The events of 2020 and 2021 have weighed heavily on Dr. Alfred E. Smith. He is a counselor who previously worked as a pastor. He heard the messages of protesters break out across the country and had some thoughts about them.
"We kept talking about 'Black lives matter,' which I'm all about. Black lives do matter. But my thing was how do we get a Black life to matter as early as possible and have the biggest impact on that Black life. That happens in the home," he told Fox 8.
It was this reflection that spawned the idea for Black Dad University, his latest project. "Black Dad University is an online resourcing program to help Black dads to build their children and to leave a legacy," he explained.
Smith had done extensive research into Jewish families that he applied in fleshing out the idea.
"One of the things I recognized early is that the Jewish child is indoctrinated to believe they're special and they're chosen because they're God's chosen people. That's what their indoctrination is. The only issue here is this: they believe that so they act like it from a child," he said.
"What if we got into our children their image, who they were, how to be resilient, how to deal with failure, how to deal with pain, how to recognize their God-given innate qualities and talents and those being spoken to from 2, 3, 4 years old."
Smith had some hands-on practice as a father of six. "I grew up in the environment where my dad was a great dad. But their job was to discipline and bring in the money, which was good. But there wasn't a lot of interaction and speaking life and understanding gifts and things like that," he explained.
"I recognize that a lot of Black men have a passion for their children and want to raise them, but they don’t know how because they weren’t raised themselves."
Black Dad University aims to give Black men the tools they need through webinars, articles, and one-on-one sessions. The resources cover specific themes, but the university is also open to hearing what its participants need.
"Life is going to deal our children pain," Smith said. "Not just racism. there's going to be other pain, racism is one of them, that they have to learn how to deal with. So I tell parents don't rescue your child from all their pain. Teach them how to deal with it. Don’t rescue them from everything that's hard. Teach them resilience."
