Once again, I have had a battle raging for several days on another person’s page with a different White woman. I finally decided it was best to take the conversation to messenger because the person I was talking to brought up some family drama and I didn’t think it wise if anyone from her family saw it. I inboxed her and apologized for getting personal, but she told me not to worry about it since she mentioned it first. 

Her original supposition was that she had been the target of racism because someone in her family would not hang out with her side of the family because they were White while the person is Black. Initially, I agreed that the Black member of the family was indeed behaving in a racist manner. However, after some reflection, I asked for additional information. Based on what I learned, I thought there was some 💩 in the game because the reason given for the person staying away was completely illogical. Furthermore, her lack of hanging around their side of the family didn’t seem to impact their outcomes, e.g. health, finances, housing, education attainment, etc. Since there was no element of power (race prejudice + power = racism…power is the ability to affect the outcomes of another’s life), there was no racism. 

The Black member of her family, through her White husband, supposedly stated she didn’t want to hang out with them because she hadn’t been raised around White people. Yet, she married a White man and has biracial kids. 🧐

The more the person and I exchanged information, the more I became convinced her family had not been told the truth regarding the reasoning. Why? Because the person blindsided me with this: 

“You notice in my post I didn’t say that EVERYTHING is not about racism…some things are most definitely! If you are being honest you have to admit that alot [sic] of what is being posted and reported on these days has nothing to do with race; they just want you to believe it does without all of the facts being out there. Michael Brown in Ferguson is a perfect example…I could go on but I won’t.”

So, today we’re going to talk about The Criminalization of Black Boys and Men.

She insisted that Michael Brown had “reached for the Officer’s gun. Period.” 

She and I exchanged a few more rounds before we decided we were not ever going to agree. I left her with this thought: Let’s agree, for the sake of argument, that Michael Brown reached for the Officer’s gun. The initial call went out because the two young men were accused of stealing a .99, yes that is a 99 cent, pack of Swisher Sweets. Why did several officers go out looking for these two boys? Why wasn’t the response in proportion to the supposed crime? As far as I know, what typically happens for a misdemeanor theft call is a report is taken and the establishment is told to report if the perpetrators are there again. Not, a multi-vehicle search, as if this was an armed robbery and someone was injured. However, when it comes to Black men and boys, the response is disproportionate to the supposed offense. Had the police handled the initial complaint in a proportionate manner, there would have been no gun to attempt to grab. The first time I saw this personally was when a  7th grade student said, “Hey Bootsy!” to a young lady and was arrested out of the school in which I was working. It was her nickname. 

Listen, I dated a White man for four years and he told me that his family were extremely racist bigots. It made me wary to hang out with them, but when I did, they were the kindest people on the planet. However, I always kept what my boyfriend told me in the back of my mind and if anyone of them would have said what was said above, I would have refused to go around them. It wouldn’t have been racist on my part to protect myself from a perceived threat. I get the feeling there’s more to the story of those family dynamics.