and has, for the first time in a long time, grabbed a firm hold of its destiny.
Harris sits atop the ticket. She and running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz — an unflappable former football coach, teacher, and ex-military man — are riding an enormous wave of popularity. Finally, the race has blossomed into a real competition.
Alarmed by Harris’ and Walz’s momentum and by their surge in the polls, Trump has tried and failed to blunt the campaign’s domination of the news cycle.
For someone like Trump, with his strange obsession with crowd sizes, the numbers that Harris and Walz are clocking are giving him serious heartburn.
Outpouring of support
The numbers are staggering: The Harris campaign took in more than $200 million in small-money donations during her first week as a presidential candidate; 66% are first-time donors; more than 200,000 volunteers signed up to help the Harris campaign with canvassing, answering telephones, and getting out the work.
Together, the pair raised more than $310 million in July.
Harris, and then Walz, have thrilled and invigorated the Democratic grassroots. African American women have led the way. Shortly after Harris’ entry into the presidential sweepstakes, ‘Win with Black Women,’ founded by Jotaka Eaddy, had 44,000 Black women and 50,000 more allies viewing a Zoom call. They raised more than $1.5 million in three hours. The Collective PAC’s 44,000 participants raised $1.3 million. “White Women: Answer the Call,” organized by Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, brought together nearly 200,000 women who raised $11 million.
‘Win with Black Men,’ led by attorney and commentator Bakari Sellers and journalist Roland Martin, with 53,000 contributors, generated more than $1.5 million, while 150,000 ‘White Dudes for Harris’ pulled together $4 million.
Meanwhile, the Human Rights Campaign’s 1,100 virtual attendees raised more than $300,000 and enlisted more than 1,500 volunteers to support Harris’ presidential campaign with the organization’s “Out for Kamala Harris” virtual event.
As Harris and Walz barnstorm across swing states, they’ve drawn enthusiastic and diverse crowds of 10,000 in Atlanta; 14,000 in Philadelphia; 15,000 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where a line of thousands stretched more than half a mile; more than 15,000 rapturous supporters in an airplane hangar in Michigan; and 15,000 at an event in Glendale, Arizona.
‘Freedom, compassion’
There are 80+ days left before the election. A lot can happen between now and then, but Harris and Walz have captured the imagination of a wary, weary, beaten-down electorate. Most Americans support their progressive agenda, including reproductive rights; paid family leave; workers’ rights; a childcare tax credit; “freedom, compassion, and rule of law.”
Not long ago, Republicans seemed on top of the world, crowing about the ease with which they would sweep Democrats in November. Some Trump advisers and others predicted a landslide. That may turn out to have been a pipedream.
It’s hard to understand how Republicans, in their wisdom, never planned for contingencies should Biden opt out from a second term. Life is nothing if not interesting and, when you least expect it, it will upend your carefully ordered world with a wicked curveball or two.
Republicans were caught with their pants down, and when Biden promptly endorsed Harris, Democrats looked past their myriad differences and quickly coalesced around her.
It didn’t take long for Florida’s “fearless leader” to jump into the fray.
Gov. Ron DeSantis said on Twitter/X that “Harris was complicit in a massive coverup to hide and deny the fact that Joe Biden was not capable of discharging the duties of the office.” He described Harris as “the border czar during the worst border crisis in American history.”
And in a stunning example of irony, DeSantis characterized Democrats as “just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.”
Perhaps DeSantis has been too busy with the weighty affairs of state to notice that Republicans are the ones who’re in full panic mode.
The old man in the race
Trump’s team structured their campaign around Biden; with Biden out, Trump, now the old man in the race, is rattled and off-balance, left to spew tired tropes questioning Harris’ race, gender, and ethnicity. Trump claims Harris is pretending to be Black, mispronounces her name, and tries to bait her, but both she and her running mate have ignored him and his sidekick J.D. Vance while defining who they are to the American electorate.
DeSantis and Trump are avatars of a racist, sexist, xenophobic political party that reflects a dystopian worldview, attempting to weaponize people’s deep fear and uncertainty about their daily lives, the present, and their futures.
