This is something I really relate to also. The fact that I am considered myself a Christian doesnt mean I cannot do whatever I desire. I’ve heard this millions of times, and sometimes it bothers me, but then I start thinking, “they don’t know how really I am, they just see the “outside” of me”. And even thought I do try to show my inner me on my outside its hard, because not everyone knows how to read people in a sense where anyone can understand me instantly.

I relate to this a lot, because when were younger were taught to call our older people , ma’am and sir. Meanwhile I don’t disagree, since I take it as a sense of being respectful and also as someone who has manners. Other than those two “names”, I wouldn’t really know what to call my adults when talking to them. But it is something that I relate to since since young we are taught to talk like this.

This would always happen with my siblings. My older brother wanted to hug my younger brother and he would exaggerate and tell my mother that my older brother wanted to hit him and so that’s where my mom would ask my brother what happened? And he would respond with, “I just wanted to give him a hug”, but in this case they would both get in trouble. One for being exaggerated and the other one for “bothering”.

An experience that I had was with a cop. Since he knew he had the power to do so, even though it was wrong to do what he did, yet he still did it to intimidate me. I got stopped, and just because of my color and ethnicity I got cussed at and started interrogating me to intimidate and get me nervous. I see this as a coercive power. Also I do not agree with what the cop did, it happens daily in colored people’s life sadly.

A connection that I made with this is , when we’re all young we usually get in trouble by our parents. although when for example, my family and I would visit a friends house, my parents would tell us to behave because they did not want to get on us in front of their friends. When we were in that friends house just by my mom’s look or my dads action I knew it was time for me to behave. So I connect these actions as being an unspoken rule. We see often how parents don’t even have to say nothing to their kids, but just by giving them a look, that child knows to behave. This shows how much “power” or “respected” parents can and have .