What if the teens had been white?

There is a pervasive and toxic stereotype in our country–Black Males are DANGEROUS.

I will admit that as young white girl raised during a difficult racial period in my own city (desegregation of schools), I was taught/socialized to be more “aware” of black males.  That is painful for me to admit.  But I have to.  We have to.  We have to understand and acknowledge that racism is so deeply ingrained in the fabric of who so many of us (white people) are that we can’t see it.  We are ashamed to admit it.  We are afraid to admit it.

Until we admit it, we will never grow or change our views. My views changed drastically when I took my first teaching job at a school that was 98% African American.  It was not until I became a teacher and interacted on a daily basis with black males, that I began to realize that they were not a group to fear.  There was nothing scary about them.  But it forced me to admit the bias I was raised with that I didn’t realize I was raised with until I did a lot of honest (and extremely difficult) examination of my own beliefs and behaviors.

Let me be honest, I said I began to realize.  Erasing a life’s worth of ingrained racism and racial stereotypes is not easy.  Not for me or for out society as a whole.  To this day if you watch my local news–99% of the people shown as criminals are black.  Those are the stories that make the news.  These all have an impact on what we think of other groups (be it ethnic or religious or life-style choice based).

Now (10-years after I first stepped into that classroom full of a group of people I was taught to fear), I am the mother of two black children.  Now, when I see a group of black boys/men walking down the street, I see my son.  My son who everyone things is cute and great, but will that be the same when he is 16 and picking up someone’s daughter?  Will it be the same when he is out being a teen with his friends and mouths off to a grown-up?

My children already know that if a policeman stops them ever “we stop and let him see our hands and DO NOT Move.”  I was never taught that lesson.  I never needed to be taught that lesson.   Now, do I need to add middle-aged random white man to that list with policemen?

At what point does the responsibility shift from my black son and onto those whose ingrained stereotypes cause often deadly reactions based in “fear.”  I can hear the voices of 3 teenaged boys talking shit to a middle-aged man who asked them to turn their music down.  I know–because I know what I would have said to my friends in the car, just loud enough that the guy could hear.  He claims he thought he saw a gun.  Would he have “seen” a gun if the three teens were white–but still talked shit?  I have a hard time believing he would have pulled out his gun and fired 8 or 9 rounds.  We have to admit that race is a factor.  What if it had been 3 girls–white or black?  Same reaction?

He fired 8-9 rounds but they claim, when he is compared to George Zimmerman and his shooting of Trayvon Martin.

“That’s ridiculous. Michael is not a vigilante,” the attorney said. “He’s a brilliant software developer. It was never his intention to kill anyone.”

How is it not someone’s intention to kill someone when they a) pull out a gun, b) fire the gun, and c) fire 8-9 shots at close range into a car?

Again, we have to admit why these things happen and have honest discussions about them.  He claimed he saw a gun.  What he saw was three black teens, talking shit and he had no idea what it meant.  I hope he does some deep soul searching (along will all of us) and considers how the scenario might be different if the teens in the car had been white.

We do not live in a post-racial society.  We live in a society that that has convinced itself that race no longer matters.

Tell that to every parent of a black son.

Tell that to Jordan Russel Davis’ parents.  They buried a son that was shot because race absolutely still matters.