“Every Black parent has the ‘talk’ with their children when they get ready to start driving. They tell them that if a police officer pulls them over they are to say, Yes, sir or Yes, ma’am. They are to keep their hands in the open and not make any quick movements. This wisdom could literally save their lives. I was pulled over by a policeman when my wife and children were in the car. He said something that paralyzed me. As I sat there afraid to speak, he said, ‘Do the cat have your tongue?’ He wanted to humiliate me and destroy my manhood in front of my children. He wanted me to resist so he could shoot me. A white man getting pulled over doesn’t have to think about getting killed. But it’s our reality. And each of these encounters wounds the soul.”
John Perkins, One Blood: Parting Words to the Church on Race and Love. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2018, page 88.
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