"I had no plan whatsoever and yet for some reason when he says again give me the bike I find myself Shaking my head and saying no, I'm not gonna give you the bike," recalls Michael. "The moment probably lasts a few seconds no more, but it's frozen in my memory Scary black kids in the inner cities are big in the news at that time" The police arrived an hour later to take him back to his house.
For hundreds of years, the white-dominated American culture has raised the specter of the dangerous, violent black man. Host John Biewen tells the story of a confrontation with an African American teenager. Then he and recurring guest Chenjerai Kumanyika discuss that longstanding image – and its neglected flipside: white-on-black violence.