A Letter to My Future Black Son

First and foremost, I want you to know that I love you. I hope I tell you this enough and that from my love, you learn how incredible you are and how much potential you have to change the world.

As I write this letter to you, another Black person is being murdered just for being Black and therefore not being seen as a person at all, but an animal that must be hunted and killed.

The faces of Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown burn brightly in my mind and I wonder to myself if you'll look like them. Will you have their kind eyes or boyish faces?

One thing I know: you'll have courage from all of those who fought back as they were dying to have their lives matter.

I want to believe so badly that by the time you're old enough to know the darkness of the world that the senseless violence and lack of regard for our bodies will have changed, but I'm not certain they will.

To be honest with you, son, I'm afraid for you.

Because you see, when some people look at you, they will only see their darkest fears looking back at them. They won't see that your heart beats in similar rhythms to theirs nor will they see the fact that your blood is the same color as theirs until it's spilling on the concrete.

I don't want to have to teach you things like: never wear a hoodie, always keep your belt tightly wrapped around your waist, don't hang out with too many Black people at one time, don't get too comfortable with your non-Black friends, don't walk around at night, and most importantly, don't do all of the aforementioned things while also reaching into the pocket of your coat.

No, I don't want to tell you these things, but they seem to be the only way I will be able to keep you safe.

Well, that's not entirely true. My other option is to never meet you at all.

Never having you would be the ultimate protection against all of this hatred and against having to know what it would feel like to lose you.

But it would also mean I let them win.

I sometimes fantasize that your only knowledge of racism will come from your reading about Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, or Jena 6 in history class, and that you'll come home from school, outraged, and tell your dad and I how you just "can't believe people could ever have been so hateful."

 I know that may never be possible, but I hope by the time you read this, the world will have woken up and started valuing our lives enough to actually protect us.