tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5217892566352331822.post5936054648857981725..comments2024-01-25T10:10:17.008-08:00Comments on One Blog Now: Driving While Black And WhiteKim Bradleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02697704600539418132noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5217892566352331822.post-89898623657548471472015-04-11T06:00:20.649-07:002015-04-11T06:00:20.649-07:00Thank you for sharing your thoughts and feelings a...Thank you for sharing your thoughts and feelings about this. As the white mother of a brown 20-year-old son, this is all too familiar to me. One of my closest friends is the black mother of a 23-year-old son, and we talk about these issues often. Her bright, respectful son had a run-in with the police a year and a half ago. The (non)issue was totally bogus and though there's no way to prove it, it's inconceivable that it would have gone down as it did if he were white. Though it ended badly, and my friend feels that her son has been emotionally damaged in ways we (and he) may never fully know, we're painfully aware of how much worse it could have been.<br /><br />Yes, my fear for my son went up a notch when he got his driver's license. But Eric Garner wasn't driving. Nor was Michael Brown. Nor Tamir Rice. My son lives in New York City. He's very self-confident, which can often come across as arrogant, and he has a quick temper. Though I'm able to keep it buried most of the time, I'm anxious about him every minute of every day. <br /><br />Many years ago, as I was wandering aimlessly, distractedly through a store, I realized that a salesperson had begun following me; I assume it was because he thought I was shoplifting or planning to do so. I was shocked and embarrassed, although shoplifting was the furthest thing from my mind. Afterwards, I realized that I'd just gotten a tiny taste of daily life for people of color. Though I didn't know a term for it at the time, it was the dawning of my awareness of white privilege. Bannahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01882420015957058776noreply@blogger.com