1 Mom's Post About Her Adorable Son as a Future Black Man Will Give You New Perspective
"I'm so cute now. Everyone comments on my beautiful skin, my adorable curls," Monica Park Johnson wrote on Facebook, from the perspective of her sweet little boy. "But I ask you this — what about when I'm 25, and my skin gets darker, my curls get tighter . . . I'm wearing baggy pants, maybe a hoodie or a baseball cap . . . will you lock your car doors when I cross the street?"
In the post, which accompanies an adorable photo of her smiling son, Johnson projects her toddler into the future based on today's racial climate and analyzes what her baby's life is potentially going to be like. She poses deep and important questions about his future to anyone reading in an attempt to create a new perspective: every grown black man was once an adorable, harmless little boy.
Will you embrace and welcome me when I'm a full grown black man? Will you value my life the same way you value my white Mom's? Or like my Dad's . . . my black daddy who gets pulled over for "following too closely" (at a stoplight) or for doing three miles over the speed limit? . . . When you see me on the street with my black friends, will you feel the same as when you see a group of white men? Will I still be cute to you then? Will my life be as precious to you then as it is now, while I'm deemed harmless and not intimidating?
Johnson ends her post by making it clear that prejudices aren't only coming from police officers but from human beings: "This is about all of us and how we shape our opinions and views of the world and its people. Our children are watching."