The adultification of black male bodies
Growing up I’ve always been perceived as older than I actually was. When I was four people thought I was eight, and when I was eight people thought I was in my early teens. For reference, I’m 17 years old and stand at 6’3 and I actively work out. The reason for me touching upon this subject is that I feel as if my body has never actually been mine. I constantly had to deal with the pressures of appearing older than I actually was or am. I would remember in elementary school towering over all my peers and not being shown the same graciousness as them because I was “too big” to be making those mistakes. I remember in middle school not being able to experience the same pre-teen angst as others because “I should’ve out grown that phase”. And I still feel it today even people considered my friends will make sexual jokes about me knowing my inexperience, they’ll label me as aggressive and mean. And they actively participate in covert acts of racism without even knowing it. It’s humiliating, it’s degrading and all around annoying.
