Dear Black Men,

I wanted to start this letter with a simple statement: we need you. We being the black community, the women you impregnate and leave, the children you leave in broken homes.

I began this letter, originally, with ideas and opinions based on pure myth and bias — bias from other black women. And while that’s not OK, I’ll present a scary fact from 2009: a startling 72 percent of Black children are raised in a single-parent home Our staggering rate overshadows that of our counterparts.

Black men, I’m writing this letter for you, and our community — the community that needs you. I grew up as the little Black girl with no dad, just my mom and my little brother. I had a group of friends and out of all of my friends, only two had Father’s Day arrangements with their dads — only two girls out of a group of maybe five or six had dads to spend time with.

I can remember Father’s Days when I would spend the days crying to my mom about why I didn’t have a dad and why I wasn’t good enough for a dad to love me like everyone else’s dad did. I can remember my brother also asking where his dad was when he got old enough to realize that he only had one parent at home. One parent paying all of the bills. One parent working full-time while wiping snotty noses and kissing boo-boos. One parent trying to make the best out of a situation she had no control over. Just … one … parent.

Black men, we need you. We need you because no little girl deserves to grow up looking to be loved by men who she thinks will love her like her daddy didn’t. We need you because no little boy deserves to become the “man of the house” at 4 years old. We need you because Black women, or any women, do not deserve to be alone raising children that were not made alone. We need you because you are an important piece to the progress that we make as a whole. You are the piece of the puzzle that we are missing. You are our progress. You need us because we love you and value you unconditionally. You need us because we know your struggles because — we share your struggles. Black men, we need you.

Sincerely,

Black Women