Small Acts of Racism

#smallactsofracism

Act 5: My son has been having several moments on his own FB page of late. Just when I was convinced he wasn’t listening, here he goes proving me wrong. So, todays’s post is a share from his page. Now, understand that if you have never worried about your son being harassed by police for the color of his skin EVERY SINGLE DAY OF HIS LIFE or if you have the luxury of EXPECTING your child to walk back through the door, not just HOPING and PRAYING, if you automatically think cops are the good guys, then you have WHITE PRIVILEGE. Now, mind you, I joke a lot and tell my son, “well, stop driving while black.” The fact of the matter is, he can’t, so he will continue to get stopped and I will continue to HOPE and PRAY that he gets home safely EVERY SINGLE DAY. 

To my friends who are not people of color let me ask you something which may give you an idea of what people mean by systematic oppression and racism . How many times have you been falsely arrested? Put in handcuffs because they thought you were someone else? How many times have you been stopped by an officer 3 minutes from your house as you’re walking your dog to find out where you lived and your address? Been asked for identification when you have in fact done nothing to inspire questioning. I don’t mean how many times have you been arrested that you probably deserved. I mean how many times living your day to day life has an officer walked up to you and said something about you being here at this time, doing this thing wrong with no clear definition of your assumed crime? If the answer to all of those questions is 0 times or even part of them. I envy you. I’m not saying you can’t experience hard times. What I’m saying is, the things people whose skin is darker than yours face is something you will never fully understand even though you think you do or you’ve had a rough life . Because when they look at you, they ask and care about who you are and what you’ve done. When they look at me, “I just fit the description.”