The governor and what remains of the party have tried to tap into that fear to deepen ruptures along racial, class, and political lines. In Florida, DeSantis has worked tirelessly to demonize and endanger young people, the LGBTQ community, and trans children. He has banned abortion access, loosened gun laws, denied needy children food and protection, and packed the state Supreme Court with right wing extremists to do his bidding.
DeSantis’ run for the presidency, while attempting to satisfy his personal ambition, was also an effort to inject the entire country with his toxic brew of racial resentment, anger, and fury at the prospect of becoming a minority in the country they doggedly deem their own.
No one expected this spontaneous and unrehearsed explosion of support for the Harris-Walz ticket. Republicans — Trump in particular — are realizing this juggernaut is threatening to crush them.
Joyful alternative
Americans are tired of feeling exhausted, as evidenced by vast crowds eagerly embracing the Harris and Walz message, the music and dancing. Harris and Walz are the buoyant, joyful alternative, putting lie to Trump’s assertion that America “is a very, very sick country … it’s gonna get worse, it’s gonna get worse …”
The Harris-Waltz campaign has motivated a populace that had nowhere else to go. It is not lost on political pundits that Walz, a 60-year-old white man who hunts, fishes, and is unapologetic about his masculinity, is bringing white people, and white men in particular, into the Democratic tent.
And Millennials; Gen X’ers; disaffected traditional Republicans; the apathetic; and middle-of-the-road voters are responding to the possibilities the campaign offers. There is a growing belief that Harris and Walz are building a new “pro-democracy” movement that could expand the electorate and broaden the electoral map in ways that will make it easier for the campaign to reach 270 electoral votes.
If Harris and Walz win, America will have escaped the immediate danger of a second Donald presidency, but neither Trump, Christian nationalists, white evangelicals and his MAGA supporters are going away. So, we’d better buckle up because it’s gonna be a loooong ride.
Source: This article was first published by Home • Florida Phoenix
Lessons My Father Taught Me By Barrington M. Salmon Trice Edney Newswire
Although many fathers grouse about the short shrift they usually get on Father’s Day, the importance of fathers in shaping the lives of their children and grandchildren cannot be understated or ignored. With the day – July 13 – sent aside to honor fathers fast approaching, we asked some men to reflect on the most important lesson they learned from a father, father figure, mentor, teacher or other male. Here are their stories.
Dr. Dana Dennard, 66, university professor, psychologist, social justice activist, co-owner of Nefeteri’s Restaurant in Tallahassee, FL. “That’s an interesting question because my father was absent and the most important thing I learned from that was to be present and be a father. I was raised with my grandparents. My grandfather was a model for me. The main lesson I learned was to be committed and handle it.” Dennard, who grew up in St. Petersburg, Florida during the Jim Crow era, said Papa Joe wasn’t his biological grandfather. “He married my grandmother and raised her seven children,” Dennard recalled. “He was the male figure in my life and continues to be the model. He was very soft-spoken, tinkered with things. He was a marksman in the military and took me out at age 8 to shoot a gun. He never laid a hand on any of us but I never wanted to disappoint him.” “He was the Papa Joe in our neighborhood. All the other children would come. I have visions of little girls plaiting his hair. He’d just sit there smoking a pipe and letting them do what they wanted. I grew up in St. Pete back in the day when it was separate and unequal. He was a very quiet and supportive kind of guy who would walk around with a gun in his pocket. He had a .38 special. He laid it on the table but we never touched it. He would go around and handle business.” Dennard, who’s been married for more than 30 years to Dr. Sharon Dennard and is the father of three grown children, said Sgt. Joe Johnson’s impact has lasted his whole life and he recently wrote a dedication to his grandfather in a book he recently wrote. “My mom had me in college and I didn’t move out of my grandparent’s house until I was eight,” he said. “The first Christmas without them tore me up. Sgt. Joe Johnson was the entire man. I never saw a flaw in my entire life – that’s who I came from.”
