My Trayvon Martin Challenge

What does it mean to honor someone or to do something in the honor of another? The day of the Zimmerman verdict, many people blacked out their social media avi's in a show of support and solidarity with the Martin family. A common objection was blacking out one's photo will neither bring Trayvon back nor change the verdict. In short, it will accomplish nothing. In one sense, these people were wrong. What it did was allow people to know that they did not stand alone. It allowed the family to see that there were others who stood in support of them and their son. But in another sense, these people were right. Blacked out photos produce very little change in the world.

Now that some of the passion has died from the verdict and people are putting their original avi's back up, I wanted to suggest a way to honor not only Trayvon and his father, but to honor the relationship between the two that has become immortalized in the photo above. Out of all the photos I've seen during the past weeks, this one moves me the most. I'm not sure how your timeline looks, but it is very rare that I see fathers, especially black fathers, embracing and kissing their sons. A public display of affection from a father to son speaks volumes to both the son and to the world. It strengthens the relationship between a father and son. It allows a man to be vulnerable. For some fathers this is extremely risky because you have never displayed emotion to your son. Sons, this can be risky for you because you have never received physical affection from your father. But if we are going to change the world, one place to start is with changing how we love and show our love to our sons and our fathers. These types of photos do produce change in the world. If nothing else, they allow fathers and sons to connect.

So my challenge is this:

1) Fathers, go spend time with your sons. 

2) Sons, go spend time with your fathers.

3) Push past the fear, the risk and the pain and, if possible, embrace your son or father.

4) Take a photo and let the world see it.

Here's me loving on my boys. I can't wait to get a photo with my dad!