Fear for My Children in Today’s Society
In today’s society of Black Lives Matter and All Live Matter. I am consumed with the fact my children are growing up worried about crimes being assumed of them. My fear for them started at their birth, thinking their future will definitely be better than mine. Yet when I turn on the television all I see is brutality against black youth. My fears are mostly for my son. He is a teen who very well could look like a man to most. Yet he is only fifteen. The fact that he is recognized as a threat and a thug or just being prejudged prior to even speaking to him has me worried. The life of a young black boy, not man has been taken away in my eyes. Giving my son advice that no other child of any race would ever have to hear. Son if it is cold, wear a hat not a hoodie. Son when you go through a store do not have your hands in your pockets and so forth. What other race has this fear but the Black one. I say Black because I have never been to Africa and from my experience with one that have not become friends. They really feel that they are
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She is my first born and I had fear for her just for the simple fact that she was a woman. Women have a harder life in my opinion. Her childhood has been her own unlike my son. I have pushed her in other ways. I motivate her to be the best and know that she must depend on herself. She knows that she will have to be the best to get the promotions in life. She will have to ignore comments focused at her so she can strive for better. Fear of racism never entered my head for her until Sandra Bland. Now that she drives, I worry about police. I tell her things no child in another race has to hear. Do not make a move while in the car if police stop you. Ask permission to get your identification and get your ticket and come home. We can fight it in an open court but not right now in that street should you die. No stopping for gas in the night. The list only goes on and
During the Salem witch trials, many lives that were taken due to a few people’s self defence. In the book, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, a group of girls caused a whole town to go array. This group of girls were caught naked, dancing and conjuring spirits. These girls were going to accept the blame and receive the whipping for what they did, but one of the girls, Abigail, was not about to go down. Abigail had the whole group of girls convinced that it would be best to lie and to not accept the beating. By doing this, they were put into the court and used to tell the judges whether or not the people whom were accused were truly witches. Though the girls had no way of telling if the accused were truly witches, they
The article “I Racist” by John Metta gave an interesting and opinionated perspective about racism, especially in the white community that I, personally, agree with and at times, resonate with as well. I am not a black person in the United States to which I understand is already a privilege. Metta stated the issue with police brutality and shootings to Black Americans that has happened recently which means that a teenage girl like myself who is not black is already less likely not to be shot in this country. I fall victim to this inherent racism because I can recognize it myself. I do not mean to, but I do get scared when I see a group of black teenage boys walking around at night.
81% of Black adults reported that they have experienced at least one incident of day-to-day discrimination. And Adolescence is a stage in which to examine the impact of racial discrimination on the psychological part of African Americans (Racial Identity Matters). Which can cause a person to be scared expectably if someone has already confined in themselves of their race. "My siblings had already instilled the notion of black pride in me. I would have preferred that Mommy were black. Now, as a grown man, I feel privileged to have come from two worlds" (McBride 103). It was easier to accept the black
The social category “children” defines a group of individuals who are perceived to be distinct, with essential characteristics including innocence and the need for protection (Haslam, Rothschild, & Ernst, 2000). However, not every child is given the protections of childhood equal to their peers. On average, children who are members of dehumanized groups such as African Americans receive fewer basic social considerations (Haslam, Rothschild, & Ernst, 2000). The lack of perceived innocence for Black children causes individuals to view them as more “adult-like” or overestimate their age. These false perceptions portray Black children as less innocent and more vulnerable to harsh, adult-like treatment (Phillip Atiba, 2014). In the context of the criminal justice system, dehumanization of this kind could explain the racial disparities in sentencing and use of force by officers (Phillip Atiba, 2014). Black children are 18 times more likely than White children to be sentenced as adults and represent 58% of children sentenced to adult facilities (Poe-Yamagata & Jones, 2007).
"The talk" for black children in America is not about the birds and the bees or puberty. Rather, it is about something much darker and scarier that most children do not want to consider: police brutality (specifically police brutality toward people of color). As of June 2015, 500 people had already been killed by police in those 6 months alone, and the numbers keep rising. The last thing that parents want is for their child to become
Growing up as a young black male there are daily struggles that you go through as anyone else would, and then there are the struggles that you face being black in our day and age. As America’s history has proven to us, the day in the life of African Americans have been far from easy. From the various stereotypes to racism on a daily it is an issue that quite honestly is hard to understand if you are not an African American. As time has passed we have been through slavery, the Jim Crow Era, the Civil Rights Era, and our present day issue Police Brutality. Although Police Brutality has always been an issue faced in the African American Community the last few years has proven that it is becoming a bigger issue in the community and one that needs
Do all living things fear something? Those with minds surely have many and various fears, but even the simplest organisms must have fear, for fear is such a powerful feeling. Fear is all around us and is felt in every corner of the earth. Fear is the emotion or feeling that a living creature gets when its physical or mental life is interrupted by a change that causes the creature concern.
