It’s a sure bet that most Wyoming residents never have had to give their teenage sons “the talk”

       “‘The talk’ for a black father is how not to get killed by the police. Right around eight, nine years old every black father has to sit his children down and say, 'If (police) ever pull you over, put your hands on the dash, don’t reach for your cellphone, ask for permission to call.'” — Dr. R.A. Vernon,  senior pastor, The Word Church, Shaker Heights, Ohio (“Black families having the talk again,” News5, Cleveland, Ohio, https://bit.ly/2ApXqiy)

BY D. REED ECKHARDT

       I would venture to guess that many Wyoming residents don’t really understand what is happening on the streets of cities like Minneapolis, Denver and Washington, D.C. All the anger and frustration being displayed by the protestors, particularly expressed by black and Latino males, is as foreign as listening to someone speak Chinese.
       And I am certain that most Cowboy State parents never have had to sit their male sons down and destroy their

Recent protestors in Casper.

innocence by explaining that one wrong move during a police stop can bring an end to their lives. Even the thought that someone in America in 2020 has to warn their kids that the police would single them out for the color of their skin makes no sense to most of us.
       Those realities — of “the talk,” of black persons’ anger over having to live their lives in a state of constant anxiety, of raising their sons to understand the dangers that are very real — came home to me the last time the nation went through these kinds of protests. Perhaps it was in the wake of the killing in Fergusons, Mo., in  2014. I don’t recall for sure. But it was brought home to me in a couple of ways.
       The first was an ESPN radio conversation that I heard with Cris Carter, the Hall of Fame wide receiver from the Minnesota Vikings. He was asked during the interview if he, being a black man, feared for his life when he was stopped for police. He was response was ready: Of course, he is. He understands that his life is in jeopardy every time he is stopped, that one wrong move can end his life.
       I was stunned. Here was a known celebrity, both as a football player and a sports announcer, who surely has plenty of money in the bank and is recognizable, who worried about potentially losing his life with a police officer at his car window.
       “Wow,” I thought. “If someone like Cris Carter is that afraid, what must it be like for the average African American man?”
       The impact of that has stuck with me ever since.
       Then I was able to ask a black friend of mine, a resident of Laramie, if she faced similar fears for her children — even in Wyoming. Her answer, almost matter of factly, was: Yes. She went on to explain that she had to have “the talk” with her son as he approached driving age and that the fear of something bad happening to him is always on her mind.
       Clearly, there is something going on here.
       And it’s not good.
       The statistics make it all the more clear. In 2019, the National Academy of Sciences reported that one in 1,000 black men will be killed by police in their lifetimes. For white men, the number if 39 out of 100,000. That means it is 2.5 times more likely for a black man to be killed by police than it is a white man. (“What new research says about race and police shootings,” City Lab, Aug. 6, 2019, https://bit.ly/3cpdcb7)
       What’s the point of all this?
       As I watch the focus by FOX news and other media outlets on the so-called riots and rumors of riots and on the few looters and arsonists who have attached themselves to the non-violent protests popping up across the nation, including in Cheyenne and Casper, I pray that my fellow Wyomingites will step back and focus on what the demonstrators are saying.
      Too many of us a quick to speak and slow to listen, especially in these times where everyone has an opinion about everything.
      But those who are afraid to lose their white privilege are doing everything they can to distract us from the truths that underlie these demonstrations. Truths about police bias against people of color. Truths about a society where the majority of deaths from COVID-19 are to people of color, who are forced to work in “essential” positions while many of us can afford to stay home or are given the option to work at home. Truths about the racism and racial inequities that are perpetuated even here in the Cowboy State.
      Yes, I know many readers will recoil at the use of the term “white privilege.” But what do you call it when black parents across America are forced to give their children “the talk” and then fear that their children may never come home after heading out in the family car or just for a run?
I don’t know of a single white family that ever has had to give “the talk” for fear that the police would overreact due to the color of their skin.
       We can, we must, do better. Why not appoint a city commission to look into police department policies? Why not collect data to see how incidents between local police and minorities (yes, Hispanics and Native Americans face similar concerns) are handled? Why not do a study to see if there are pay disparities or other concerns impacting the city’s poor?
       Of course, the state could, and should, do the same.
       There is no reason not to do this, unless you are afraid of what you might find out.
       But until we do, blacks across America — including in Wyoming — will be forced to continue to give their children “the talk.”
       Surely you agree that ought not to be.

       D. Reed Eckhardt is former executive editor of the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.