The Heartbreak of Raising a Black Daughter in a Red State

[demmiblue]

Nearly two years ago, I moved with my daughter, who was then 7, from Yonkers to a small town in Pennsylvania. It’s minutes outside of New Jersey, but right in the heart of Donald Trump’s America. Sixty-one percent of the people in my county voted for him.

Drive through most communities in my town and you’ll still see large blue Trump campaign signs on perfectly manicured lawns. Chances are, you’ll spot at least two newer-model pickup trucks with Confederate flag license plate frames. As I, a black woman, move through my daily routine, I exchange nonverbal social pleasantries with my neighbors — gestures that are calculated to avoid the kind of actual conversation that could quickly become uncomfortable. A quick nod. A small smile. But all the unspoken words that haunt my interactions in stores and on sidewalks seem to fall freely from children’s lips on the school playground.

Raising a brown girl in a solidly red area of a red state is giving me a front-row view of the way the current political climate is affecting young children.

In the past few months, it seems, there is a new, sad, pithy hashtag trending every week or so — a white person calling the police on a black family barbecuing, a black boy mowing a lawn or a little black girl selling bottled water. The interactions are dangerous and also send a dangerous message to children: There are people who believe you don’t belong here. That’s the message I worry my daughter will get every time we drive to school behind a car with a Confederate flag bumper sticker, and worse — when she’s with her classmates and I’m not there to protect her.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/21/opinion/sunday/trump-racism-black-children.html?smid=tw-nytopinion&smtyp=cur

[Mister Ed]

1. Kick & Rec. n/t

[Nitram]

2. Thank you for sharing this.

I live in the South (Virginia) and I have a visceral reaction every time I see a confederate Flag on someone's car or truck. But if I were African American, I can't imagine how I would react to what is clearly a very personal attack. In public. On a daily basis.

[RandomAccess]

3. K&R

[appalachiablue]

4. K & R. Thanks for this heartbreaking story, what are we becoming?

[Lucky Luciano]

5. Becoming?

It’s sad that this has always been there. Glad that it is being exposed now. That is the only possible positive takeaway from this era. It is now clear that racism never died even remotely and we must never give up the fight for equality.

I was very very naive. I knew racism existed before of course, but to this degree? I had no idea. I’m now a little racist myself against rural white people. Hard not to be even though some must be fighting the good fight.

[vercetti2021]

6. Thanks to social media

And camera phones. I know this stuff has always happened, but never was covered until now. Thanks to twitter and other platforms. There can be good out of social media if used correctly.

[Lucky Luciano]

8. I wasn't scolding you

[appalachiablue]

9. Thanks again for the post, moving and powerful.