Don't get in trouble with police they will kill you. Save all receipts and buy sth to place yrslf every hour.

gawker- What Black Parents Tell Their Sons About the Police

... It makes people afraid to have black babies, because they won't stand a chance. As a black woman, nothing will stop me from bearing and raising my future child, but nothing will stop me from raising them in fear. Being a black parent, especially of a black boy, comes with the added onus of having to protect your child from a country that is out to get him—a country that kills someone that looks like him every 28 hours, a country that will likely imprison him by his mid-thirties if he doesn't get his high school diploma, a country that is more than twice as likely to suspend him from school than a white classmate. There are so many things I need to tell my future son, already, before I've birthed him; so many innocuous, trite thoughts that may not make a single difference. Don't wear a hoodie. Don't try to break up a fight. Don't talk back to cops. Don't ask for help. But they're all variations of a single theme: Don't give them an excuse to kill you. I needed advice on how to do this, so I reached out to a small group of people. For black parents, I asked: What rules, warnings, survival tactics are you giving your children as you raise them? For black youth: What have you been taught? What did you learn on your own?



8/21/14 9:56am
-Hocofaisan:

I grew up in the Hamptons of NY.  One of the only less than 10 (if I gave the exact number it would identify me to schoolmates) black kids in the entire school district of which my siblings were a significant percentage of that.

My parents being immigrants from the Caribbean were all about assimilation.

French last name, French first names. Edge applying for jobs.

No rap music allowed in the house. No slang allowed. Pronunciation classes.

My parents gave us the talk at 7 years old:

Always act as if you are an ambassador of your race.

You must work twice as hard for half as much.

The burden of proof is always on you.

White people fear you, and some envy you (we were upper middle class).

Don't get in trouble with police they will kill you. 
If a police officer is present, leave. 
If you can't leave shut up and keep your hands in view.

Keep all reciepts [receipts], and if you are in a strange place buy something to place yourself every hour. 

Even with the talk, my mother had to fight tooth and nail to keep us out of manufactured trouble in middle school and high school. Threatening to sue the school district on 2 occasions to keep things out of our records or to get grades changed on assignments. I always wonder how my life would have turned out if I wasn't fortunate to have a father to made enough that my mother had the option to work a parttime job so she could fight the school district.



 -I'm AFAM and I got ALL of this. We were given Anglo-Irish or Spanish (middle) names. ...I asked my parents (at about age 8) why we couldn't join the country club. Mom: "If someone's wallet goes missing, they will blame you." I understood. A few years ago I went camping: one WM, his black girlfriend, their neighbors (black couple and son). The cops let us know that other campers complained about our "noise" and called them (it was late pm). We were issued citations for disorderly conduct. The WM and I are attorneys. When the cops (WM) came up, I let him do the talking and hung back. I looked around at the rest of us. Every other black person (1) made no eye contact with cops; (2) said not one word while they were there; (3) pretended to be busy cooking/tidying/setting up .