00:00As my mom always says when people ask her,
00:03what did you do to raise two fabulous kids?
00:05How did you create Michelle and Craig Robinson?
00:09And my mom always says there are millions of Michelle and Craig
00:12Robinsons all over the world.
00:14The beauty of our story is that it is not special.
00:17And it's important for the world to understand that working-class
00:22kids and people of color grow up in stable homes with fathers
00:27who work hard, with lots of love.
00:29We may not have material possession,
00:31but we have values and we have expectations.
00:35We have standards and we have love.
00:37It wasn't special.
00:40Everyone in my neighborhood was a good parent.
00:43I didn't know kids who got in trouble.
00:45People went to school.
00:46I didn't know folks who went to jail.
00:48We were working-class people.
00:50And it's important for us to understand as we start to figure
00:55out how we decide who belongs and who doesn't in this world.
00:59And we make decisions based on things like skin color and who
01:03one prays to and how one loves.
01:06And that happened to our family.
01:08And I wrote about how growing up and moving into a better
01:11neighborhood, as many parents want to do,
01:15they want to provide their kids with something more.
01:18My parents moved into a house that my great-aunt owned in a
01:22better neighborhood that was mixed race.
01:25It was probably predominantly white when we moved in.
01:29But a phenomenon known as white flight took place over the
01:33course of a few years of my childhood,
01:35where I started out in a school with a mixed race.
01:38You can see my kindergarten picture right there.
01:41And by the time I was in eighth grade,
01:43the entire community was all African American because the
01:47white families were told to be afraid of us and to move out.
01:51And we experienced that a lot, people of color, poor folks,
01:55folks who were told and whispered in their ear to be
01:57afraid of people like us.
02:00And I want people to understand that people,
02:03if you're running from somebody who you think is other,
02:06you could possibly be running from me.
02:09And we have to understand that we still do that to one another
02:12in this world.
02:14We decide who's good, who's bad, who has values.
02:17But my growing up, it was special because it was loving,
02:22but it wasn't anything new.
02:24My parents, my mom and dad thought we were funny and
02:27brilliant.
02:28They thought our views were so important.
02:30We were always included in on the conversations.
02:33We were never shushed.
02:34We were never told children are to be seen and not heard.
02:37They wanted to hear it all.
02:39And we told it all.
02:41And that foundation gave me confidence as I went out into
02:45the world.
02:46There is nothing more important than having parents who believe
02:49in their kids and trust their voices.
02:52And I knew that absolutely, absolutely.
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