~ Ralph Ellison
It is with a heavy heart I put words to paper this week and though it is not my desire to make a political statement, I feel compelled to express concern for the potential of my son. Not just his potential to grow up and become an asset to American society and the global community at large, but also the potential for him to become a casualty of apparent abhorrence.
The past few weeks, I have held my breath in angst imagining the dread of black mothers in South Africa and the segregated South under the Apartheid and Jim Crow eras respectively. They knew each time the sons of their wombs left the safety of home and hearth that at any flip of folly present in the youthful decision making of boyhood, their sons could be struck down and forgotten before their bodies met the ground. An after thought dressed in the sun kissed skin once a reflection of royalty, now an ill-fitted cloak sullied and scourged left to die alone with none to cradle their heads as they breathe their last.
Yes, it is true our community has issues with violence turned upon itself, though however relevant, to make this comparison in light of what has occurred before the eyes of the world is a false equivalent. These internal challenges should not permit open season upon the black sons of this country. The unique historical burden of our experience is one with which no other sons of America must contend and will require many years to unravel. This millstone of contempt weighs heavily upon the backs of black men no matter their station including the black man currently at the seat of power in the Oval Office of these United States.
Breath in night-blessed skin
Glory born yet feared, war torn
They hate me Iya
~JoiLotus
Why is my son expected to walk a tight rope of perfection not required of other American sons?
African-American sons also are American sons of conceivable greatness.
It is time my son be extended the benefit of the familiar adage, "boys will be boys" when he stumbles or loses his way as developing boys often do. He should be viewed as an individual beyond judgement and bias. My son should be accepted as a young man of potential to do good, not be considered an arm of a criminal collective on sight just by virtue of his heritage.
I am not asking anyone to love him as I do or to miss him as I would. My son is real and he carries the reality of my fears with him each time he leaves the safety of my arms. My hope is that when he enters a room, moves through a crowd, hails a cab, and steps onto an elevator he is "seen" as an individual with a beating heart, a mind filled with dreams, and a soul worth saving.
To truly live as one nation under God, America should remember Romans 2:11 says, "God is no respecter of persons" and it is my prayer that when America looks upon her black sons she can begin to "see" them through the lens of His love.
"See" my son. He is not invisible in the eyes of the God in whom America purports to trust.
"See" my son.
"Our too-young-and-too-new America lusty because it is lonely, aggressive because it is afraid, insists upon seeing the world in terms of good and bad, the holy and the evil, the high and the low, the white and the black; our America is frightened of fact, of history, of processes, of necessity. It hugs the easy way of damning those of whom it cannot understand, of excluding those who look different, and it salves its conscience with a self-draped cloak of righteousness." ~ Richard Wright
