Mother of Black boy, Professor Nicole Fleetwood raising questions that many Black parents hold in their breath in her article, Raising a Black Boy Not to be Afraid:
“I have agonized over this for years: How do I prepare him without paralyzing him with the fear of white people’s paranoia? How much do I tell him before he has had an opportunity to experience the world on his own terms? If I don’t tell him enough, am I setting him up for more harm?”
Fleetwood goes on to share research:
“A recent study by researchers at Ohio State University confirmed what most black parents already know—that black boys are fearful when walking in white neighborhoods. For me, the report in The New York Times on the study was perhaps more troubling than the findings. It asked if black parents were creating stress and fear for black children by exposing them to reported incidents of anti-black violence and making them hypervigilant about their encounters with white people.”
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