Interracial family shares fears and hopes

RIDLEY TOWNSHIP » Delco native Kelly Reeves stood in Frederick L. Mann Memorial Park with her husband and their three sons Saturday, partly concerned and partly hopeful.

Fourteen-year-old Victor held a neon sign that read, “I should be playing Minecraft BUT the World F-D Up So I March.” Head down, 12-year-old Julian stayed close to his mom, with a sign reading, “Black Lives Matter: There is NO Excuse.” Three-year-old Franklin sat in the stroller being pushed by dad, Frank Smith, holding a placard reading, “BLM Change is Needed.”

Just around the corner, a Confederate flag waved in the air. Nearby, motorcycles drove by, revving their engines, drowning out any talk or sound.

“Both of them you can see it,” Reeves said as she looked to two of her children. “This one, (he’s) clinging and he’s saying, ‘We’re going to stay in the center,’ (of the marching crowd) because we saw the Confederate flag.”

A Black woman, she shared what seeing that says to her.

“It instantly makes me feel unwelcome in the place that I was born and raised, which doesn’t make any sense because I grew up with your children going to the same schools, same experiences, same loves, same fears and you’re telling me that me being here is not OK, that my existence is not OK, that my kids’ existence is not OK,” she said.

Reeves, her white husband, Frank and their three sons joined extended family members Saturday in marching through the

streets of Ridley as part of a Black

Lives Matter demonstration.

“Born and raised in Delaware County, moved to Delaware but came back because this is important,” Reeves said. “My nephew still lives here. My sister still

lives here. We’ve experienced racism in Delaware County firsthand so we thought it was very important for our children to be here, for our family to be here because this is where we

came from and we need to make sure that everyone knows this isn’t OK. And that our sons and daughters also can see we have a voice, they have a voice and they can be the change.”

For a moment, her pre-teen son looked up and murmured his wish for the future.

“When I become president,” Julian said, “I will make racism illegal.”