"If they just comply..."
"Just what you're told..."
"Stop resisting..."

These tropes used during and after violent interactions with the police are the reasons why most parents in the U.S. teach their black children at an early age "the rules" re: encounters with law enforcement

These rules extend beyond basic respect for authority. They're about survival and include specifics on volume, word choice, body language, hand placement and movement, and emotions. It is both heartwarming and heartbreaking to see videos of parents quizzing their kids on them.

The rules are not dependent on neighborhood or class. My mother drilled them into me living in rural KS with a reminder that she'd rather pick me up from jail than the morgue. A friend learned the same rules growing up in Westchester County as the daughter of a lawyer & a doctor

Honestly, it's the most fucked up situation of "survive and advance" possible, but it is our reality.
And if those of y'all who would purport to say "some of my best friends are black" don't believe me, ask your friends.

I always laugh when people talk about the "Black community" in America because we are FAR from a monolith. However, these rules might one of those common threads that weaves across the overwhelming majority of Black Americans.

Honestly, fear of violence from armed agents of the state might be the best example of THE Black American Experience.
And I honestly believe that any parent or guardian of a Black child who doesn't or won't discuss these rules with them is putting that child in danger.

Now, I have to go finish this dissertation chapter about violence against civilians at the hands of armed agents of the state in El Salvador.