It really is dangerous to not be white enough in this country.

During Lockdown, my half-Persian son needed to get out of the house and to do something active. He had gone tramping through the woods behind our house to take some pictures, walking down our street from the highway where he'd gone around the neighborhood to access the woods. On these woodsy forays, he carried a karambit knife in a sheath on his back hip to use in cutting away branches and other small obstructions, and a camera bag slung over his shoulder.

Anyway, on his return home, he as he walking onto his own lawn, dog barked at him through an open window across the street. The son of the neighbor who owned the dog and my son had played in both our yards together for four years before the boys ended up in different high schools. But, just a year after our sons had been playmates, that neighbor called 9-1-1 and reported a "Middle Eastern man" with a knife looking in her window. Eight cops showed up at my door to interrogate my 15 year old son and then tell me he's not in any trouble, but… blah, blah, blah… don't let him do it again… blah, blah, blahdy, blah, blah.

Meanwwhile, her own white son had been frequently seen since that past Christmas with a bowie knife on his hip! No cops came to his door to tell him he needs to stop whatever.