This Is What I Know 

1. Trayvon Martin is dead.
2. George Zimmerman fired the shot that killed him.
3. A jury of his peers found George Zimmerman not guilty of second-degree murder.
4. I accept the verdict.
5. Mistakes were made. Each of these - Treyvon, George and the legal system made mistakes. We are all human.
6. In the last year I have worked through my thoughts and feelings about this difficult event and I unconditionally forgive George Zimmerman and will continue to pray for the Martin Family.

This is also what I know:

1. I have a son who is young and black.
2. He sometimes wears a hoodie.
3. He has walked back from the store in the dark in our neighborhood.
4. He likes Skittles and iced tea.
5. If we lived in that gated community in Sanford and my son had encountered George Zimmerman instead of Trayvon Martin on the night of February 26, 2012, my son would be dead.
6. Just as in the case of Treyvon, a jury of his peers would have still found George Zimmerman not guilty of second-degree murder.

This is what is true...my son is not dead. I want to keep him alive. And the fact of the matter is that he is not:

• a gang banger,
• a thief,
• a thug,
• a dead-beat dad, or
• a drug addict or dealer.

Still, this young black man - my son, whom I love - has a greater chance of being murdered than his white male friends who attend the same elite private school. Like my son, these young men also:

• sometimes wear hoodies,
• walk back from the store in the dark,
• like Skittles and iced tea,
• live in our same upscale neighborhood.

I say this not because I want to be viewed as a victim or to have my son viewed as a victim, and not because I want any kind of special treatment. I say this because these are the simple truths in my life.

So how do I tell my son, who I have instructed since birth that he lives in the greatest country in the world? That I have the highest expectations of and for him? That he has all the tools to be a successful

• Student,
• Businessman,
• Husband,
• Father,
• Or anything he choses?

And that in America he should judge people - as we were all taught - "by the content of their character not the color of their skin"?

So how to do I say to my son that to stay alive in America he will have different rules of engagement than his white friends when dealing with law enforcement, in his public comportment, in his dress, in his speech, in his encounters with the neighborhood watch, or with anyone in any state with a "Stand Your Ground" law?

This is what I know... This is what I must do:

I must pass on to my son what my father passed on to me and what he will someday pass on to his son. I will pass on what have come to be called, "The Blackman Rules."

• Although Mark Zuckerberg may wear a hoodie, it is different when you do.
• When in a store don't put your hands in your pocket.
• Always ask for a bag and receipt when making a purchase no matter how small.
• Never run out of a store - be careful of running in public in street clothes.
• No matter what your white friends may do, have your driver's license picture taken with a coat and tie.

These rules are not political. If you are liberal, you should not act outraged. If you are conservative these rules are not a threat to your freedom.

These rules are about survival and, while the government and people of the United States have made great progress in my lifetime, the threat to my son's safety is real and the Blackman Rules are still necessary. Why?

• Because of what happened between Trayvon and George,
• Because of what happened between Oscar Grant and Officer Johannes Mehserle,
• Because of what happened between Medgar Evers and Byron De La Beckwith,
• Because of what happened between Emmett Till and Roy Bryant and his accomplices.

Because of what has happened in countless other cases, my son knows the rules.

But, I will tell him again - as many times as I have to.

This is what I know.