I’m aware that my child takes cues from me on how to feel about our community, politics, our environment and anything else he isn’t mature enough to have his own ideas about.  He follows my lead in believing that the stereotypical images on TV are not him and do not apply to him or a large percentage of Black folks in general.  He understands that he is not better than those people depicted on TV but that they are a sliver of the Black community that has fallen into the chasm created by poor education, poor housing, underfunded school districts and reduced job opportunities.  So not better, just different circumstances.  He knows there are bad people of all races who do horrible things. 

It’s up to me to define ‘watching your own back’ to him.  And that the term doesn’t mean to proactively hate every White person or Mexican or any nationality on sight.  You don’t hate because it’s a convenient emotion and defense mechanism against learning about the next person.  I hope to set the example that you respect everyone off the bat unless and until they give you cause to look at them differently.  I hope he’s learned when I tell him “Don’t give anyone else power over you by taking you down to their level of hate or ignorance.  You are your own person and you decide what you feel independent of what everyone else is doing.”