on ESPN overseeing his son Cordell practice to play for UCLA.
If you remember, there was one poignant epi of the show where, while watching Cordell practice, mama Shante and Snoop were having “the talk.” The “talk” was something viewers could obviously tell was a big thorn in the side of the Broadus family fabric: Cordell’s need for Snoop to shake the coach-minded, Cali-streets raised dad and simply love him like just: “dad.”
Cordell expressed this need on the show and although mama Shante filled in where Cordell wanted Snoop, still, Cordell obviously wanted that from Snoop.
That was a very powerful moment of the family’s “reality show” that (even when I saw it), was MUCH too real for a reality show as, it was a double-edge sword of understanding the plight of Snoop and too, feeling the plight and need of the child and boy who just so happens to be growing into a man.
Sometimes [especially considering having been a man that comes from a side of life and knowing all too well that not even the sunny California skies stay sunny long enough to hide the fact that darkness soon comes], the fear of ‘making your son soft’ weighs heavily on many-a-black men’s heart (who are active in their son’s lives) as, they all know that the “darkness” that comes for the young black male is a lot different than the other males in the cruel, cold, world.
Black men fall under a different set of rules than many. And as a parent who knows and has experienced this, you straddle the fence sometimes-and often times rationalize and deal with it by knowing this one fact: The lessons taught to your seed outside of the home are much tougher (with no remorse or care) than the lessons of “tough love” you give and teach at home.
Although it can’t be denied that Snoop’s version
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