Clutch Magazine: Choosing Safety Over Independence For Black Children

In my latest post for Clutch Magazine Online, I write at length about the efforts black parents go through to keep their children safe, even at the expense of their child developing better skills to be independent. While it may be easy to throw out advice and parenting rules and bring up all sorts of psychology studies to black parents, most are solely concerned with making sure their son or daughter doesn't become a statistic, freedom be damned.

Here's a snippet after the jump.

From Clutch:

Black people dying due to the extremely unsafe position we have historically held in American society was originally part of the “plan.” It was especially so when we were brought over as chattel. But somehow, it still continues to be the “plan” long after the chains came off.

Blame institutional racism. Blame the poverty, poor education, poor health care, poor protections under the law for us. Blame broken families and communities, churches and the government. There’s plenty of fault to go around. But since you can’t fix a 300 year old problem with one black presidency and 60 years of post-Jim Crow living, we have to find work-arounds.

As black people we are forced to “adapt” to our possible demise being something “ordinary.” We try to cope the best way we can, repeating that we will not allow ourselves or those we love to become that most dreaded thing no black person wants to ever be.

A statistic.

Not a person with a name. But a point on a graph symbolizing the stagnation of racial progress in this country.

With no solution coming anytime soon, we often have to take our lives in our own hands and try to avoid the statistician to our best abilities. Even if to others those measures taken might seem a little strange.

Read the full story at Clutch Magazine Online.

Comments

[Anya @ Blallywood]

If I had a son I would have a difficult time deciding whether to let him wear hip clothes or not. I would be tempted to establish a rule of no plain white T shirts, no hats, no hoods, no jerseys, no baggy jeans.