We all know the plight of black males in America in this day & age is severe. We’ve come to a point where worrying about the safety of our brothers (and sisters) has become second nature; especially because we are increasingly dying at the hands of the law. Celebrities are not exempt from that reality.
Tia Mowry recently sat down with Vibe to share her experience of raising a black son amid today’s norm of police brutality.
“How is it being the mother of a black son when, in these times, other mothers have had to prematurely bury their black sons at the hands of the law,” Vibe asked Tia.
She responded,
“I’m a huge advocate about Black Lives Matter and for a while, I had a hard time sleeping. I really did, because I have a son who is black and who is going to be growing up in a society such as this. It’s a conversation that I have with my husband all the time about, what are we going to tell Cree?” She said. “What are we going to say to him so that he is not put in any circumstance with what’s going on? And it’s hard. It’s hard to face that reality, and I just have to be really honest with you. My dad is white, and my dad used to be a police officer, and he quit. The one thing that he told me was that when a police officer pulls you over, make sure your hands are at “10 and 2,” and make sure it stays there. For my dad to tell me that, who’s white and used to be a police officer, to his black daughter, I think it says a lot. And this was when I just started driving. This was years ago.”
Tia is amongst thousands of black mothers who contemplate their approach of how to tell their black sons that this society isn’t meant for them.
“It’s having the conversation and talking to them about the reality of the situation, because when you don’t look at the reality, then you’ll end up doing something and you’ll find yourself being mistreated.”
Tia believes in breaking the news to them at a young age. She was at the dim age of eight when her parents first had the conversation about her skin color with her.
Unfortunately the only preventative measure that would be 100% effective for our black males to stop being killed by police is for the police to stop killing our black men.
#BlackLivesMatter
Check out Tia Mowry’s full interview here: http://www.vibe.com/2016/08/tia-mowry-raising-black-son-interview/
Source: Vibe, http://www.vibe.com/2016/08/tia-mowry-raising-black-son-interview/
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