Fatherly Stuff: An Open Letter to My Sons

May 13, 2019

An Open Letter to My Sons


5/9/19- Since this was written, there have been so many senseless killings of black citizens that it's easy to almost become desensitized to it (Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, Philando Castle, Tamir Rice, to name a few). However, I as a father I don't have to luxury to go numb. I have 3 children who are still blissfully naive to the current state of the world. Unfortunately, this poem is more relevant than ever. 






The following is a poem to my sons that was inspired by the reactions to the death of Treyvon Martin and the subsequent trial and acquittal of George Zimmerman:
Before I continue, I want to establish a few things:
1)      I personally do not believe that the Zimmerman verdict was a result of racism. I believe it was due to the defense doing a better job proving their case than the prosecution- that to me is such a shame, because justice was not served that day
2)        While it is not clear exactly what happened on that fateful night,  I do think that the root of those events stemmed one person’s ill-fated judgment of another based on the color of their skin and the clothes on their back
3)        The wildly polarized reactions of this case across the span of social media, shows the issue of race is not only alive, but it is a growing pressure cooker that has once again come to a peak
My Sons,
Let me tell you a story…
One day when I was a young man, I met your mom.
She was smart, beautiful and most importantly, she thought my jokes were funny.

And so, I asked her to be mine. She said yes.
And our love grew.
It grew so much that it made God smile. He smiled so much that he decided to give us two very special gifts.
And those gifts were you.
HE made you in our image
HE gave one of you my nose, the other her smile
And he  gave something very unique to the both of you: Our color
Oh yes, that’s right;
 I should probably mention:
That I’m what they call Black
And
Your Mother, she’s something that they call White
We never mentioned this to you because it doesn’t matter
And besides
That’s not how we teach you to see the world
And that’s not how we saw each other
The only thing we saw when we looked at each other was Love
We never noticed silly things like that
Unfortunately, there are people in this world who don’t see Love
They only see color
And those same people think that it’s wrong for me and your mom to be together
Those same people will look at you, my sons
And not see you as precious gifts from God
They will only see you as color
And so, to no fault of your own

Before they even get a chance to get to know you
They will try to disrespect you
Try to define you
Try to deprive you
Try to demoralize you
And try to defeat you
They will try
And Try
And Try
But they will fail.
Because you both are stronger than that
And not only will you persevere
But will triumph!
Because Love transcends color
And ignorance
And prejudice
So go forth, my sons
The torch has been passed
And show the world
The Love is the future
That Love is an unstoppable force
That the Love within you will one day change the world
Love Always,
Dad


13 comments:

  1. Kyle, this is so heartfelt and beautifully written. Your sons have a very wise and loving Daddy.

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    1. Thank you, Kris. Everything that has been going on (in addition to the Zimmerman case) has been weighing on my heart. I needed a way to express that.

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  2. You, Kyle, are an amazing person! Your two sons are very lucky to have two parents that instill love as a core value. I know when they get older and they read this, they will think, that dad of ours, God smiled and gave him to us. I know when I get down and I think that the world is full of nastiness, I will come read this and know that someone else is teaching love :)

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    1. Thanks Jenny! What I need to do is stop watching a news for a while. They make you think that nothing else is going on in this world besides negativity. And that definitely isn't the case!

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  3. Very nice! I'm optimistic about future race relations, at least in this area of the country... I have more and more biracial students every year, and see a lot of friendships and romantic relationships form between students of different races. :)

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    1. Thanks, Jessica. Yes, the tide is definitely turning but there is a lot more work to do. Being the example that I wish to see is a good starting point :-)

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  4. Thank you. This I am linking to.

    Beautiful

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  5. I really like your post. The letter to your sons is powerful and wonderful.

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  6. This is absolutely beautiful. Thank you for sharing your amazing words with us...the world would be a better place if more people shared your feelings (both had the feelings, and wrote them). Your boys, and your wife, are very lucky people!

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  7. What a beautiful letter!! Your sons (and your wife!) are very lucky!!

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