CNN has posted an article stating the events in Ferguson have re-energized a conversation black parents have with their children about race relations and police interaction.
Here’s the link for the article: http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/15/living/parenting-black-sons-ferguson-missouri/index.html
It begs the question, “When does something become true?” When a black person says it, or when I white person says it or sees it?
This goes beyond racial tension. This is common American philosophy. Take Miley Cyrus for example. She twerked at the music awards. Suddenly, a new dance was revealed and a new word was added to the dictionary. Not that I affirm any of this, but black girls have been dancing like that since I was in middle school. The Yin Yang Twins made a rap about it over a decade ago, and nothing changed. Miley did one dance, and it is now truth.
Black families have never stopped talking to their children about race relations. We have never stopped warning our kids about the police. We never stopped saying we are disproportionately stopped, searched, arrested, convicted, killed, overlooked, underrepresented, misunderstood, and ignored.
The only difference this time is….people of all cultures finally listened.
Sean M. Watkins 