For those who don’t know, my father was born in Poland and immigrated to the US in 1980. For Father’s Day, he asked for a history lesson on racism and Black rebellion in the US. We worked backwards from his first question – Does #DefundPolice really mean what I think it means?
"Yes, yes it does. It means abolishing the police," I say.
He responds, "I know that the police don't make Black people feel safe, but they make me feel safe. So what do we do? I need to understand because I can't see where we're going with this."
He responds, "I know that the police don't make Black people feel safe, but they make me feel safe. So what do we do? I need to understand because I can't see where we're going with this."
We covered slavery, slave patrols, Juneteenth, Reconstruction, lynchings, Black codes, convict leasing, the New Deal, redlining, Jim Crow, Brown v Board of Ed, Ruby Bridges, Civil Rights Mvmt, gerrymandering, mass incarceration, stop & frisk, gang databases, BLM, #DefundPolice...
After 6 hours, my dad asks, “Is this all in US history books?”
“Remember, the same people who did all this wrote the history books,” I respond.
He says, “I see. Can you send me a summary? I can teach other white people so they can understand too.”
#HappyFathersDay #Progress
“Remember, the same people who did all this wrote the history books,” I respond.
He says, “I see. Can you send me a summary? I can teach other white people so they can understand too.”
#HappyFathersDay #Progress
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