The Goddess Professor Speaks

I am at a loss for words.  How and when  do I explain any of this to my sons? As the mother of black males, who will one day grow up to be viewed as aggressive by someone who doesn't share their same skin complexion, I have hugged them a bit tighter lately, begun telling them the rules to live by so that their actions don't get misinterpreted and they end up suspended from day care or kinder , and begun to worry how to explain the fuckedupness of this world to such young people.  Of course, the baby is too young to understand (and too young to be mistaken for being aggressive), but the older kid is getting old enough to start learning these hard lessons of life. I see the way they are treated when we are out together.  Little old (white) ladies and young (white)  moms with other kids in tow goo, gah, and gush all over the baby.  No one hardly says a peep to the older one.  And he's at that age where he's SO damn friendly to everyone he sees, yet d...

As a black female and mother of two young black males, I can’t help but watch what’s unfolding in Ferguson since the Michael Brown shooting on Aug. 9.  This shooting death went from an event that sadly, most people of color are no longer shocked by to a situation of unrest as people protest, police over-react to attempt to control crowds, journalists are arrested, citizens are tear-gassed, people (believed to be outsiders) loot and agitate, and AG Eric Holder arrives. We’re horrified that these things keep happening and nothing ever seems to change.  There are more names of black males (and females) beaten and/or killed by police in the last several years than anyone could remember or count.  But their families remember.   And though we can’t remember each name, we know that they happened and again, sadly, we’re no longer surprised. The protests, occasional looting, overly excessive response by the police, and overall unrest in Ferguson following the shoot...