I have been thinking about writing this for a while now. My aim is to start a convo, not to point finger at anyone. For as long as I can remember I have always felt the urge to question and tackle social inequalities or injustices. My relatives can testify haha 😅. Now that I am a mom, some situations are more and more difficult to bear/witness. What triggered me is the amount of black boys I was seeing (prior confinement, covid and the whole lot) in those streets selling drugs at the lower end of the drug chain or being involved in gang violence. It literally breaks my heart every time I see those youngsters from my balcony. They could have been my brothers, cousins, nephews, or son.

That being said doesn’t obviously mean that all black boys are drug dealers or gang members.

Ultimately I wonder why is it that in the suburbs of Paris or in big cities, more and more young boys are likely to take part in this lucrative yet illegal activity. What can we do collectively to avoid this? Are we good parents? Can we become better parents? How can we act before the turning point at which things go wrong ? Is showering kids with love enough? Is spending quality time, opening up dialogue, displaying affection and/or respect enough? So many unanswered questions! Funny enough i started a convo with some of my relatives on what made them stay away from trouble. Answers that keep coming back are strong male/father figures; self confidence; self esteem and strong feeling of identity. That could be a start to instill those in young kids these days!

What I know for sure is that I don’t want my son to slip and i will do my best to better myself as his mom to avoid it.

Please leave a comment if you have thoughts on this, the more we share the more we grow. 🙏🏾