Today I stood up in front of my classroom and said the police should not kill black people.
We’d just watched a video in which a man is called a “big, bad dude” for walking down the street with his hands in the air.
I told my class that I was raised to trust cops. That I expect cops to trust me. That I know that’s not everyone’s reality.
The reality is it’s been five years since I’ve been in Tulsa. It’s been five months since the last time the Tulsa police faced heat for killing an innocent man.
My San Jose kids don’t know anything about Tulsa. They think it’s in Texas. But they know something about the endless string of headlines and hashtags that have come to dominate our national conversation.
Except when they don’t. Not everyone talks about it. So today we talked about it.
Elizabeth DeOrnellas 