Race.

Apparently, I posted this title with no post!  Sorry about that.

I tend to not want to talk about things that are controversial because I like to blend into the wallpaper when I know my opinion or my thoughts might not be popular.  But I am the mother of a black son.  And after Trayvon Martin was killed, I learned some things that I did not know.  As a white person, I had never thought of these things.  But now I have the privilege of raising a sweet little black boy into a fine black man.  And there are things that this mom will have to tell my black son that I would not have to tell a white son.  Like, "When you're pulled over, son, don't talk back.  Don't act angry or annoyed.  Don't reach for anything.  Keep your hands where they can be seen.  Ask to be questioned in public or with another officer there, hopefully there will be a black officer there too.  This is nothing that you have done wrong, son, it's just because you are black."  In black families, this is sometimes called "the talk."  I'm not saying that all police officers are bad or corrupt or racist.  I am just stating that things can escalate out of control and lots of assumptions are made based on race--assumptions that lead to an unnecessary night in jail at best...or a funeral at worst.  Remember when Henry Louis Gates (the PBS host and Harvard professor) had locked himself out of his fancy-schmancy Boston home?  He tried breaking in the front window, his neighbor called the police and he was arrested.  Despite the fact that that was his home.  It's these things.  These things that I will need to talk to my son about.  Probably the first time he comes home after being called a name that rips my heart open.  Or when he's getting his driver's license.  Or when he wants to take a late night jog through our mostly white suburban neighborhood.  Things I never faced, things Dan never faced.

I have not lost hope though.  The fact that families like ours can exist means there has been progress.  But for some, progress has not been enough.