(Sigh!)…I am reminded of a beautiful Summer evening, late 80s, My mother and I were sitting in her kitchen discussing a very disturbing news story we’d just watched on the evening news, It was about the growing problem of (mostly) white police officers pulling over (mostly) younger black male drivers for little or no reason. Back then cops weren’t as quick to shoot even a Black man, depending on where you lived. But cops would pull them over just to harass them. I remember mom and I expressed to each other how grateful we were that my brother (a young adult Black male at the time) hadn’t been subjected to that nonsense.

My brother had never shared with Us that he in fact had been subjected to police harassment…until THAT day, when he walked in and overheard our conversation. That’s when he revealed to Us that he’d been dealing with that crap since about age 18. We were Shocked. Shaken. and Speechless.

When I asked my brother why they kept pulling him over. He responded: “because I’m a young, Black man driving a nice car.” When my mother asked him why he’d never told us about it he responded:

“Mom. This is America. That’s why you and dad gave me *the talk*..remember!?!”