Tired of “Being Safe”

By Trevor Trout

“Be safe.”

“Don’t be nowhere you have no business.”

As young black men and women, they hear this before leaving the home. It can get redundant. The older they get, the more frustrating it becomes. But they know the drill. They’ve lived a little. They aren’t oblivious to the world they live in. Sometimes they get annoyed because they hear it so much.

Many of them are college students and employees. They’ve left the nest. They’ve paid bills and have survived on their own. Those grinding hours working at those low-paying jobs are taxing. But they like their neat little apartments. Or cutting back to save on that car. “Keepin’ your head above water,” as the Good Times lyric goes. Trying to make it in America.

Why are these words from their parents such a constant? In 2020, it’s blurry between what’s real and what isn’t. Now, going to college is accessible for black kids. A chance to have a seat at the table.

Some have seen the world. Meeting people from all walks of life. Some of them have even traveled abroad. Many of them are the first in their households to go to college. Some of their parents have careers. This wasn’t always the case. Black people are making progress.

They’re helping improve the socio-economic status of their communities. They’re more aware of how to make it. They’re seeing people who look like them make their dreams come true. It used to be just hope, but they feel empowered to go do what they want to do. They’re smarter than their parents. And not by accident. Their families sacrificed for their children as the ones before them.

So why do their parents keep telling them “be safe”? Because of a lack of trust? Do they find them careless? I don’t think so. The parents understand they have to go out in the world to change it. But the words are constant because the death tolls are. That’s why we’re in the same spot.

The society we live in constantly reminds us that black lives don’t matter. The progress black people have made is blind to them.

They don’t care.

They don’t care if they went to college. They don’t care that they went to a predominately white school. They don’t care if they make more money than their white colleagues. They don’t care that they helped break a chain of poverty in their family. They don’t care that they are rebuilding their broken communities. They don’t care. And they never did.

You know who they are. They told you that all lives matter. They told you that getting into college was easier for some because of affirmative action. They said they only got to college because of sports. They told you about “black on black” crime. They told you Michael Brown was a criminal, and he brought it on himself. They told you that George Zimmerman was just standing his ground. They told you George Floyd had drugs in his system and he wasn’t innocent.

“This you?”

Racism is wrong. And if you think otherwise, you’re an idiot. But racism shouldn’t even be the driving force of the conversation. Systemic racism is very prevalent. And it isn’t going anywhere as long as brown and white people exist in this country. It affects how we all live. But that’s something we can’t change.

And saying we will stop systematic racism because it’s not fair is unrealistic. It’s something we can’t control. But you know what we can? People staying alive.

You can hate people for the pigment of their skin. You may be scum because of it, but you can. You hating my existence doesn’t affect my ability to get up and go to work every day.

Regardless of race, this is a constant. But if you kill people because of it, then we have a serious issue. An issue that’s been occurring for generations that’s honestly beyond tired. With that being said, it justifies whatever actions the black community takes.

When we see the protests all around the country, we shouldn’t care how people are protesting. Who are we to judge how others feel when lives are lost and people are being brutalized? These citizens aren’t just people. These are fathers we are losing. A mother’s son. A daughter possibly taking eight bullet wounds like Breonna Taylor.

If you have a history of people doing that to your family for decades, it would be weird if you didn’t feel the need to be violent. As far as I’m concerned, the black community is being as peaceful as they can be.

All that can be asked of everyone, not just black people, is to support the movement and be as emotional as they are.

Put yourself in their shoes. It’s not possible if you’re white, but the effort is appreciated.

It’s excruciatingly painful watching black people die. I’m not here to go into the logistics of police training. But I’ve seen too many white people not die in situations they have. Clearly, there is an answer.

And if looting big corporations that will get a massive tax break upsets you, go be mad at something else. “Looting fixes nothing,” is something I hear a lot. Yet, it took way too long to charge Derek Chauvin. Things like these should be open-and-shut cases. And the reason they aren’t is why smoke stretched all across America.

“Be safe.”

“Don’t be nowhere you have no business.”

Young black people are tired of hearing this. They don’t all sell drugs. They aren’t all in gangs. Crazy. I know.

But their parents shouldn’t be in fear every time their children leave the house. Black kids do the same thing as everyone else. Yet they are still being killed by those who which their children appropriate. But America keeps telling them the same story as those before them. And it always ends in tears and hopes of triumph, only to be disappointed by the justice system once more. It needs to stop. If you aren’t against it, you are enabling it.

“All lives matter” is enabling. Because if they all did, we wouldn’t be here…….Again. For the umpteenth time.

The never-ending cycle.