“Being a Black dad in this day and age is scary. I struggle with the realization that raising my kids to be proud of and confident in their ‘Blackness,’ in many ways, contradicts the way society views them. This is especially true for my son. How can I reconcile with him the contradicting fact that, although he was born during the tenure of America’s first Black president, unarmed Black men are repeatedly being gunned down for appearing to be a threat? He’s so young and innocent at this point, but how do I keep my fears from becoming his? Or should I? How do I keep myself from overreacting the minute he has one of his toddler fits because I’m afraid people will label him as the problem child, despite that fact that he’s extremely smart. When do I give him ‘the talk,’ not the one about the birds and the bees, but the one about how to become inferior in the face of law enforcement so that he can walk away with only a ticket and not end up handcuffed… or worse? How do I deal with the fear that despite my best efforts, he may still end up at the wrong place at the wrong time?”
