When I was a negro, our parents explained to us very patiently that the rules — all of them — are different for white kids than they are for us. A white kid could be a hippy (I’m pretty old), insult the police, smoke drugs, and be a pest. But he could still cut his hair and put on nice clothes and get a job faster than a black kid could. So we were encouraged to keep our noses clean, or at the very least, not aspire to the same liberties of behavior that white kids had.
I thought then and still think that’s very good advice. It doesn’t appear that black people tell their kids that any more. I think a few years of relative calm, limited economic and political gains, and a lot more discretion by white people about their true feelings have misled a lot of black people into thinking they have the same rights, and especially the same license, that white people in America have.

This is categorically false. Repeat: black people do not have the same rights that white people do. And quite probably never will. Some injustices are beyond the reach of law, even of activism. This is grievous, but it’s not terminal. In the short term, black people need to be a lot smarter. Especially black boys and black professional athletes everywhere. We certainly aren’t going to ameliorate racism by inviting retaliatory prosecutions, even if white kids committing the same acts get off relatively lightly. The point is not to gain the same right as white kids to act like barbarians. The point is to stop committing crimes in the first place, to marginalize the criminally-oriented among us.

It was useful to know that black kids didn’t have the same options that white kids did. It made it that much easier to make sensible choices, knowing the consequences were going to be much more dire for me than for my white friends. I find it useful knowledge still.

If you’re a black parent, please tell your kids today that the rules are different for them. We can’t really afford to send any more of our kids out into a hostile environment when they’re so confused.

BUT SINCE THEIR BLACK THE SYSTEM WILL WORK AGAINST THEM….. AS PER USUAL.

Alot of people are saying, oh, they are young and did’nt know what they were doing. Really?
When I was younger, I knew stealing, raping, and conspiring to do these things were wrong.
We have to be responsible for our actions. Stop making excuses for ending up in prison, on welfare, etc, etc. Take responsiblity for you and your children’s actions.