Dad?
Tales from the bus

My bus commute is long, but on days like today, when the conversations around me are so good, I don’t mind.
A father and son were discussing racism. His kid was maybe five. He had so many questions. He’d picked up on how police officers talked to his parents differently, having been in the car both times they’d recently been pulled over. It became clear immediately that the second stop was very different when mom was driving alone with him in the car.
Dad was aware he had an audience. Another boy about the same age was listening, holding his mom’s other hand as she managed a stroller. I don’t think the bus was the place he expected to have this conversation. It would have been easy to say, “let’s talk about this when we get home.” He didn’t.
His answers were age appropriate. They were real. Everyone around us was quieter. They too were drawn into his response. They talked for a few awhile before his kid, upset, asked;
“Did the police treat mom different because she’s white and we’re not?”