The Racial Reckoning of a Child

Like so many African-American parents, I had rehearsed “the talk,” that nausea-inducing discussion I needed to have with my son about how to conduct himself in the presence of the police. I was prepared for his questions, except for one.

“Can I just pretend I’m white?”

Dana Canedy blew my Sunday morning wide open with The Talk: After Ferguson, a Shaded Conversation About Race, in the Times. It’s like I said about de Blasio: how does a biracial couple reckon how people will treat their child? Canedy answers beautifully, but I’m left asking: Why should they have to in the first place?