08/02/2025
“Hide Your Sons”
Hide your sons, not because they’ve done wrong,
but because the world sees danger in their skin before it sees innocence in their eyes.
Because one wrong place, one wrong time, one wrong look—
can stamp a record on their lives that erases every right they ever did.
Hide your sons,
because a group of them on a sidewalk is called a “gang,”
but the same crowd in another color is just kids being kids.
Because someone else’s crime becomes their cross to bear—
caught in the sweep of suspicion,
handcuffed to a system that doesn’t ask questions,
only assumes.
Because one mistaken identity can cost a future—
a college dream, a passport, a job,
a chance to breathe freely in a world that too often takes their breath away.
You teach them to be kind, to be strong, to stay humble,
but it might not be enough when fear wears a badge,
and justice forgets their name.
So you say things no parent should have to say:
Keep your hands visible. Don’t talk back. Don’t run.
Don’t wear that hoodie. Don’t walk alone. Don’t be too loud.
Not because you don’t believe in them,
but because you know how quickly a system can believe the worst of them.
Hide your sons—not from their purpose,
but from a world still learning to see them as human first. 305.625.7963
