Africa Americans’ struggle for freedom has a painful history. President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. According to the proclamation , all slaves in the rebellious states are, and henceforth should be free ( Schwartz, 2015). After the emancipation came the Jim Crow laws after the reconstruction period. The laws were states and local laws at the Southern part of the US that was meant to segregate people of color ( Gil & Marion, 2018). The racial journey went on with numerous activities and movements until the first Black American was voted in as the USA president, presumably ending the ethnic war in the country. However, Tracy & Cudore (2016) believe that the racial journey for Africa Americans was far from over.
In the article, Tracy & Cudore (2016) takes the reader through a journey of what it is like to raise an African American kid in the United States. A critical part of the article is the discussion of what the authors call "the Talk." The talk is a discussion the African American parents must hold with their adolescent children concerning how they need to act, dress, behave, and talk to be safe in the toxic racial environment. As Tracy& Cudore (2016) explain, the talk is about acceptance of the differences in treatment between the African American kid and the white American kid after behaving in the same manner. The foundation of the talk is based on the fact that African American kids are vulnerable to racism, which constitutes harassments and even death. Further, people find the talk on the basis that even after the emancipation proclamation, African Americans were never free, and the Jim Crow laws later chained them. Also, the talk has its basis on a belief that African American parents must teach their children how to interact with the police offices to avoid being harassed or being killed while on their daily activities like taking a walk and driving.
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The Main Purpose
The primary purpose of the article is to underline the need for Talk among the African American Parents and their adolescents' children. From the authors' point of view, there is a need for African American parents to prepare their children for racial socialization. Tracy & Cudore (2016) claim that the new generation of the Africa American parents assume that America is at post-racial status. However, the authors are quick to remind such parents that racial segregation and discrimination that has its roots in slavery time is still evident with the manner of killing and mistreatments of African American by the police and indifferent public places in the country. The authors thus plead with the African American parents that the only way to save the innocent black American kids from being perceived as criminal is to engage them in a racial socialization talk.
Key Questions
The authors thus engage the readers through some pertinent questions concerning the matter. The author acknowledges that by winning the presidential race, Barack Obama was signal that America was past racial time. However, the authors seem to ask that if that is true, then why is that during the Obama era, many Black Americans were criminalized, brutalized, and some murdered? Further, why is that it is still during this present time that the African American individuals always lead the number of people in prison? Why that Police Brutality and the use of force are targeting the majority of the African American kids? The arrow, according to Tracy & Cudore (2016), still points racial discrimination’s existence in America.
The Important Information in the Reading
The solution, which the authors point through different examples, is to engage the children on the Talk. Tracy & Cudore (2016) give numerous examples to support this fact. A good example is an incident that was video tapped at Biltmore, where a mother humiliated his teenage son by beating him for having appeared and participated in April 2015 uprising in the city. The laws treat African American different from white people. The African American parents have no power to control or provide a safe environment to the African American kids. The best way as an African American parent is to caution such kids through instituting strict rules that define the way they relate with the white people and police force in public. By giving the example of Biltmore incident and Toni Morrison's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Beloved (1987), the authors demonstrate that African American must find alternative ways to provide security for their children.
The Main Inferences/Conclusions in the Chapter
Such examples are the reason why the authors are looking at the Talk as the only way to provide alternative security that American society has failed to grant the African American kids. The authors further conclude that engaging a kid in a talk that demonstrates that he or she does not belong to the society is one of the hardest tests the African American parents must pass. The authors further conclude that accepting that as a parent, one cannot give the much-needed protection for his or her child in the society is also a challenging part after deciding to engage in the Talk. However, the authors conclude that with the rate of racial discrimination and deaths targeting African American teenagers, Africa American parents have no choice but to engage their children in such a talk.
The Key Concepts
Tracy & Cudore (2016) use some idea or concepts, and also make an assumption which the reader must grasp to understand the main point. The first is the concept of racial socialization. Racial socialization is the combination of behaviors and practices that Africa American parent hopes will make children live in a society that accepts and cherish them. The next concept is the Talk. The idea is about revealing the true state of an African American kid in society. The last one is racial discrimination, which implies the mistreatment and the divide that exists between the African American kids with white kids. These terms are used to elaborate that the culture in American is still racial toxic for the Black American Kids.
Assumption
The authors assume that modern-day African American parents assume that there is no racism and racial segregation and discrimination in America. In this manner, the authors can elaborate and also convince the audience using numerous examples that racial discrimination still exists in the country. Such assumption further allows the authors to provide a solution to the racial discrimination, which in this case is to enhance the African American children in the talk. The assumption can be questioned by those who believe that the rate of racial discrimination has declined since the time of slavery to the modern time in the United States
Considerations
The supporters
In any case, an African American parent side with Tracy & Cudore (2016), it implies that the parent will engage the kid in a racial socialization talk. In this case, the text assumes that the kid will be safe. Such a kid will be able to behave in a manner that does not raise any perception of crime in the minds of the police officers. Furthermore, such a parent will ensure that they caution their children through engaging in courteous punishment to prove that such a manner of behaviors is the best option to counter the rapid police brutality targeting innocent Africa Americans.
The opposition
In case the African American parents refuse to adhere to the authors' viewpoint and cautious stand on this matter, it implies that there will be more incidents of police brutality targeting African American kids.
References
Gil, R., & Marion, J. (2018).Residential segregation, discrimination, and African-American theater entry during Jim Crow. Journal of Urban Economics , 108 , 18-35.
Schwartz, B. (2015). The emancipation proclamation: Lincoln’s many second thoughts. Society , 52 (6), 590-603.
Tracy R. Whitaker & Cudore L. Snell (2016) Parenting while powerless: Consequences of "the talk," Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 26:3-4,303-309, DOI: 10.1080/10911359.2015.1127736
