YOU KNOW. Just normal healthy conversations happening here!
I grew up in part in a small town in Arkansas, & went to school in Hot Springs. I have a lot of fond memories of that time in my life, & I still keep up with lots of my friends from middle school (they’re still my favorite cohort.) For a kid like me, who moved around a lot, our little town was the closest thing to a hometown I can claim.
But there were scary parts. My story of my family being escorted out of a hotel by cops happened in our “hometown”. I was allowed to get a dog because strange white men came to our house (nestled in the woods, very out of the way) in the middle of the night & shined flashlights into our house. My parents shielded us, but I know there were more stories.
Even now, I worry about taking road trips with my husband. When we stop at gas stations or restaurants outside of major cities, we can feel the weight of hostile gazes trailing us. An older Texan interracial couple, seeing themselves in us, once gave us unsolicited advice about where in the state we would do best to avoid. Don’t get me wrong; there are Black & brown people everywhere. But with our current political climate turning #BlackLivesMatter into a four letter word, creating extremists who are armed, insecure, & not afraid to threaten violence, there’s a lot of the country that feels… unsafe. That part has always responded to black excellence by burning it down.
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