Radio Facts: 
There are several things the Black community does not like to discuss …
I watched Reverend Jasper Williams Eulogy at Aretha Franklin’s funeral (see video below). Williams’ states Aretha asked him to do her Eulogy as he did her father, The Rev CL Franklin, 30 years prior. The Franklin family is said to be insulted by Williams’ subject matter during the Eulogy and deemed his speech inappropriate considering the late Aretha Franklin was a single mother of four sons.
The community, black sons of single black mothers nor anyone else can answer for how Black single mothers, who have already raised their sons, feel about the situation. We have to ask them if they would have preferred to have a husband or a man in the house?
Williams states that black women are not qualified to raise a black boy into a man. Many have done so but his point was that they need help, and black fathers are supposed to help, he explained during a press conference post the Eulogy.
People were also offended at his take on Black Lives Matter which he ventured is hypocritical when, as he stated, it’s OK for us to kill a hundred of us but not OK when a white policeman kills one of us.
Why Don’t We Like to Have this Conversation?
One can’t help but wonder how many black people are silently standing in the wings applauding the Reverend for speaking out on a subject that we as a community prefer to avoid at all costs. Why … is the greater mystery. Perhaps it makes us take a long, hard look at our own shortcomings or perhaps it would be easier to blame the system for our actions and there is accountability on all ends but it’s a major problem nonetheless and we are not free from contributing to the situation.
How can we be insulted by the truth one might add. In addition, while Aretha was a single mother of four sons, what is the likelihood that had she been given an opportunity to be married and have a father for those sons, like the many other black women who fall in the 70% bracket of being single mothers, would she or any black mother have preferred to have a husband? There is no debate, no sides, and no stances because the question belongs to them, not us. We can’t answer FOR them.
Is being a single black mother a choice, community circumstances or a badge of honor? Aretha stated through MANY, MANY, MANY of her interviews that she loved being married and she respected the institution and that she would get married again. Williams’ refuses to apologize. Should he or should we?
