I Live in Minneapolis. This Is What I Told My 4-Year-Old.
White people like me need to talk about race, justice, and what’s right. Even when we are worried we’ll get it wrong.
You can draw a line between the spot where the police killed George Floyd and the spot where the Minneapolis 3rd Police Precinct used to be before it was burned to the ground. On that line, in the very middle, there is the spot where I live with my children.
My children’s skin is white, and so is mine. If this were not happening right here, where we live, I cannot say for sure what I would have told them about what is happening in Minneapolis. They are, after all, just two and four years old. Maybe I would not have told them anything at all. But we do live here, and I had to tell them something.
I had to tell them because their bikes’ training wheels crush meringues of ash when they ride. I had to tell them because we have to raise our voices to be heard above the sound of helicopters buzzing our skies. I had to tell them because it was the right thing to do.
The problem was what to say. I worried about finding the words. I worried I would get it wrong. I worried so much that I waited until the fourth day after George Floyd was killed to start talking to my children about what…
