General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I could have been Trayvon Martin. [View all]CottonBear
(21,596 posts)I was a professional employee of an engineering firm (I'm a white woman) in the deep South My student worker/engineering intern ( a young black high school senior in a 98% white/conservative/republican/bedroom commuity Southern county school system) walked from our office to the local sandwich shop to get lunch. He walked on the side of the road because there were (are) no sidewalks. A local neighborhood resident (read Elderly White Dixiecrat) called the sherriff's department to report a young black man walking along the county road. (99% of people in the community drive everywhere they go.) By the time he arrived back at our office, the sherriff's dept. deputy pulled into our driveway. My student intern sighed and said he knew why they were there. (He grew up & lived in the in the community.) I went out and told the deputy that the young man was our intern and a resident of the county. The deputy thanked me and left.
The young man went on to graduate HS & college, join the US Army only to be sent to serve at an arms/weapons depot near Tikrit, Irag (he survived that, thank god) and returned to the USA where he remained in service and began his Master's Degree studies. He was a Sgt. while in Iraq. He may have been promoted since that time.
It can be very dangerous to be a young, black man in the South.
Edit: Please note that I was born in the South and have lived here all of my life. Also, back in the early 1990s, I was shot at by crazy, racist, Deliverance type rednecks in rural TN because I was with a black man. If you've ever been shot at, you will know that it is terrifying.