Posted on 09/05/2014 4:18:25 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
It's the time of year when hundreds of thousands of American parents are shipping their children off to college for the first time. For most, it's a time of celebration. But for the black parents of college-bound sons, the rite of passage has long come with a quiet, unique sense of dread.
These parents grapple with a scary open secret: Young black males -- more than any other demographic group -- are haunted by cultural stereotypes that foster fear, discrimination and police harassment. Sending sons away to other parts of the country greatly magnifies those fears, particularly in the wake of last month's fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.
The uneasy preparation for life as a young African-American male often begins when black males are in their early teens and goes on for years. Black parents simply call it "The Talk."
"I taught him to keep his hands where cops can see them," said
Amelia Ashley-Ward, a San Francisco mom whose son, Evan, says he has been stopped three times by police for no apparent reason in the Tennessee town where he attends college. "I taught him that police are not your friends and that every traffic stop can lead to damage that can never be undone."
Evan Ward said each time he was stopped, he had passengers. "We were not speeding, or playing loud music or bothering anyone," said the 22-year-old, who attends Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro. "We got pulled over for being young African-American males riding in a decent automobile."(continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
A 'stereotype' that is overwhelmingly true.
If you lay with dogs, you are bound to get some fleas.
If I can’t get to my license if stopped, then I put my hands on the steering wheel and wait for him to arrive at my window. If I have to go back into my purse, I announce my intention and tilt the purse toward him so he can see into it while I’m doing it.
I’ve taught all my kids this. well, not the purse thing because I have all boys. But making your movements slow, deliberate and announce if you have to go in your pockets for anything.
and we’re white. Sorry blacks!! Ruining your sob story, huh???
Words fail me, especially polite words.
Also what they don’t realize is that young white men in the same situations often get pulled over and targeted, but because of our color, nobody talks about it, so they are unaware of it.
When my son was in his twenties, he was routinely pulled over and searched in his car at night. It was a “fast” car and the cops just didn’t like the look of it. He was later told by a cop he was targeted because he always drove under the speed limit and it was a drug road on the way to work. The cops were often very rude and at least one trashed everything in the car. He had a lot of boxes in the car because he was a mechanic, and they made him open everything, brought a dog and everything.
At one point we talked about getting some sort of voice recording system because their conversation seemed so ready for a “set up”. But then he just decided to work much closer to home.
I’m a white female, too. I was also taught to avoid trouble by not doing stupid things.
Because we know they NEVER do anything wrong....
Slacker. When I was young (early 80's) I was pulled over 5 times in one night by the same cop. No tickets. I'm white and this was a small town in Wisconsin.
I will email tn gov, I am very sorry for your agony. Hope others on FR will take time to also.
“The cure is to continue to be very polite and cooperating with the police. Giving them attitude it the surest way to continue the abuse. “
Uh, that’s true regardless of skin color. I figured that out for myself a LONG time ago!
“How deep-seated is this negative image of black men that they would not show respect for someone like President Obama,” said Amos Brown, senior pastor of the Third Baptist Church of San Francisco. He said treatment of the president “reflects how hateful they feel about all of us.”
Yeah, because everyone respected George Bush!
Or did it reflect “how hateful they feel about all of us whites from the Southwest”?
VERY well said, Chickensoup! It’s very sad, but true, that our rights are conditional on time and location.
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