The daily reality from a mother raising a young black male in todays society: I am a mother of an 11 year old son. Like other parents I teach and educate him beyond sending him to a building with classrooms. Im educated, smart and hardworking, values I expose my son to. I teach him to love God, to be honest, work hard, obey the law, honor and obey his parents and respect all people along with so many other life lessons. For some the buck stops there but raising a black male I also have to teach my son how to react, stand and talk if hes stopped by the police, what neighborhoods to stay away from because of the color of his skin and how to respond when being followed in a store being racially profiled. I have to explain to him why sending him to a different school for a better education brings about him having to deal with more racism and how even though love sees no color he needs to be aware of the girls he will date and associate with. I have to attempt to explain to him how to be proud but to not allow pride to cause him his life. I have to find the words tomorrow to explain to him how yet again another senseless death has affected our people with no justice. So, even though parents of all races want the best for their children and teach them about life, a mother of a young black son has more work to put in. Everyone wants to scream of injustice they may have experienced but your one incident doesnt compare to our generations of injustice and until you can walk a mile in someone elses shoes, you have no right to speak on their reality. We no longer strive to raise our babies just to be productive people in society but we now fight just to keep them alive! Tonight my heart is heavy and I have shed tears, not only for the victims but for this generation and generations to come if we do not bring about a change.- Tina Burgess-Williams
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 08:55:36 +0000
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