Nigel Thompson, 46, film director, visual and graphic artist, Trinidad and Tobago. “I would say that the lessons I learned didn’t happen at one time,” said Thompson, a noted cinematographer who is in demand around the world. “I had him for 10 short years. He was the calmest person I’ve ever met in my entire life. Mom would shout and carry on and he’d be perfectly calm. He was the one who got me into the arts when I was a child.” Thompson said his father, John Thompson, was a police officer and in his off time, he’d read poetry and was part of a theatre group. “He was grooming me for a life in the arts and he didn’t even know it,” he said. “He taught me patience and how to solve things. I am that way, particularly with work. The main question I have is ‘how can I fix it.?” Thompson said his father’s death when he was 13, threw him into a tailspin but forced him to grow up quickly. “When he died, as often happens, you’re not sure what to do or what to think,” Thompson said softly. “For a year after he died, I was in a haze. Mother forced me into doing adult things such as ironing my clothes to go to school and ironing my siblings’ clothes too. I was responsible for everything after that. I had to get up at three in the morning to arrange transportation to school, take care of my siblings. I didn’t think about how tough it was. I really didn’t realize it until I was in my 20s. I was like holy shit!” “I was thrown into the position of being responsible for everyone under me and to tell the truth, I handled it pretty well. I saw my mother get up and get things done and my father used to get up and get it done as well.” Thompson is the creator of Artist Nation, a web series based on how art and artistry in its many forms, help people to change their lives. He said he’s been a creative since he was 14 and initially did graphic work for clients. “I had already started working in TV. Started with me getting a couple of shooting jobs. Was a learn as you go. Had no clue, started asking questions, asking ppl,” he said with a chuckle. “Artist Nation is how we grew up as a haven of art and knowledge. The high point was what was happening everywhere in the ‘70s, early ‘80s. What was happening with Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X was happening everywhere. We witnessed an explosion of knowledge and the growth of ideas.” “I see art in everything. Artist Nation’s mission itself is to get into people’s heads. How society is, isn’t what I like. I believe that the only thing that can fix a lot of problems and issues on this planet revolves around the arts. I want the younger generation to sit and look at why and how others do this to change lives.” Willie Hines, 58, sector head for Amphibious Integration in the Amphibious Warfare Branch, for the Chief of Naval Operations, engineer, educator and Prince George’s County, Maryland resident. “The other day, I cried from Benning Road to Eastern Market thinking about my father,” said Hines. “It’s because Father’s Day is coming.” Hines said he grew up in rural southern Louisiana in a town which had 8,000 people. He grew up in a shotgun house that had no running water or indoor plumbing. “We didn’t have running water until I was 10 years old. It was definitely a motivator for me.” Hines said. “The first important lesson happened when I was eight years old. I went with my father to the store. My father was 37 but he addressed a 26-year-old white boy in the store as sir and the white boy called my father by his first name. That took me immediately to a dark place.” Hines said the young man tried to engage him in conversation and reached out to shake his hand but he refused to respond or reciprocate. “When we left, my father was angry. When we pulled off, he said ‘I say yes sir so that your ass can eat, so that your brothers and sisters can eat and so your mother can eat,” he said. “He was upset with me but when we got home, he explained to me what it was like for him living in southern LA, overcoming challenges, fighting with white boys, being let go from jobs. He told me he wasn’t less than a man.” “He said he hoped I would understand. I took away from him what my journey would be like as a Black man, a father, someone’s husband and that I would have dignity in whatever I did. Another lesson learned over the entirety of his namesake’s life was his work ethic. And it’s clear that he’s not made of the stock his father was, Hines said. Hines said he remembers his father coming home from one job for 15 mins, eating then laying on the floor before going off to another job. “Man, he had so many jobs,” he said. “He worked at Empire and would go for a week at a time in Plaquemine. He caught fish and cleaned fish and fileted them. He was a gas station attendant. Worked for city government in the Water and Gas department and worked for Dow Chemical as contractor supporter. I remember I went to work with him when I was 15 to make some money and I fell out in that hot sun. We were out in the sun shoveling shit. I fell the hell out in that sun, he put me in the shade and went back and continued working.” “His side hustle was stripping and waxing floors. He showed me how to do it even now I can still do it. That was his work ethic. He was a hustler, man. He never spent one day in jail his whole life and told people that all