Happy Father’s day! Given the times and how things are going I can’t help but reflect on where I came from and what’s in store for my sons. I am the son of an immigrant man, who came from India to start a better life. He went to Canada, not knowing what was in-store for him. He just heard there was opportunity there. He had hardships adjusting and being accepted. I can’t imagine what it was like for him, but I do know what it was like for me. I was the first Indian person that many of my classmates met and the only one for several years. So what was it like for my father 10 years earlier? I had tough times growing up; being singled out, watched with extra attention in stores, had rocks thrown at me, sand kicked in my face, being called nigger (in french of course), I could recount many stories.

My parents emphasized education. It was a way to lift you out of poverty and gain respect. Canada’s socialism provided me that opportunity with quality yet inexpensive education. I became an engineer and moved to America for greater opportunities. Things have been good here accept for that project I had in Alabama. Suffice to say; education, money, and skills doesn’t get you respect everywhere. In some places you’re still a colored man and you need to know your place.

I got married and had my first son, Ravi. I wanted to ensure he had the best of everything. The perk of living in the States is you can buy the lifestyle you can afford. The con of living in the States is you can only have the lifestyle you can afford. A good school district and safe neighborhoods is what we bought. We had Gabriel a year and a half later and continued living in our suburban bubble. The boys are now older and with everything that is going on and their access to screens, our bubble has burst.

Through school they have learned that blacks were slaves, but not what it means to be a slave. To be a slave is to be treated with the utmost disrespect, where your wants and needs are obsolete and your life has no value accept for how you fulfill your master. No value to the point where the master could kill the slave and not have any recourse. Now they seen an example of what it means to be treated as a slave.

“But Daddy, Why did that happen?” I have to explain the history, the greed of wealth, the sense of superiority, the system that has been built to hold down the least fortunate through forced stereotypes and hatred. The blacks have never escaped ‘slavery’. There are many black people that were never given a fair chance and were killed as easily without recourse for the smallest of infractions or no infractions at all because of the color of their skin. Because the system allows the people that uphold the law to be above the law.

Gabe expressed fear for me “Are you safe?” ‘As long as we live in a place where all lives are valued equally I will be safe, and right now we do.’

But safety is not true everywhere, nor is it true for other father’s who can’t afford the nice school districts, walk in a nice neighborhood or drive a nice car because the system and prejudice has denied them these privileges and some have paid for it with their lives.

It pains me to my bones to see these lives taken so unjustly and the killers get off so freely. They were someone’s child, possibly someone’s father. A family destroyed.

I hope we see change. Where no decent person has to fear the police. Where opportunities are provided fairly and all people can advance. Where we as a people can recognize those who have it worst and have the respect to raise them up. I hope that will be how my sons grow up.