Yeah, You Still Black
- Details
- Category: Lifestyle/People
- Published: Friday, 15 May 2020 15:40
- Written by Rep. Geraldine Thompson
By Geraldine Thompson - Florida House of Representatives
My middle child is a son. He grew up in House District 44 and graduated from West Orange High School where he was Class President. He is college educated, a professional, a husband and a father. He has no criminal record and works to improve the lives of people in the community where he lives.
He sometimes walks or jogs throughout our neighborhood where 74% of the residents don’t look like him. If he is gone for what I consider an inordinate period of time, I become concerned.
My concern is rooted in recollections of experiences that he shared with me during his childhood. Those experiences included being called the “N” word by two boys next door, not being invited to a pool party because the parents of a good friend said people like him couldn’t swim in their pool and countless times when he was followed as he visited the mall or shopped in stores.
As his mother, these experiences caused me great pain and prompted me to explain to him some of the ugly realities in our society. I helped him understand that, unfortunately, people sometimes acted solely based on the color of his skin and what they saw on the outside.
Being responsible for the upbringing of an African American male child in our society presents some out sized challenges and allows me to put myself in the shoes of the mothers of Aubrey Ahmad, Trayvon Martin and so many others who have seen their sons devalued and destroyed because of the preconceived notions of others. Our criminal justice system must, indeed, be color blind.