Local reaction to incidents involving African-American men

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CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - There is local reaction concerning headlines involving encounters with African American men.

In New York, a white woman called the police on a black man who was bird watching.

She accused the man of threatening her when the video shows he was not.

In Minneapolis, a white male police officer is accused of using excessive force causing George Floyd’s death.

Educator Denise Watts is a mother of two boys and has a black husband.

These stories give her pause when her sons walk the dog in the neighborhood and her husband goes to the store.

“All of those things should be just typical daily experiences that I shouldn’t have to worry about,” Watts said. “But I do.”

Watts talked to her boys about these cases.

After reading the stories on her Facebook post she wrote “she had no more words.”

She admits these cases are emotional especially for mothers.

“All mothers want their kids to come home and all mothers have a protective sense of their kids’ safety and well being," Watts said.

Watts said this is the time for people of all races to speak up and do something to help black men live.

She said she can’t imagine her boys in danger and no one helping them.

“I need you to know that if you are white and you are with my son somewhere and something like this happens, I need to know that you are willing to step up and speak for him," Watts said.

Rev. Dr. Rodney Sadler, the director of the Center for Social Justice and Reconciliation, agrees with Watts.

He reposted something on his Facebook page that stated black men are stereotyped in a negative way.

“No matter what we do, the work that we do, the good we try to do for the community, we are at risk at that moment," Sadler said”