the time. You have to remember that in the times he grew up, they were arresting Black people for vagrancy and a bunch of other things.” Hines said his late father only had a 5th-grade education but raised four boys in a tough, arbitrary world rife with racism, white privilege and entitlement. Among the many lessons his father taught him include how to embrace responsibility, taking care of his family despite the cost and developing commonsense and the importance of getting a proper, quality education. “I grew up most of my life hating white people but he taught me to be like water, to become fluid and taking the shape of whatever space/form that you’re put it in,” Hines said. “When you’re young you don’t know what’s on the other side of the mountain. The things my father taught me resonate with me because he wasn’t a talker. I’m glad I had the chance to talk to dad, share, and thank him for the things he did and taught me.” Warren Shadd, CEO of Shadd Pianos & Keyboard, USA, the first African-American piano manufacturer in the world, musician, child prodigy, resident of Maryland. “Man, there are just so many lessons, it may take a minute or two,” Warren Shadd told a Trice Edney Newswire reporter. My father, James M. Shadd used to always tell me, “while you’re out here bullshitting, certain little boys are studying day and night to be your boss. He was such an aggressive businessman.” The elder Shadd was the exclusive piano tuner to the historic Howard Theater – the first African American allowed to join the union – and as a child, Warren Shadd said he’d tag along. “I saw Sarah Vaughn, Duke Ellington, Nancy Wilson, Jimmy Smith, Joe Williams, Pearl Bailey, Count Basie, James Brown and other legendary performers,” Shadd recalled. “I was enamored with the pointed toe shoes and slick hair joints, the pageantry, stobe lights. There were great lessons I learned from my father from ages 4-11 such as understanding how to stage performances, choreography. He also had me do things on piano, fix things such as changing bridal straps and changing hammers on piano actions, especially on old uprights.” “Those things subsequently is how I know how to build and rebuild pianos. Shadd comes from a family of musicians. His father was a pianist and drummer and had a big band; his aunt was acclaimed Jazz songstress Shirley Horne; his grandmother Marie was a pianist in a ragtime band; and his grandfather Gilbert designed and built a collapsible drum set. He is a first African-American piano manufacturer, the only Black person to build pianos in the world. He followed his father’s footsteps to become a second-generation piano tuner and technician, and he is a child prodigy and a third-generation musician. His musical career was deeply influenced by his father who was a Jazz pianist and drummer in the Drum and Bugle Corps. Growing up, he said his aunt Shirley Horne and a gaggle of other musicians were always at the house. Since he was “a kid” he played with acts like James Moody, Roy Hargrove, Duke Ellington, the Redd Foxx review, Lionel Hampton, Dizzy Gillespie, Phyllis Hyman and Melba Moore. He’s also tuned and rebuilt pianos for Philip Bailey, Tony Bennett, Herbie Hancock, Aretha Franklin, Stanley Clark, Joe Sample, Ramsey Lewis, Quincy Jones, Dave Brubeck and Pres. Bill Clinton, Black Entertainment Television, Blue Alley and Miss America pageants. He manufactures world-class pianos, with electronic keyboards, synthesizers and other interactive and cutting-edge computer technology. These have ended up on Empire, Star and American Idol. Meanwhile, Pope Francis ordered a grand piano for the Vatican and most recently, Shadd completed a sumptuous, jeweled grand piano for billionaire investor and businessman Robert F. Smith. Shadd said he is still in awe of his father’s prodigious work ethic. “There were lots of lessons learned, such as seeing the discipline of my father,” he said. “He would go to his government work ‘til 5, come home, shower and shave and then he would go play with his band. He did this for 33 years. He would get only one or two hours sleep and then he’d be at it again. Given this, I couldn’t be a slacker.”
Gary Johnson, 61, worked in the intelligence community and served in the federal government, including in the White House. “My father, Samuel Johnson, was the best man at my wedding. He told me so many things but the things that stood out was that all you really need in life is one good friend, and to be careful of all the others around you,” Johnson said. “The other thing was not listen to your friends when you’re married and never embarrass your wife in public.” “Let me put to you this way: In July I will have been married for 34 years, so I listened.” Johnson, a Washington, DC native, said the family car was a taxicab. His dad, a high school dropout, held several jobs, including working as a maintenance engineer at Metropolitan Police Department headquarters. “Another piece of advice he told me is that you do what you have to do in life and don’t cut corners. I have two boys and I quit my job to be a stay-at-home dad when they were four and seven years old. I also started my own business, Black Men in America. I’m always trying to model appropriate behavior and teach young people.” “I created Daddy Academy because I had to teach these guys how to be men.”