Growing up in Bolingbrook I was very aware of my Blackness, although I cannot say that it came with a sense pride until I got to college. During my time in Bolingbrook and later in life, I dated girls of all races, White women included. For some women in high school dating a Black guy was a phase that they grew out of once they graduated from high school and when we got to college, they reinvented themselves and Black men were not a part of the equation. There were also WHITE women who did not reinvent themselves, had children with Black men, and are forced to confront a lot of the same issues for their KIDS that I face as a BLACK man. Now to frame it, there were also a lot of WHITE MEN (some on these posts) that dogged both sets of women, calling them nygga lovers and all types of unflattering names, (again a lot of those same people comment on THESE posts). The ones that moved on from Black men joined in the with the WHITE MEN to look down at the WHITE WOMEN that remained loyal to their BLACK MEN and MIXED KIDS. Add to the fact that when I got to college, I became much more aware of my Blackness and found a TREMENDOUS sense of PRIDE and ANGER when I became conscious to racism. During that time, I shunned a lot of White people that I knew. It took reconnecting with a dear friend Melissa Brockway to help me realize that there were WHITE PEOPLE that GENUINELY cared about Black kids beyond profit, and she put her money, time, talent EVERYDAY to making their lives better, but she also knew the racism that her adopted kids faced. But we were able to talk and discuss it, and I believe she was genuinely apart of the solution, and I can honestly say she did more for Black kids personally and in policy than ANYONE I know. Why this post you ask? Because in my inbox there are White Women with Black kids who want to comment and participate in the discussion because they that think their child could be Mike Brown too. They fear engaging in our discussions for being attacked, but genuinely want to know now what they can do...dont kill the conversation, you because you may kill solution! #mazesaid
Posted on: Fri, 28 Nov 2014 05:09:54 +0000
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