The two types of "The Talk."
There are two different kinds of "the talk" that parents have with their kids. The sex talk is about: where babies come from (what sex is), protection (birth control/condoms/personal safety), consent, dating, etc. And then, The talk: when people of color who have kids talk to their kids about how to keep themselves safe; primarily how to communicate and carry themselves with the police in a situation that might end with a youth being shot because a cell phone or wallet is mistaken for a weapon. The parent explains that the youth must explain everything they're doing before they do it, and keep their hands visible and voice calm, and respectful at all times. If you don't have to think about any of these things, you have a level of privilege that others don't. That doesn't make you a bad person, but it can make you biased. That doesn't necessarily mean you're racist. It just means that we need to make people more aware. The minute someone hears the word "racist" a guard goes up, and they stop listening. Biases can lead to assumptions which lead to split second decisions. When a gun is brought into the situation, a bias can become a deadly chain reaction. A bias can be fixed though. Through communication and better and/or different training that is adjusted. We're all afraid and that's the problem: fear is what's causing this. Fear of the unknown. You can't just shoot people because you're afraid though. This is where better training comes into play. How can we trust you to protect us if you're scared because you don't have any other way to protect yourself than using a fatal weapon? We can make this better. We have to. There are kids dying, and kids being traumatized because "we don't know who has a gun anymore." This is where different training is necessary.
