Tag: Raising Brown Children

I am black. I am adjective and verb! I am proud of my blackness! Did you know how hard it is to be black? It is hard being a black educated woman. Try doing things RIGHT and the microaggression comes out to find fault with it. Try making a mistake and not being told “oh let me show you how to do it.” Instead, you get a nasty email with 10 people Cc’d. Try being black and getting followed in the store knowing you’re prepared to spend money but now you won’t because they are following you. Try being black and being told you’re “too aggressive” after you stayed silent for months and endured the microaggression but finally spoke up and defended yourself, now you’re aggressive or TOO BLACK. Try being a black mom sending your child to a predominantly white school. When something happens, guess who is blamed (UNTIL THE CAMERAS PROVE IT WASN’T HIM). Try walking into a store with your black son and wanting him to stay with you even though he’s 14 because of the color of his skin. Lord, it is hard being in this beautiful black skin! All the education, class, and dignity in the world….still makes me give my son the TALK EVERY SINGLE TIME HE LEAVES THE HOUSE. SEE MY CONVERSATIONS ARE DIFFERENT. They go like this: “If we are pulled over, mommy will roll down the Windows and put the lights in. Keep ur hands up the entire time. If stopped on the street and asked for ID, say you’re a minor and don’t have it… Ask to call your parents and lawyer. If you have it, don’t reach. Ask permission to reach. If they ask you to sign something at school, DONT!!  Let me handle it, but never sign anything without me being there to give you the okay.” The list goes on!! See it’s one thing to be black. It’s another to be big and black. Your blackness is seen as a threat. And often if you’re educated and black, that’s seen as a threat too. Some of yall will get that later. Some have no idea what I go through daily being a mother of a black male and being a black woman! Being black means waking up with images in your head you can’t unsee! If you stand with me and support me, thank you. I didn’t choose to be black, but I love being black. My name is Ms. Johnson and I am a black woman!