discipline you before the system
does. “I need to do this to you
before the police do it to you.”
Because that’s all black parents are
thinking from the day you’re old
enough to walk out into the street,
where the law is waiting.
In Alex, getting arrested was a
fact of life. It was so common that
out on the corner we had a sign for
it, a shorthand, clapping your wrists
together like you were being put in
handcuffs. Everyone knew what
that meant.
“Where’s Bongani?”
Wrist clap.
“Oh, shit. When?”