This Could be MY Sons and it's Terrifying

A few months ago something happened in Durham, NC not far from where I live that shook me as a mother. Having biracial or black children is a bit frightening these days, to be honest. This incident occurred while the kids were playing outside. Durham police had received calls about drugs and gun violence at this apartment community earlier and got another call and saw a boy (15 year old black male) hiding behind a building and assumed this was their suspect. So they apprehend the boy, pat him down, and handcuff him. He was playing tag with his younger brother and neighbor! They aimed guns at him! They eventually realized they had the wrong kid and let him go. Some kids have not been so lucky.

I keep thinking this could be my boys. This could happen to them and if it did, what would happen? Would they be fortunate and survive the incident? Because some young black boys do not survive. What about the trauma and trust broken of the very people who are supposed to be protecting us? Who pays for their therapy? My boys would be TERRIFIED. They would freak out and would be completely traumatized. They would never trust police again! I can only imagine this is similar to how these boys and their mother felt after the incident. This mother took action and immediately spoke up about the incident and rallied other mothers to do the same.

Looking more into the story, I wondered what the response was from the police department. Durham Police Chief had this response and made this FB post on their Facebook Page. I it a bit disheartening that the thing this Police Chief was worried about was guns being pointed AT THE KIDS' HEADS. Um...they shouldn't be pointed at them AT ALL. They shouldn't even be drawn at all. I am grateful that the boys were not harmed physically but I KNOW they were harmed emotionally.

I pray that we can fix "racial profiling" and the problems with our criminal justice system so that my boys don't have to be concerned about being mistaken for someone else or judged by their skin tone. I hope that we can rid ourselves of the fear of Black men and people of color. I want my boys to be able to respect and appreciate police just as much as I hope they are respected in return.

Here is more information on racial profiling.

Comments

Racism in Medicine

Today I want to highlight some disparities, horrific treatment, current statistics, and some current issues in the field of medicine regarding race. Historically, Blacks were viewed very differently than other races. To explain and maintain White Supremacy, Blacks were thought to have thicker skin, were less likely to feel pain or heat, had smaller skulls (meaning they were less intelligent), larger sex organs (explaining their perceived promiscuity), and had weak lungs and were susceptible or some diseases. Medical experiments were done to slaves to "prove" these theories. John Brown was burned to see how long he could withstand it. According to Linda Villarosa ( contributor to the 1619 project )" These fallacies, presented as fact and legitimized in medical journals, bolstered society’s view that enslaved people were fit for little outside forced labor and provided support for racist ideology and discriminatory public policies." These ideas w...

Greensboro Four

Although I should have done it on the 1st b/c that was their 61st anniversary, today I honor these 4 students from NC A&T (My husband's alma mater). They helped spark sit-ins to change the policy of segregation of public spaces. It quickly caught on and there were sit-ins across the country. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjeVqNcN5yI

Black History Month

Copied from my Facebook account: February is the month that we can count on learning about and hearing about more Black stories than any other part of the year because our education curriculum has omitted it. This video does a great job explaining this. I am also of the opinion that we shouldn't have a Black History Month however, until we get a sufficient replacement, that's what we have. So throughout this month, I plan to post videos and articles to show more of Black history than Slavery and Martin Luther King and the usual people and events we hear about. Any time this effort has been given traction it gets slammed down. I hope moving forward in 2021 we can finally rewrite the history curriculum to include people of color to show their contributions and struggles because it makes up this messy yet beautiful tapestry of American History and deserves to be recognized. YOUTUBE.COM The True History Of Black History Month Below is a brief but very informative discussion o...

Invulnerable Fragility

Search This Blog