Anonymous wrote:I’m so white I never met a non-white person until I went to a high school in the city. So these acts of racism are a little new to me. But I’m shocked, appalled, embarrassed that most of the examples here occurred just in the last few months. And we know of them thanks in large part to social media and cameras in every phone. I think if I had a black teenage son, I’d want to strap a body cam on him.
My boss is black and her son, 14, is very tall and muscular so he looks much older than he is. She said that he's still learning how to live in his adult body, which is not unusual for teenaged boys (maybe for girls, too, but I only have boys) who literally seem to grow measurably overnight. They went to visit family in WVa and stopped at a gas station where her son went in to go to the bathroom and get a snack. She noticed that a white woman at the counter was visibly startled by him as he walked by, but he didn't even realize it. That experience made her fearful for him and she's been trying to help him understand that he has to be measured. It all just makes me sad.