Frances Kai-Hwa Wang | Faculty/Lecturer

Department of American Culture, Program in Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies

Learning to Drive Defensively
 
FROM THE AUTHOR:
 
The day after George Zimmerman is acquitted for the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, an Asian American mother teaches her multiracial nine-year-old son how to stay safe while interacting with police and strange white men with guns. But how does a nine year old tell the difference between police who are a threat and police who are there to help? How do any of us? Seven years later, as the country erupts with Covid-19-inspired-anti-Asian violence and anti-Black and Brownness, the son is 16, a mop of #quarantinehair, and the mother wrestles with the idea of trust as she teaches him how to drive defensively – behind the wheel and out in the world.
 
READ: Learning to Drive Defensively