What Should We Teach Our Boys of Color?

Having grown up in El Paso, right along the boarder with Mexico, I share many of the same experiences with the police as other males of color - not very positive ones.  I was stopped many times for any number of reasons while walking or driving, regardless of where I was in the city.  Often times it was a simple conversation with the officers remaining in their car, while others were full-on placing hands on the hood of the car, being frisked, placed in the back seat of their car, and interrogated for several minutes.  In the end, I was always allowed to leave, but those experiences have left me with some emotion.  My resentment and my fear of officers is pretty real. But as my son grows, the one thing I don’t want him to do is to develop the same feelings of resentment and fear toward police officers. 

It is not easy for me to put my feelings aside, but it is essential, so that my son can become part of the solution.  Thousands of other men and women of color have conversations with their sons every day, on how to get through being stopped by the police, and not feel resentful and afraid.  While it sad that at this time in our history young boys of color - and even girls of color - are having to be instructed on how to behave in front of those charged with protecting them, I believe that the next generation of men and women of color will help bring about change in race relations in a way that impacts policing in America.  

In today’s Wiredprofiles, we highlight an article by John Silvans Wilson, Jr.,  What Should We Teach Them?