Last week after the tragic death of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, I wrote a public status inviting my readers to send in their thoughts and feelings. I will be sharing these posts over the coming days. You can read my post on the subject here.
An Open Letter To The White Mothers Of The Nation (Guest Post)
I sat down last night to write this but as a mom, life happened, and before I could continue to write, another one of your sons has gunned down another one of my brothers. I still haven’t finished my coffee as I’m writing this so I can’t count or do the math on how many of my people these boys in blue you’ve raised have taken in cold blood. And in truth, you are part of the blame.
Why? You didn’t point and shoot, right?
You should have raised them better. Just like all of you look at us when you see a little black child acting out or an adult who’s done something absurd I’m looking at you. Hard. Glaring.
Here’s the thing: I love people. I love white people, black people, Asians, Latinos, everyone. I see the good in all of the races. There’s something to be learned from each of them (like how the Asians and Latinos take care of their own in such a beautiful way) and there’s so much beauty in the differences. As a mom to little brown girls, we don’t only have brown dolls. We have dolls that represent the world so that my girls are learning the beauty of all colors and looks.
But what are you teaching your kids? Are you teaching them that it’s ok to call different races derogatory names? Are you teaching them that it’s ok to treat people that look different than them like second class citizens? Are you teaching them that killing someone is right simply because the day ends in -y?
My guess is the answer to that is yes since last year my kindergartner was told by one of your kids that she didn’t want to play with her because of the color of her skin and your boys in blue are executing people left and right. What happened to teaching morals and respect? What happened to kumbaya and all that other hippie stuff?
As I dropped my very black husband off to work this morning, I saw a white man with his son walking down the street smiling with no worries and I cried. I cried because my babies and husband won’t be able to do that. I cried because my people and I live in fear because no matter what we do, the color of our skin has determined that we’ll more than likely end up dead–even if we’re in the right. I cried because there’s nothing that we can do which is why this letter is to you.
Fellow mother, please do better. Please teach your kids to love and not hate. Please teach your kids to follow the rules of the justice system that your people put into place. Please teach understanding and compassion. Please teach your kids the beauty of differences and not to fear them.
Please. Because all I want is my kids to live and not die at the hands of yours.
Sincerely,
A Fellow Mother
Aaronica is a a budding entrepreneur taking the world wide web by storm when she’s not mothering her 2 girls or wife-ing her awesome husband. She likes milk chocolate in her granola and doesn’t wear capes though she is super. You can read more from her “crunchy life” at The Crunchy Mommy. Be sure to follow her on Facebook and Twitter.
