re: Don Lemon on Job Numbers for Blacks: ‘What’s Full Employment Without Full Respect?’

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The deep sadness the whole family felt at Dawson's passing perhaps reinforced Michael's newly discovered racial anger. He didn't know every detail of his [great-grandfather's] life, but he had only to look at the pain deep in the old man's face to get an idea of how troubled his restless journey had been and of the many senseless barriers he had been forced to endure.

Later that year a girl at school called Michael a "n-----."

"I threw a soda at her," he recalled. "It was a very tough year. I was really rebelling. I considered myself a racist at that time. Basically, I was against all white people.

Jordan was suspended for the incident. But rather than let him spend his days at home, his mother required that he sit in her car in the parking lot of the bank where she worked, so that she could keep an eye on him from the teller's window. That way she could make sure has was doing his schoolwork and staying out of trouble. Michael was furious, and years later the would joke with her that the situation presented an obvious case of child abuse. Yet Deloris got her message across. Over the course of the following months, she talked time and again about the wasted energy of bitterness and racial anger, how destructive they could be to a young boy. It wasn't about forgetting but about forgiving, she said.

It would take more than a year for the message to sink in and the feelings to subside. "The education came from my parents," Jordan recalled. "You have to be able to say, OK, that happened back then. Now let's take it from here and see what happens. It would be very easy to hate people for the rest of your life, and some people have done that. You've got to deal with what's happening now and try to make things better."

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Beyond the gifts and involvement, the greatest impact of their parenting came in the constant shaping of the children's attitudes. They preached a constant refrain: Work hard. Achieve. Set goals. Think ahead. Don't be denied. Be considerate. Don't dwell on race.

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