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65-year-old woman and yelling, “You don’t belong here!” Onlookers simply turned the other way.

The politicians, of course, claim to deplore these attacks, and ooze indignation when anyone suggests that they bear some responsibility. Yet, whether consciously or not, they’re blowing the same dog whistles that have triggered every wave of racial violence since the beginning of humankind.

There is a deep, subconscious vein of violent tribalism in the human psyche. It’s been there since our prehistoric ancestors defended their territory from marauding outsiders, and it’s alive and well just beneath our civilized veneer. Our failure to admit that, and to confront it head-on, is the root cause of the war, racism and inequality that have plagued us throughout our history, and that still torment us now.

As parents, we need to understand that being non-racist, and raising non-racist children, isn’t enough. We need to be anti-racist. We need to provide an active counterforce to millions of years of evolution that will forever be a part of who we are. We need to admit that our children, no matter how innocent, kind and wellraised, will always be one social upheaval away from the Hitler Youth, the machete-swinging adolescents of the Rwandan genocide and the gun-toting children of the Cambodian killing fields. Maybe white families in America should have their own version of The Talk, where their children can learn about the dangers and risks that come with the color of their skin.

As for my fellow AsianAmericans, history has lessons for us as well. Being a “model minority” won’t protect us, any more than it did the Jews who were model Germans in 1939.

Keeping our heads down isn’t enough. We need to teach our children that they belong here, as much as anyone else, and that they should say so loud and clear.

ABOUT OUR COLUMNIST Jeff Lee lives, writes and works in Seattle.

Escape from Seattle! Cheap ferry fun

Need to get away from dry land for a bit? Take a fun and costeffective round trip on a ferry from downtown Seattle and end up feeling many, many miles away. In addition to riding the Bainbridge Island car ferry, which always invites pedestrians, you can try a foot ferry — take the new route to Southworth or head to Bremerton or Kingston, all three destinations across Puget Sound on the Kitsap Peninsula. It’s like owning a yacht share (for about an hour and a half). wsdot.wa.gov/ferries

»Romp Things to do with kids

The Baerwaldt family gets ready to take in a screening of Back to the Future at Marymoor Park.

Movies under the stars

Drive-ins: Perfect for a COVID-safe, retro big-screen experience

by JILLIAN O’CONNOR / photo by JOSHUA HUSTON

The drive-in theater, a 1930s American invention, made a very quick comeback during the pandemic.

Older parents likely remember the many drive-ins in the U.S. during their childhoods: kids piling into the car (often a wood-paneled station wagon) with sleeping bags, in their jammies, ready to see a movie from the car with that weird radio thingie just outside the driver’s window for sound. Very crackly sound.

If you were lucky, you’d get popcorn and candy from the snack bar and could eat it in the car, before falling asleep sideways on the seat, if your parents were lucky.

Since spring 2020, the drivein has made a huge comeback. And in the Seattle area, we’re fortunate to have a couple of traditional legacy drive-in

5 things to do Get your dino and fossil fix

Budding scientists love to learn about and study all the different varieties of dinosaurs and fossils. Follow these tips and have a Mesozoic May and a Jurassic June!

1

Woodland Park Zoo

At the exhibition Dinosaur Discovery, see more than 20 lifesize, lifelike moving, roaring dinos, including a 40-foot-long T. Rex. (West Gate), 5500 Phinney Ave. N., Seattle: May 1 to Sept. 6.

2

Burke Museum

Ogle the only real dinosaur fossils on display in Washington. See a T. Rex skull, as well as massive Ice Age mammals and plant fossils. 4300 15th Ave. NE, Seattle

3

Ginkgo Petrified Forest Interpretive Center

Road trip to Central Washington! See an ancient fossil bed as you hike a 1.25-mile interpretive trail, and look out for nearly two dozen exposed petrified logs. 4511 Huntzinger Rd., Vantage

4

Fremont topiaries

Check out the two ivy dinosaurs that roam the earth by the Burke-Gilman Trail, just south of North 34th Street and Phinney Avenue North.

5

Dig ‘dino fossils’ in your backyard

Set up a sandbox or sand table and plant faux dino bones deep in the stratigraphic layers of your outdoor dig site.