Chapter 15: As A Father, My Heart Aches

When I read the essay, and heard my son Shannon’s perspective, it made my heart ache that not much has changed in our country in terms of how African Americans are perceived. I didn’t know Shannon felt this way. I was partially surprised by Shannon’s responses, but I also realize that as he has come of age, I am realizing how real this is for my son. It would nice to say we have made progress as a country, but we have not made the progress I would have liked to think we had or should have considering the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s. The purpose of this chapter as a father, as an African-American male, is to know me and my son are real people with a need to express our feelings on the way the world perceives us; not to just make mention of this discrimination, but to put these issues in the forefront of our country and how my son used art to hopefully watch people in positions of power make the necessary changes.