We Need To Talk: A Message To Our Daughters

Janks Morton is an award-winning documentary filmmaker known for poignant, tough-love documentaries about African-American males like "What Black Men Think" and "Men to Boys." Now, as the father of an 11 year-old girl poised on the brink of blossoming into a beautiful, but possibly vulnerable young woman, he was inspired to make sisters the subject of his latest offering. So, this go-round, he traveled to the Southside of Chicago where he interviewed ten female survivors of the battle-of-the-sexes about their relationships with their dads during their formative years, and also with their boyfriends when they first started dating. Janks posed a series of probing questions in his trademark fashion. The telling, and frequently tearful responses of each, whether Kenisha Byrd, Stephanie Brewer, Anika Jackson, Trudy Martin, Carla O’Neil, Conchita Jamison, Jaime Gill, Soneika O’Neil, Rhonda Benson or Donna Watkins, generally revealed a wounded soul profoundly affected by a dysfunctional, early family life, often the product of an absentee father. Consequently, we learn that most lost their virginity while still in their teens, before ending up either having an abortion or becoming a single-mom. Rhonda, whose dad died when she was 1, relates how she became sexually-active at 13 at the prompting of a much older guy. Her biggest regret? The abortion. Her advice to girls coming of age? “Don’t compromise! You weren’t created to be a playmate for the male gender.” www.whatblackmenthink.com