Sean Williams is a father of three. His Instagram page called The Dad Gang, features Black fathers sharing their stories of fatherhood as well as tips and advice for other dads.
Williams started the Instagram page after he grew tired of hearing white neighbors in his long island neighborhood praise him for spending time with his own kids.
In an interview with Essence, Williams said, “Four years ago a woman approached me at a grocery store and said she was ‘glad to see that I stuck around for my baby because most Black men would’ve split.'”
Instead of getting upset, he created The Dad Gang page. It has since evolved into a community of dads on a mission to rewrite the narrative on Black fatherhood by sharing the reality of their families.
The page features Black fathers daily lives with their kids doing activities like dancing and playing, helping with homework, doing their hair, and cooking.
The dads are also shown in proud moments at graduations and special events, and supporting their kids in extracurricular activities.
Williams went on to say, “After the moment with the woman at the grocery store I realized that a lot of people still bought into the whole Black dads are deadbeats nonsense. A lot of these people that hurled ‘compliments’ at me had still never seen a young Black dad like myself loving and living my best dad life.”
On Father’s Day, The Dad Gang organized a group walk in Washington DC, beginning at the national museum of African American history and Culture and culminating at Black Lives Matter plaza.
The page currently has over 110 thousand followers and The Dad Gang’s website states, “Our goal is to bring #thedadgang to every major city, spreading the word and showing proof that Black fathers are in fact very present and active in our children’s lives.”
They say they want to set the new standard of what Black fatherhood looks like around the world.
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This segment aired on June 24, 2020.
