Walking While Black (2016)

Much of my walking is as my friend Rebecca once described it: A pantomime undertaken to avoid the choreography of criminality. Most black children in America receive the “talk” early on. It teaches that our skin color bears a stigma & that as individuals, we must learn to manage fear directed to us by society or perish.

It’s not a lesson that sinks in until you experience it but some young men only get a single chance in practice.

And these situations will come:

  - being miscast as the villain by a stranger with a hero complex 

  - a neighbor reports you as vagrant that “doesn’t belong here”

  - matching a generic description of a random suspect (white t-shirt and jeans)

  - a late night traffic stop with a visibly nervous police officer

Even during these rather tame scenarios, there is no room for hesitation. You put on your best acting face and try making strangers comfortable with your existence.

Beautifully written.