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I will tell my mixed race son when he becomes aware of race that he is black. That he will have to work twice as hard to get half as far, that people will judge him by the colour of his skin and he will have to go out of his way to reassure people that he isn’t a threat to them.
A very very big reason why I don't want to bring another life into this world.
psg1ben-
Having a child has made me more aware of racism (stuff that has happened to me/things that I think could happen to my son) and has made me more willing to call out shit rather than letting it slide. But it doesn’t make me regret having him.
He’s amazing, I can’t imagine him not being in my life and hopefully I’m helping to raise him to become a good human being.
Making him aware of his “blackness”is my way of giving him some of the tools to navigate his way in this imperfect world, until it becomes a little less imperfect, which might take a while, if you think about how long it’s taken us to get here..
cornelius_blackfoot
I stopped having conversations about race a while ago, it wasn’t worth it, and not healthy for me, to be the lone black voice that they (white friends/co-workers) could interrogate and then ignore, because the heavy lifting of realising that racism isn’t just the responsibility of their ancestors, but caused by people’s attitudes today based on the belief of black peoples inherent inferiority, which need to change, which they needed to change.
It was more work than they wanted, to difficult for them to digest and they’d rather just say they were colourblind and that they had black friends.
I will tell my mixed race son when he becomes aware of race that he is black. That he will have to work twice as hard to get half as far, that people will judge him by the colour of his skin and he will have to go out of his way to reassure people that he isn’t a threat to them. He will have to deal with ignorance from his bosses, his friends and strangers in the street, and institutions that pay lip service to equality but don’t change anything even when confronted by the damage of their inaction.
There was a quote I used to write a lot, from public enemy "You're quite hostile." "I got a right to be hostile, man, my people's being persecuted!"
It’s as valid now as it was then.
I posted this up in the us politics/trump thread when trump was elected as president and it didn’t receive much response, it’s an essay by Ta-nehisi Coates on why white America elected trump as their president despite all evidence pointing to his inability to be fit or competent for the role. It delves into how black Americans are viewed and the history of them being viewed as inferior/lacking in intelligence, which lead to the racist backlash (conscious or unconscious) of electing trump after Obama.
Long read but well worth it.
https://amp.theatlantic.com/amp/article/537909/