I am so outraged, upset and heartbroken. We live in a country that I have served, my father has served and my grandfather has served and because of the color our skin, we are treated differently. The murder of anyone is wrong. There is no excuse for it at all. We have all been searching for an answer, but the solution is much bigger than black people being compliant.

The discussion has been had in the black community of how to attempt to prevent altercations with police officers. The main solutions was to be more compliant with officers, do whatever they ask you and don't come off so defensive. Those steps have been taken and we still get the same result. Nothing we (black people) do is ever good enough, unless we are somewhere shucking and jiving, being jesters or athletes getting beat up in whatever sport. If we are educated on the laws of the land and decide that we want to excise our rights, then we are viewed as militant, a problem, or in my case "The Angry Black Woman."

A conversation needs to be had with white America: What can white folks do to help the situation. I thought about this all night last as I watched the unfortunate, tragic and senseless events unfold in downtown Dallas. I thought about my children and their innocence and ignorance of race. See, my daughters, ages 6 and 7, do not know how to identify people by race. They only know how to identify and describe people by the colors in the crayola box. Why is that? I have yet to teach them about race, intentionally. I want them to be able to related to people simply by getting to know the person and seeing the persons heart and intentions. That's what is most important to me.

If you know me, then you know the problems I have encountered being a dark-skinned, educated sista. With all of the injustices that I have experienced just because I am a black woman who has a strong sense of who she is and highly educated, I have never taught my daughters to hate white people. The same needs to happen on the other side. All people need to teach their children love.

It is so simple. If we could all just step outside of that box of being afraid of learning about other cultures and embracing them, it would be such a better place. When you teach that all black people are _______ whatever, you fill in the blank, you are hurting our society. All black people are not the same, just like all cops aren't bad and all white people are not members of the KKK. Some of y'all are so blind to it, it's crazy.

My oldest daughter was in the first grade last year and brought home her behavior folder that parents have to sign everyday. There were 6 colors represented on the page: orange, yellow, purple, green, red and black. Each color had a definition and if you child brought a black face home that meant they were uncooperative and unable to get along with others. To keep it at 100, that pissed me off, because the school is subconsciously teaching children that black is bad. I made an appointment to speak with my daughter's teacher a talked to her about my concerns. I explained to her that colors do not have meaning, they are colors. With the exception of red, yellow and green and they have a universal meaning. I didn't go to the school yelling and cussing, I simply had a conversation and expressed my concern. My daughter's teacher was an older white woman and she honestly admitted that she never even thought about that but that i brought up a good point. Long story short, black was removed from the chart.

So it is possible for us to come to a common ground. The key to attaining this is simple: Just respect the other person, listen to what is being said, put yourself in the other persons shoes and come to a common ground. Nothing has to be violent, no one has to die, it is simple, just be a human being. I do have a question for white America, and this does not apply to all of white America, but to those of you that it does apply to. Why are you so afraid of black America? We can start resolving the problem, if we start with questions and healthy, honest conversations.

 

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