i wasn’t even going to comment on trayvon’s death. so many others have said so many eloquent things that i just didn’t feel the need to add anything. but then my son, my 6-year-old prince, made me see that silence is not what’s good in these streets.
i watch this news with my kids every morning as we eat our breakfast. i understand they may not “get” everything, but i want them to know there is a world out there bigger than them. well, this morning on good morning america, there was a story on the shooting death of trayvon martin.
my six year old son sees trayvon’s picture and asks – ‘who is he?’
me: ‘he’s a child – a 17 year old boy – who was shot and killed while walking down the street.’
him: ‘why? what was he doing?’
me: ‘honestly, he wasn’t doing anything. he was black and walking.’
him: ‘that’s just like martin luther king. he was shot because he was black too.’
my six year old son can recognize that this shooting of a black child is as suspect as the 1968 shooting of a civil rights legend. my six year old son can recognize that something is as amiss in our society today, with our black president, as it was when blacks were still fighting for our “rights.”
[pause]
how many more trayvons do we need to see that race and racism is as alive today as it was 50 years ago? the means and methods have changed, but not the end results.
our peoples are still dying in the street in this war.
and i still need to teach my black son how not to become a casualty.
