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Raising a teen is hard under almost all circumstances. Raising a Black teen in the US is harder. This was true in the 1950s and is still true in 2018.
From the Blaxploitation Pride FB page:
A supreme level of acting in demonstrated in this clip starring Johnny Nash, Beah Richards, Frederick O’Neal, and Estelle Hemsley. TAKE A GIANT STEP (1959) is about a black high school senior struggling with becoming a man while living in a middle-class white neighborhood in the late 1950s U.S. The film also features Ruby Dee, Bill Walker, and Paulene Myers.
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In this TEDTalk, Clint Smith summarizes the Black experience of parenting Black boys to men.
As kids, we all get advice from parents and teachers that seems strange, even confusing. This was crystallized one night for a young Clint Smith, who was playing with water guns in a dark parking lot with his white friends. In a heartfelt piece, the poet paints the scene of his father’s furious and fearful response.
“Son, I’m sorry. You can’t act the same as your white friends. You can’t pretend to shoot guns. You can’t run around in the dark. You can’t hide behind anything other than your own teeth.”
“I want to live in a world where my son will not be presumed guilty the moment he is born, where a toy in his hand isn’t mistaken for anything other than a toy.”
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We want to read your point of view.
What can White people do to break down the institutional racism that creates different rules for Black boys? What have you seen that is beginning to work?
What did you learn from it all that you can share with other readers? (Be sure to include your “AHA!” moment!)
For people of color: What does it do to a child knowing that you cannot simply be a child?
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Photo credit: Screenshot from video posted on Blaxploitation Pride FB page
I do not office respond with wow…, it is such an over used phrase and sounds so mundane, however; not to say wow…, would be an injustice to this magnificent, eloquently presented soliloquy…! Bravo,,,!