They Matter
When Tin was six years old, his school had a Poem in your Pocket day. I was two years into having lost my job, hair and then moved out of my dream house. So the poem I picked for Tin that day was Mother to Son by Langston Hughes.
Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor—
Bare.
But all the time
I’se been a-climbin’ on,
And reachin’ landin’s,
And turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.
So boy, don’t you turn back.
Don’t you set down on the steps
’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.
Don’t you fall now—
For I’se still goin’, honey,
I’se still climbin’,
And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
Just yesterday morning, I was thinking about what Ahmaud Arbery’s mother is feeling now. How would I feel? I wouldn’t be feeling – I’d be thinking – about the hours spent at swim team practice, the nights spent reading to him in bed, the mornings trying to get him up and ready for school, the minutes spent either putting him or me in time out, and the moments spent searching for the right piece of wisdom I could drop on my son to make sure he stayed safe.
I’d think about how my biggest fear would have come true – my son was killed because he is Black. I would be a hashtag mother. Wanda Cooper-Jones is a hashtag mother. If mothers of white children knew how this fear consumes mothers like me, they might take to the streets, start an organization, put up yard signs, sell merchandise – tee shirts that read:
THEY MATTER.
May 15th, 2020 at 10:26 am
I was thinking about this also Rachel, you are so correct. How is it that someone in this country is killed while jogging or walking home from a store or what have you and then victimized by many in media based on past indiscretions, etc or just “they were black and looked suspicious” I do feel much of this and the fear so many mothers feel. Lovely poem. I also wonder how we give passes to so much of what some “leaders” say or do yet someone who shoots someone and is videoed and it takes months to even bring charges!!! It is mind boggling.
May 16th, 2020 at 8:09 am
I think we are digesting outrage every day and you think what would it take to make everyone stand up and say ENOUGH. I don’t have the answers but I think the stress it puts on parents of Black children is terrorizing.