Thursday, April 5, 2012

The Talk: Nonblack Version

......... if you are white or Asian and have kids, you owe it to them to give them some version of the talk. It will save them a lot of time and trouble spent figuring things out for themselves. It may save their lives.

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There is much talk about “the talk.”

“Sean O’Reilly was 16 when his mother gave him the talk that most black parents give their teenage sons,” Denisa R. Superville of the Hackensack (NJ) Record tells us. Meanwhile, down in Atlanta: “Her sons were 12 and 8 when Marlyn Tillman realized it was time for her to have the talk,” Gracie Bonds Staples writes in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Leonard Greene talks about the talk in the New York Post. Someone bylined as KJ Dell’Antonia talks about the talk in The New York Times. Darryl Owens talks about the talk in the Orlando Sentinel.

Yes, talk about the talk is all over.

There is a talk that nonblack Americans have with their kids, too. My own kids, now 19 and 16, have had it in bits and pieces as subtopics have arisen. If I were to assemble it into a single talk, it would look something like the following.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

(1) Among your fellow citizens are forty million who identify as black, and whom I shall refer to as black.

More @ Taki's

5 comments:

  1. Agreed, I don't know what else to say.

    Well I do but for fear of seeming way over the top, I'll leave it to your post.

    Lets face it,

    ReplyDelete
  2. Not sure what just happened, but I must finish my thought, (it is so profound:)

    I'm not worthy to judge cause I've never been down for the struggle, I mean really, white folk have never suffered servitude, always a life of leisure.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Here's hoping that was sarcasm...

    My ancestors were treated as WORSE than slaves by the coal companies.

    Research the meaning of "16 tons" and educate yourself!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dedicated Dad

    Yes, the entire comment was steeped in sarcasm!

    As were mine.

    Of course that does not matter...wrong color.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thoughts from another generation.

    "Mrs. Townsend, you're not white and I'm not black, we're both colored."

    ReplyDelete