00:00Our conversations about race and police are constant. Even if society didn't give us hashtags
00:20every day to prompt us, I was raised talking about it all the time, very aware, whether that be from
00:28black scholars and other black intellectuals, black artists. My mom, specifically, was just
00:33very diligent about supplementing our education, which now I have to use education in finger
00:41quotes because I didn't know anything. I got to college and was clueless. I think they
00:47teach us what they want to teach us and it's up to you to figure out what you don't know
00:51and be clear that you're ignorant and then you can do something about it. So I try to
00:56make sure our boys are not as ignorant as I was. We are raising privileged black boys,
01:02which creates an interesting situation that me and Dee, we weren't raised with that kind
01:08of privilege. So it's, we're kind of learning through their eyes. So they're rich kids.
01:13The kind of friends that they have talk kind of crazy to adults. Not you guys, because A,
01:22that's not the house we have. And B, you can't say crazy disrespectful things to authority figures
01:28and think you're going to walk away and make it home. That's not your reality. You're going to have
01:33Uncle LeBron and Uncle Chris Paul and Uncle Carmelo. Those are your perks. But yeah, I mean,
01:39we had a situation not too long ago where the boys wanted to take, they wanted to walk down to a
01:44neighbor's basketball court. And I said, no, because it was after dark. And I don't trust our neighbors
01:50to not see our teenage boys, our tall teenage boys, as children and not as threats to put down like an
01:59animal. Dee didn't ask me if the boys had asked me. They pulled the old okie doke. Dee fell for it.
02:06And he was like, yeah, you sure you can go. He doesn't tell me until about like maybe 30,
02:1040 minutes later when I asked where they were. And he was like, oh yeah, they walked out. And I was like,
02:14oh my God. I panic. And then I get him to panic. We hop in the car and we go track them down.
02:21We're calling them like, just stop where you are. If you're under a streetlight, please just stay
02:25there. And as we're in route to them, there are cop cars coming from them. And it wasn't even the cops
02:31necessarily that I was more afraid of. Our neighbors also have personal security.
02:34And in a stand your ground state, an open carry state, they'll shoot you first and get off later.
02:40But trying to make our boys understand, like we literally had like some kids do fire drills.
02:45We had to do, if you're walking the dog and the police stop you, drills. This is what you do.
02:51This is how you hold the dog leash so your fingers are still shown, but you don't let go of the dog.
02:57This is our reality. And I try to think of every scenario, but they find new ways to kill us
03:03every day. So we try to make them as aware and as informed as possible without stripping them
03:11of their pride. That's a tough thing. Like, how do you arm our black boys with all the knowledge and
03:18all the pride and all the power that we can, but then ask them to be subservient when it comes to
03:24illegal search and seizure? I still struggle with it.
03:27Um, and it's hard, it's hard to, to, to tell somebody, this is how you have to act.
03:33You don't have to believe that about yourself. This is how you have to act so you can come home,
03:36but it's, it's, it's tough. And they're proud, young, educated, young black men, and it's
03:41a challenge every day.
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