News & Accolades

Driving away dads

The system discourages poor African-American men from becoming involved parents

By Joseph T. Jones Jr.

My life is a tale of two boys with two very different dads.

When my first son, Trey, was born 30 years ago, I was what they now call a "baby daddy" — a young, unmarried high school dropout with a bad drug habit and a rap sheet. I never considered marrying my son's mother. In fact, I just disappeared from her life after the baby was born. As a result, Trey grew up feeling abandoned and hostile.

When my second son, Corey, came along 15 years later, I was not the same man who fathered Trey. By then, I was happily married with a college degree and a promising future. Corey is my whole life. He just finished his freshman year in college studying engineering.

I am sharing this painful, personal story so that middle-class Americans might better understand why so many poor, young, African-American men drop out of high school, father children out of wedlock and then wind up in prison. The answer: Many of them were reared, like my first son, by a single mother on public assistance and missed the essential, nurturing presence of a full-time father.

This Thursday is an important day for low-income families and urban communities across America.  April 15^th is the deadline to both file 2009 tax returns and submit the 2010 Census forms.  Be sure that your “work pays” by claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit and that your community receives the resources it needs by completing the 2010 Census.

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a refundable tax credit designed to help alleviate the tax burden for low-income working Americans.  Working families that qualify for the EITC can earn a cash refund of up to $5,657 depending on their marital status and number of dependent children.  The table below describes the maximum cash refund you may be eligible for based on certain qualification: