It was 4:55 a.m. when the door bell rang. Who could it be at this hour?\u00a0 I looked out and saw him – crying, shivering in 20 degree cold, he waited.\u00a0 And when I opened the inner door he backed away, raised his hands in the air, and kneeled down.\u00a0 To tell me he was lost and needed directions.\u00a0 That he approached my home because the living room light was on and the computer screen, with me at it, visible.\u00a0 Kneeling, like a soldier surrendering to their captors.<\/p>\n
Growing up in the era of Ozzie and Harriet<\/em>, Leave it to Beaver,<\/em> and My Three Sons,<\/em> this was not the image of how someone sought help.\u00a0 The goofy or errant teenager could still turn to a neighbor, not fearing violence but perhaps expecting a stern headshake, and then having an arm put around his shoulders and taken to the kitchen for a warm drink, some fatherly advice, and a ride home.<\/p>\n That is what my son could expect, even decades later.\u00a0 A neighbor \u2013 even a stranger neighbor \u2013 who would not turn their back, keep the door closed, or respond with threats and violence.\u00a0 Not feeling the need to kneel and expose both hands \u2013 see, there is no weapon –\u00a0 either to show me I had nothing to fear despite the color of his skin or because he was worried for his own life.\u00a0 Because he was black.<\/p>\n I begged him to stand up.\u00a0 From there, the conversation was ordinary and expected.\u00a0 He had been drinking with friends, decided to walk to his home, and got tangled up and disoriented in the side streets of Elkins Park.\u00a0 When I responded \u201cgive me a minute, I\u2019ll get dressed and drive you wherever you need to go,\u201d his relief was palpable.\u00a0 This would not end badly; he would not be hurt; it was safe.<\/p>\n I drove \u201cT\u201d to where he requested \u2013 an intersection just a mile or two away.\u00a0 The conversation was ordinary \u2013 a high school dropout, he was now working at a restaurant.\u00a0 And then music.\u00a0 When he told me he was into jazz drumming my interest grew.\u00a0 He named a contemporary artist who I was unfamiliar with so I pressed him for someone from classic jazz who he admired \u2013 and his response was \u201cBuddy Rich.\u201d\u00a0 Not an Ellington drummer, not Art Blakey or Kenny Clarke or Tony Williams.\u00a0 Rich, the white swing drummer.\u00a0 I told him to check out Max Roach\u2019s classic all-percussion recording M\u2019Boom<\/em> and of course out came the cell phone for the inevitable web search.\u00a0 All completely ordinary.<\/p>\n With COVID in mind, we bumped fists and no more as T left my car.\u00a0 I went home both shaken and relieved.\u00a0 T was safe; but it could not leave my mind that, in 2022, a young man had to kneel with hands raised before asking for directions and aid.\u00a0 This was not the land of Ozzie or of Ward Cleaver.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It was 4:55 a.m. when the door bell rang. Who could it be at this hour?\u00a0 I looked out and saw him – crying, shivering in 20 degree cold, he waited.\u00a0 And when I opened the inner door he backed away, raised his hands in the air, and kneeled down.\u00a0 To tell me he was lost and needed directions.\u00a0 That he approached my home because the living room light was on and the computer screen, with me at it, visible.\u00a0 Kneeling, like a soldier surrendering to their captors. Growing up in the era of Ozzie and Harriet, Leave it to Beaver, and My Three Sons, this was not the image of how someone sought help.\u00a0 The goofy or errant teenager could still turn to a neighbor, not fearing violence but perhaps expecting a stern headshake, and then having an arm put around his shoulders and taken to the kitchen for a warm drink, some fatherly advice, and a ride home. That is what my son could expect, even decades later.\u00a0 A neighbor \u2013 even a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5337,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"audience":[],"coauthors":[40],"class_list":["post-5336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-commentary"],"yoast_head":"\r\n