I recall that in the 1960s it was said that a black man should never let the sun set on his head in Forsyth County Georgia. I grew up in Forsyth (a city in Monroe County Georgia, while the county seat of Forsyth County is Cummings Georgia). Race and Reckoning in Forsyth County, 1912-2020 – New Georgia Encyclopedia.
The death rate of black to white men in Georgia: according to data analyzed by America’s Health Rankings: the homicide rate for the Black population in Georgia is 23.9 per 100,000, compared to just 3.1 per 100,000 for the white population.
White-on-Black Stranger Homicides: When a White civilian kills a Black stranger, the ruling is deemed justified in 34% of cases—making it nearly seven times more likely to be cleared as self-defense compared to the national average for stranger-related homicides. The Marshall Project.
The history of discrimination of black people by white people in America. W.E.B. DuBois wrote The Philadelphia Negro in 1899.
Richard Rothstein wrote the Color of Law in 2017.
Charles Johnson points to findings consistent with all of the case histories above. I have lived in the south of the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s,1990s up to 2010, and worked at the Atlanta University where W.E.B. Dubois taught. Over thirty years I was involved with sixty-two Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
The “talk” was given to a black boy around 12-13 years of age. This coming of age experience is what you must understand that you will be seen as different from white males, the term adultification bias to describe a structural racial prejudice where children of color are viewed by authority figures (such as law enforcement and educators) as more “streetwise,” less vulnerable, and inherently more dangerous than white children of the exact same age and developmental stage. Center for Policing Equity
Charles Johnson says it requires a systematic undoing of centuries of indoctrination by white people, of the “conceptual paint,” absorbed by black Americans. https://tricycle.org/article/every-28-hours/
In the book and this earlier article he points to mindfulness as a “talk” we should all have with our children as part of coming of age. Such a talk might invoke the idea of being open people have different characteristics while we are all human beings. Then, how do you see being as being different, then some chatting on difference as not like me or me like them. Coming of age means expanding the meaningfulness of all life as a starting point– “beginner’s mind.”
“Ultimately, Johnson argues that dismantling racism requires an artistic and meditative “beginner’s mind.” 1 It demands a conscious effort to scrap away received, second-hand interpretations so that we can look past social conditioning and acknowledge a person’s raw, unmapped humanity.” https://open.spotify.com/episode/2LiSzLGvNvE9r2Rpf67R2C?go=1&sp_cid=5f491baaad63d757f05430d53188ecfb&intent=1&utm_source=embed_player_p&utm_medium=desktop&nd=1&dlsi=876db7e386494bc9
In our Zen practice we, through knowing ourselves, begin to realize this cobbled together sense of separateness, creates much of our worldly problems. Being open to ten thousand things is an enabler. This selfish, listening, compassionate being is not consumed by dread…”not judged by the color of the skin, but by the character of their heart.”
Sangaku