The premiere coincides with Black History Month, and Thursday’s screening will be followed by showings in New York City, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Memphis, Jackson, Miss., and Raleigh, N.C., later this month and next. He hopes to enter the documentary in upcoming film festivals.
“Black History month was perfect timing for the subject of the film,” said Braswell, 51, of Colonie, a former publisher of the Albany newspaper Urban Voices and the founder of Fathers Incorporated, a not-for-profit organization started in 2004 to promote responsible fatherhood. “We’re seeing African-American youths acting out as gangsters and thugs because they think that’s what manhood looks like. When fathers are not in the homes and not in the lives of boys and they have no male role models, they make some bad choices.”
Braswell makes clear in the film that the problem is not confined to the black community, but studies have underscored the fact that the psychic damage caused by boys raised without a father figure is more acute than a similar dynamic found in white and Latino homes.
He cited census statistics that showed 82.3 percent of black children born after 1990 will live in a home without their biological father before they reach age 18. By comparison, the numbers are about 55 percent for Latinos and 29 percent for whites.
The film referred to research that showed children with involved, loving fathers are far more likely to do well in school, develop healthy self-esteem and exhibit positive social behaviors. By contrast, those boys without an involved father are more likely to grow up in poverty, engage in sexual activity at a young age, use alcohol and drugs, drop out of school and take up criminal activity.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 80 percent of all men in America’s prisons came from fatherless homes, Braswell said.
He took the title from the physical manifestation of adolescent boys and girls, who suffer with a hole in their hearts and a sadness so raw that they lash out violently. He said he plans a sequel, “Spit’in Anger II” that will look at the issue among young girls. “A lot of kids describe this uncontrollable anger that they are spit’in anger and there is literally spit coming out of their mouths because they’re so mad,” he said. “Anger is a secondary emotion that comes out of pain. We like to say that hurt people hurt people.”
Braswell was the oldest of three children raised by a single mother after his father left, shortly after Braswell was born. He met his father for the first when he was 23, after he was discharged from the Army. “I saw him a few more times, but by then it was too late and we never really connected,” he said.