[Upbeat Music]
(upbeat music)
- The talk to me is the conversation that we have
with our boys, particularly Black boys
about how to have an interactions with the police.
- They're to understand that the police aren't necessarily
there to protect and serve them,
but perhaps there to profile them,
perhaps there to just make judgments
about what they may be doing
even if they're not doing anything.
- Further explaining how it's important for them
to just get home with us.
And so we want them to understand how they should behave
and understand that it's a pervasive issue
in our society today
that it's quite possible that that interaction
could go very wrong.
- It also includes instructions
as to what you should do when you're stop.
- Put your hands, understand,
make sure the lights are on.
- Don't do anything without police permission.
Ask before you get your registration.
Ask for a supervisor
if you feel like things are starting to escalate.
- There is a line of questioning that goes too far.
If they feel uncomfortable with those questions,
they need to say, "You know what?
"I want my parents to be in the room."
- It's part of driving.
It's just part of driving while Black.
And you're just, again,
it's literally like just how you explain
how to parallel park,
you explain this is what happens when you get stopped.
(gentle music)
- To have that talk with my sons makes me feel,
it saddens me.
I feel like it's unfair
that we have to live like these totally different lives
even though everyone wants to say all lives matter
and we're all human beings, clearly there are differences.
And so it is, it feels like it's very unfair
that I have to have these conversations
with my boys so that they can, so they can live and survive.
- People are viewed completely different
when their color is not White, unfortunately.
I tend to think that I have tremendous White privilege,
being a Latino of lighter skinned
that I don't have to worry about getting pulled over.
However, when I was younger,
running with kids who were all Brown or Black,
we had that fear.
- Our kids have come up during a generation
where you see bumper stickers that say question everything.
And that's the philosophy.
And it seems to be the climate of the day
where people challenge everything and question everything.
Well, that's okay for other people,
but it's not okay for Black people.
You don't question and challenge the police officers
like everybody else can.
- My boys will be first and foremost seen
as either a threat or a potential threat first
before anything else.
- Just growing up in California in Los Angeles area,
I have been stopped with another Black male in the car,
stopped driving perfectly.
Normally, I have to sit on the side of the road,
have my car stripped and just looking for drugs
and things that obviously weren't there,
but it's been a real experience for me.
So that talk is necessary.
And because I know from personal experience
that this is what happens.
- In Oakland, the police, they were very much prevalent,
pretty much in every neighborhood,
and the interactions I would witness were never positive.
It wasn't where I would see a police officer
coming to engage us as kids just to be friendly.
It was always aggression.
It frustrated me.
It frustrated me because I understood
that I was being stopped because I was Black.
And I was in that area.
I knew what the game was.
I knew it, but of course I did what I was taught to do.
I was respectful and answer the questions
and I didn't smart off to the police officers but,
and it's also frightening, let me add that.
We're told that police officers do things
because they're afraid,
I don't know if they understand that we're afraid too,
because we understand what can happen.
- That fear still lives within me
even though I'm 43 years old, educated, have my own family.
It's still within me.
- [George] Please instructor.
Please, please, I can't breath.
Please man.
- What I think about the George Floyd incident
was surprisingly how much denial that we live in America.
- With the death of George Floyd,
we definitely revisited the conversations
and on how to interact with the police.
It was like, here we go again.
And you guys, we really have to be careful.
And it really made me see
that it could happen at any time to anyone.
- One of the things that we said to our children
is that this isn't the first time.
This is an issue that consistently comes
to the forefront in our society.
And it's important that they are aware
and that George Floyd is them.
They could be George Floyd.
- And the truth is, is that until we are,
until we are willing to admit that there is a problem,
we will never fix that problem.
- I mean, we've seen all of these Marquis progress,
but we're still doing the same thing
as Black people that our great, great,
great grandparents did.
We're still telling them say yes, sir.
And no, sir, when you encounter a cop,
just like our ancestors said,
"Say yes, samassa, say no, samassa."
I mean, we have pride, not progress
beyond having to do special things to survive as a people.
And that's something we need to understand
in both Black and White society
that Black people are still in danger,
just like our ancestors were in danger.
- So it kind of breaks my heart to know that
he's just gonna be judged regardless of how good he behaves.
I think on some level, he even knows that.
And there's nothing that I can can do about that,
not now and not as he grows into adulthood.
So it just, it saddens me.
(gentle music)
- Some of the things I tell my sons
just to just to stay uplifted and to be positive
is to know when you come home,
you are safe and you are loved.
- So I want them to know that it's a challenge,
but the world still is open for them.
They could achieve whatever they wanna achieve.
We just have to make sure
that they navigate this world safely and smart.
- The environment between the police
and the community here in Arizona, in Tucson Arizona
is the best that I've experienced.
- I've been stopped in the car with my husband
and the interactions have always been positive.
I've just never had a negative experience.
So I just don't have any reason to believe here
that there would be a issue.
- I've interacted with the Police Department intimately.
I'm a part of the chief's community advisory board.
- I feel the support of even moms
in my community asking me, "What can I do?
"How do you think we can work towards change?"
They're actually verbalizing that to me.
And that makes me so happy.
That gives me so much hope.