I have a son. Like me, he is black and for the very first time in all of his seventeen years, I am afraid for his life.
Not because he's a hot head or in a gang, or because he's a daredevil (none of which is is BTW), but simply because he's black.
I fear for my child's life because of his skin color and his sex.
Not even when my son was learning how to climb stairs and took great pleasure in throwing himself down a flight of stairs so that he could have the joy of climbing back up them have I been this scared for him.
I would like to think that between my ex-husband and myself, he's learned to respect authority figures such as police officers. I would like to think that he knows when not to make a joke. I would like to think that he would understand that some police officers don't have the same sense of humor he has. (Not many people do but you get what I am saying) But sadly, in this day and age. He could do something as wrong as look a police officer in the face and lose his life for it. He could reach for his wallet in his back pocket and lose his life.
And it's not just my son I fear for. I fear for my daughters because let's face it. Right now, black males seem to be in season but it won't be long before black girls are in season as well. It's only a matter of time.
I have two daughters, a son, An ex husband who is black, and ex brother in law, two nieces, a father and an ex father in law, a mother and an ex mother in law, a boyfriend, and his son who are all black. How long before this rampant scourge of racism comes to touch my family? How long before someone who has any claim on my heart finds themselves at the business end of a police officer's gun?
I can't help but think of tales I read about slavery. When there were too many slaves on a farm, the owner might put some on the selling block, or he might just kill some. They called it culling. Is that what police officers are doing now? Culling? Are there so many black men that the only thing they think they can do it cul them?
This has got to stop.
There is nothing else. This has just got to stop. And hopefully before black men take guns and decide that for every black life a white police officer takes, they take a white one. If it comes to that, no one will be safe. Not your mothers, your fathers, sisters, brothers, or even children.
I am sitting here in tears. This has got to stop...
