The Race Talk for African American Boys (children, grandpa, school)

[lhpartridge]

Originally Posted by Irish Eyes

Try let all your students know this regardless of race. Since, you know, these are all laws. I can see why you might need to give different advice to different races. But "don't press yourself up against people in elevators" isn't a black thing. And obeying the law shouldn't be either.

I must have not been clear. I don't have any students other than African-Americans. In the 19 years that I have been at my school, I have had two white students. The school has had around 10 in all that time. We currently have one Hispanic student, the first ever. We haven't had a white student in about 8 years. If I had students of all races, I would tell them the same thing, as our son, who is white, has trouble constantly because he has long hair and wears hoodies.

The advice that I mentioned was what I had heard on the radio program I referenced in the original post.

Please forgive me for the misunderstanding.

[PoppySead]

We talk about it just like everything else. If it comes up we talk about it.

[Kalbo]

I don't judge by skin color, I judge by overall appearance. Tattoos on the neck a sign of trouble...

Also racism is alive and well in all races, sadly it is a fact of life and will always be that way

[Threerun]

I am not qualified to respond based on the OP's quandary, however I will offer the same philosophy that I offer my children- You have to be respectful of your fellow man and be respectful and courteous in your actions, even if it may seem out of touch with what you witness with your peers. You are in control of this, 100% of the time, and it always breaks through to your advantage when you are positive.

Much harder said than done, and not always followed by us adults.

I wish you the best of hopes.

[Travelling Gal]

I can say as a mother of hispanic children that I do emphasize that they have to work harder than the average person to dispel negative stereotypes surrounding hispanics. It is not a daily discussion, but if I need to call them out on something I will. When I was growing up hispanics were portrayed in the media as either maids, drug dealers, thugs, or ignorant so it is nice to have other options portrayed in the visual media today for my children. In general folks just want their kids to be good citizens and emphasize the values important to them, but for minorities I think you have to have those talks in some form or another. Though I think we have come leaps and bounds in the racism department, it will never go away completely. People will always find the ways that we are different from each other instead of the ways that we are the same.

[nana053]

Local news story. At first I thought it was not true, but apparently this did happen. I am so sad and angry for the mother of this boy. The one thing the ireporter did get wrong was the fact that the woman was seen laughing with the police and that nothing was done about her. The grand jury convenes this week and the incident happened on March 13th not very far from my home.


Vigilante Madness in Pearland...Not Just in Sanford, Not Just Trayvon Martin! - CNN iReport

STRUCK BY VEHICLE - According to court documents obtained from Jules’ attorney, Sylvester Anderson, Jules went for a ride in his go-cart in his neighborhood with another 13-year old boy who had been spending spring break with the Moor family. A third minor boy, another friend of Jules’, rode a small bicycle behind the go-cart.

Jules saw two cars behind him while driving back home, so he decided to drive his go-cart completely off the road to his right onto the grassy edge of the neighborhood park to avoid being in the way of traffic.

It is then that Jules states that Johnson swung her vehicle across the south-bound lane of the road, ran over the curb onto the grass and deliberately and intentionally rammed her vehicle head-on into the go-cart.

***************
Note, the due process part of the i-report is untrue. There will be a grand jury convening this week. The Brazoria County Police did what they are supposed to do.

We also don't know for sure what the woman said to the boys. I know that my dh has wanted to stop kids on go-carts when they were on the street because they seemed reckless and he was worried that they might get hurt, but to hit them with her car? WTF?

[Zimbochick]

Originally Posted by nana053

Local news story. At first I thought it was not true, but apparently this did happen. I am so sad and angry for the mother of this boy. The one thing the ireporter did get wrong was the fact that the woman was seen laughing with the police and that nothing was done about her. The grand jury convenes this week and the incident happened on March 13th not very far from my home.


Vigilante Madness in Pearland...Not Just in Sanford, Not Just Trayvon Martin! - CNN iReport



***************
Note, the due process part of the i-report is untrue. There will be a grand jury convening this week. The Brazoria County Police did what they are supposed to do.

We also don't know for sure what the woman said to the boys. I know that my dh has wanted to stop kids on go-carts when they were on the street because they seemed reckless and he was worried that they might get hurt, but to hit them with her car? WTF?

Holy hell, that's an awful story. And absolutely nothing happened to the woman?

[nana053]

Originally Posted by Zimbochick

Holy hell, that's an awful story. And absolutely nothing happened to the woman?

Not yet. She is being sued by the mother of the boy and the grand jury will convene this week to see if she can be charged (I don't know why they would not charge her in the first place, but this is the second grand jury apparently).

[Irish Eyes]

Originally Posted by nana053

Not yet. She is being sued by the mother of the boy and the grand jury will convene this week to see if she can be charged (I don't know why they would not charge her in the first place, but this is the second grand jury apparently).

To see IF she can be charged? How can you ram someone with your car and not be charged with something?

When I was in my early 20s I dated a man who lived in a predominantly black neighborhood. I was pulled over EVERY time I drove at night. It was also a bad neighborhood and it was assumed that if you were white and driving there you were buying drugs. I think when you are the minority you stand out and cops (and other people) just think you 'don't belong'. I can't imagine how hard it is to be the minority most of the time. I had the luxury of just not driving in that neighborhood any more.

[nana053]

Originally Posted by Irish Eyes

To see IF she can be charged? How can you ram someone with your car and not be charged with something?

When I was in my early 20s I dated a man who lived in a predominantly black neighborhood. I was pulled over EVERY time I drove at night. It was also a bad neighborhood and it was assumed that if you were white and driving there you were buying drugs. I think when you are the minority you stand out and cops (and other people) just think you 'don't belong'. I can't imagine how hard it is to be the minority most of the time. I had the luxury of just not driving in that neighborhood any more.

I wish I had the full story. I am sure she should be charged especially if she jumped the curb, but the problem is we don't know what *her* side of the story is. She might be saying that they swerved out in front of her in which case it was an accident. She might be saying she never said anything about the boy not belonging in the neighborhood. There is too much that is unknown. I can see someone hitting a go-cart because the kids don't pay attention to traffic here at all. I know in my own street, the kids play on their bikes and such and coming around the corner to my house, sometimes the kids are in a lot of danger even if you are going slowly and watching out for them.

I am watching the news on this closely, but there is only the one ireport and a lot of places that picked it up. I do know people who know that family involved and from them I understand that the boy has PTSD and won't go outside his home at all anymore.

The thing is that the neighborhood this happened in is a middle to upper class very diverse neighborhood. There would not be any reason to think a black boy didn't belong there any more than that a white boy didn't belong there.
And this was in the afternoon, too, not in the evening. It makes no sense.