For most parents, “the talk” involves discussing the birds and the bees with your kids: safe sex practices, consent, bodily autonomy.
But as a new study shows, for parents of color, there’s a second talk that’s no less important to broach with kids at a certain age: “The talk” about how to safely conduct yourself when interacting with police officers so as to avoid arrest or physical violence.
Generally, “the talk” is timed around a teen getting their driver’s license. A parent might say: If you ever get pulled over, don’t talk back, put your hands on the dashboard, and ask if you can get your license and registration out before reaching for it.
Because police disproportionately target Black youth, most research on how and when “the talk” is given has focused on Black families. (Analysis by The Associated Press in 2021 showed that Black children make up more than half of the incidents of police using force on kids.)
Much less is known about whether parents in other groups also have these conversations. Ashley Jackson, an assistant professor at the school of social work at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, said she and her colleagues wanted to help close that gap.
