overheard on the bus

So, just a quick post about what happened on the bus today I though you'd all find interesting.  I was riding the 38 Geary bus--for those of you who don't know, the bus goes from Ocean Beach to downtown.  It goes through my neighborhood which is primarily Asian and Russian.  I get on and this attractive, older (maybe in his 50s or 60s?) well dressed, African American man was talking on the phone.  The bus was packed so I was standing right next to him.  I could not help overhearing his conversation.  Now, I could only hear his side of it.  But he was talking about race being a more challenging issue than gender. And what he said next really caught my attention--he said something to the effect "When I am behind a white woman, I make sure when I pass her I go out of my way to go by her, into the street and around her, so she knows I am not going to attack her.  I watch her looking in business windows and looking behind her to see where I am."  This is his reality. Here is my question--is this yours?  When I walk behind someone as a white woman,  I am not threatening to them,  I don't have to change where or how I walk.  If I had an African American son, his reality would be different.  It would be my job to help him live and navigate in his reality.  What is your responsibility for your child who is of a different race?