Raising black sons in america

After watching the way the central park five were treated by the system, not only did I fear for my own safety as a young person of color but it also made me feel a tremendous amount of anxiety for my future kids. What if that were my son.  Raising men of color is a different burden to carry. Wether it be central park five or Michael brown there is a mother behind each victim. How do you prepare them for survival? Its sad to fear the world you are bearing your son into. To imagine a son you spent 9 months in your womb creating, nurturing, and protecting to be taken away in a matter of seconds because of prejudice is a fear many mothers of color never live down. A fear of your son being swept up into a cycle of disadvantage thats out of your control is something young black and brown boys are raised to be aware of. All you can do is hope he isn't in the wrong place at the wrong time, he isn't at the wrong end of the barrel of a gun. You pray he survives his adolescence, and you pray even harder he lives long enough to reach 60. You hope he lives long enough to see YOU go instead of the other way around. You raise him to be a fighter, and you hope that he's lucky. Ive seen too many weeping mothers protesting their sons being wrongly taken away from them. Their voices cracking under the weight of the situation. Its truly painful to watch. Its a scary reality when your son never gets to come home, when you watched him leave with a bullseye on his back. My heart goes out to the women fighting to get their sons out of jail, or worse, seeking justice for their death.