A recent guest columnist perhaps does not know that every woman already knows a version of the “the talk” that Black men live by. Every woman knows, perhaps intimately, that they are not safe in the world, that they must take precautions in dress and manner and where they go and when. My husband’s student Jean Hosmer was gunned down outside a police station by her abusive husband. I myself was stalked for a year by an unknown stranger who left notes on my car, culminating in a confession that if he could just “have ” me, he could make me fall in love with him, and an attempted break- in to my house after disabling my car.
When George Floyd was killed, I was proud to protest with the Black Lives Matter movement so that people of color didn’t have to live the “talk.” It is not our job to keep ourselves safe from the police. I see white women, so-called wine women on the front lines of the protests today, and I know why. It is why I feel so proud when I see all the diverse people coming out to support their neighbors all over the country. Because we understand how all of our freedoms are connected. Democracy depends on it.
Tracey Brockett
Greenfield