I do not think there is a single time in our day in age where I flip on the television to the news and what do I see? Of course, racism. Through excessive force or “necessary force” which usually happens between the minority and white. Through religion and constant murder, today’s day in age is truly disgusting. Racial segregation is becoming increasingly more prevalent in today’s society, it’s the hot topic on all mainstream news channels and other media outlets. Media portrays the stories in an interesting way, they enjoy emphasizing the race of the officer’s involved and the victim. Constant headlines like “Black man choked to death by officer.” “Black teen shot and killed by white officer.” like it’s a trend now. When I read these titles I generally think “Oh what did the black guy do?” because the War on Drugs and simple inequality has brought a negative stigma to this race; Constantly in and out of jail, drug abusers, gangbangers, and just all around criminals. This is what the media has led me to think. Once a stigma is developed and constantly used in a “joking” or serious manner I see that in actuality it really is developing due to the excess use and our nature to be superior to our counterparts. The African American community has embraced this stigma and you can see it in the younger generations. Violence erupting in communities where law enforcement has to step in; riots, looting and more of our nation’s blood spilled, oh joy. An extremely controversial topic
As I witnessed the videos and sound recordings of the police killings of these Black youth: Trayvon Martin, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice and Darnisha Harris, I, too, lost hope for racial equality and developed a fear of law enforcement that still exists to this day. These emotions are quite common amongst Black youth, yet the presence of such is
Whether Black, White, Hispanic, Native American, or Middle Eastern, every one of these parents fear for the lives of their child at some point. As a young black male in this country, it’s difficult knowing that you don’t have police to protect you like they’re supposed to do. It’s agitating knowing that you don’t have the right support or protection from police and knowing that they aren’t there when you need them. It’s stupid knowing that these issues continue to occur and most of these white people think racism towards the African American race is not a problem. The white people say, “Black lives aren’t the only lives that matter,” well guess what? yes the fuck they do! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! The main thing that white people often misinterpret is the reason why we, as African Americans are angry when it comes to these type of situations. The way that the black community view such situations aren’t the typical way a white person would look at these situations. The black community view these issues with the perspective of the past experiences from our American history that involves the treatment towards African Americans. Black parents feel dejected and worried to let their child go out into the real world not knowing whether they’re going to make it back home safely or if they’re even going to come home at
The experiences that the child has been going through could be interpreted as Chris’s fear of the child being an individual. Author Kermode stated that The Exorcist, as a story could be told as an exaggeration of the mother’s distress of Regan’s nearing to be a grown up (Kermode, 2003:32). The storyline of the young child turned into the distress by her abject mother. The link between the abject and the young girl of her blood, spew and urine reflects Chris’s dread of her own daughter – for her to deal with the situation, Chris must abjectify Regan.
Culture of Fear, by Frank Furedi, is a book that looks at how widespread fear impacts Western cultures like the United States and Great Britain. Frank Furedi believed that society tends to panic too much, as we actually enjoy "an unprecedented level of safety." I admit that Frank Furedi's novel is based upon a novel concept, and an interesting one at that. However, Frank Furedi comes off to me as little more than a fear monger and an intellectual elitist. His book, to me, seems redundant more often than not. But sometimes part of college is learning about points of view that you may not agree with, so I tried to maintain that perspective when I read the book.
I had hoped to keep my children from discovering the details about my most recent case but today, the truth was revealed. While Scout was at school today, she was confronted by a classmate whose parents disapprove of my recent undertaking. I had hoped that Scout wouldn’t let it bother her, but she is easily angered. She worries me during situations such as this because she is not able to control her emotions as of yet. As much as I would have loved to have shielded Scout and Jem from this prejudice world, I understand that eventually they will have to face it. Some whites believe that negroes are all bad, but the truth is, there are bad people in every race, including whites. In addition, some believe that all negroes are capable of disgusting
Anxiety is a common reaction in the human body. So becoming a little scared when watching a movie, or beginning to become nervous right before a test, or maybe even a little shy talking to your crush is completely normal. It starts to become a problem when anxiety takes control and cuts out important things in our life. Children with anxiety might start to feel more often than usual fear, nervousness, shyness, and often will try to avoid social events. Anxiety is a normal part of childhood, and usually the child is just going through a phase and will grow out of it. But when it continuously keeps recurring it begins to become a problem. There are a multitude of anxiety disorder ranging from General Anxiety Disorder(G.A.D), Panic Disorder, Social
Child Abuse, intentional acts that result in physical or emotional harm to children. The term child abuse covers a wide range of behavior, from actual physical assault by parents or other adult caretakers to neglect of a child’s basic needs. Child abuse is also sometimes called child maltreatment.