It's two days after the Zimmerman verdict and I'm still reeling. I'm disgusted. And not just at the verdict. I'm disgusted at the reactions where people say they weren't surprised. I get the sentiment, but that we are not surprised is as bad as the verdict. Shouldn't we be surprised that it's okay to kill young black men in this country?! Shouldn't we be surprised that people so easily accepted this verdict as inevitable?!
Maybe surprised isn't the right word. Outrage. Disgust. Sadness...maybe. That we are so blind to the endemic racism in this country surprises me still. That being black means unequal treatment under the law surprises me. It outrages, disgusts, and saddens me.
But, as my friend George Moses asks, what are you going to do about it? Good question. As a mother of a biracial male child (read black in this country), I am challenged to know what to do. My son knows he's black but I don't think he knows what that means. George says I can't teach him, that he has to learn it on his own. But now that it's okay to shoot young black men, I'm not sure I can just let him figure it out.
Maybe surprised isn't the right word. Outrage. Disgust. Sadness...maybe. That we are so blind to the endemic racism in this country surprises me still. That being black means unequal treatment under the law surprises me. It outrages, disgusts, and saddens me.
But, as my friend George Moses asks, what are you going to do about it? Good question. As a mother of a biracial male child (read black in this country), I am challenged to know what to do. My son knows he's black but I don't think he knows what that means. George says I can't teach him, that he has to learn it on his own. But now that it's okay to shoot young black men, I'm not sure I can just let him figure it out.