Skip to my Low

I’m conflicted (get used to it). As Black in America 2 airs for the second night on CNN, I ask myself -- as a Black person living in America -- why is this important for me? Admittedly, I am curious to see how “we” (the aggregate, as if there really is “one”) are portrayed but even more so, I am curious to know how this new information, if there is any, is digested by white people. I do not work anywhere that I will hear water-cooler talk but I might ask a few white people I know if they caught it and what they think. Most, I assume, will say “what?”

What is really on my mind is Skip Gates, our President and my son. When the news of Skip Gates’ arrest hit the news, I commented on a friend’s Facebook page “Skip, welcome to my world.” It was light humor given blatant racial profiling -- and a little bit of Skip’s intellectual entitlement -- but all in all, I was not that stunned. What Black man living in a white neighborhood hasn’t been harassed by police? Yes, this was his home and they should have left it at that after he showed his ID, but I was – as I usually am when it comes to racial prejudice – disappointed but not surprised.

Which leads me to my almost five-year-old son: when am I going to have to teach him about how to interact with “law enforcement” and other volatile and potentially powerful white people? Is it too soon to explain to him the differences and stereotypes that may plague him as soon as he enters kindergarten in three weeks? Should I talk to him about race relations and expectations? Again, I am conflicted. We live in a predominantly white neighborhood; he will attend another school where he is one of few Black children. My son is growing up in a time when he sees a man that looks like him leading the greatest nation in the world. We were part of the five million in DC for Obama’s inauguration. He remembers seeing my emotions and my pride and hearing me tell him repeatedly “you can be anything, you can do anything.” And here we are, only seven months later and I am contemplating how I should explain racial profiling and “the system.” I never want to give him excuses but even more so, I never want him to get arrested or even worse, Rodney-Kinged. Remember.