I don’t know what happened in the Michael Brown case.
I’m not privy to all the evidence.
But here’s what I do know…
I have a son who is almost 18.
Like most Mama Bears, I love him with a ferocity that still steals my breath.
He is tall and strong and athletic and potentially intimidating. He is grouchy in the mornings and funny in the afternoons. He is wicked smart and has a future bursting at the seams with possibility.
The world is waiting with bated breath for what he has to offer.
He listens to loud music and drives too fast despite my constant lectures. He makes good decisions and he makes dumb decisions. When he’s with his friends, he often makes ridiculously dumb decisions.
And I thank my lucky stars every day that he is a white boy, growing up in the suburbs.
And I’m pretty sure that’s not how I should feel in a country where all men are created equal.
2 Responses
Katrina,
Thank you for writing this.
I was born in South Korea. My family moved to Cameroon (Africa) when I was 22 months old. I grew up going to international schools my entire childhood. I had friends from all over the country, and that was all I ever knew. The closest I ever came to racism was when the locals would mistake me for being Chinese and make funny noises at me. That was easy to dismiss.
And then I settled into life in upstate NY (after graduate school in NYC), subbing at schools in nearly every district in the area. What a wake up call. It is baffling to me that we still live in a world where a teacher can be called “chink” by a 12-year old . . . and the administration does nothing.
Needless to say, when my Caucasian husband and I had our son, we knew we needed to get out of there. There was no way we were raising our biracial kids where such ignorance was rampant. It was a battle we just didn’t want to fight alone.
And like you said, I’m pretty sure that’s not how I should feel in a country where all men are created equal.
Thank you for sharing your story, Hannah. It’s an important one… and it made me sad to read it.