Section one : Emotions --
Part I : Troubled minds : fearing and being feared --
On Facebook, May 25, 2021 / Darnella Frazier --
The Trayvon generation : for Solo, Simon, Robel, Maurice, Cameron, and Sekou / Elizabeth Alexander --
Mother's day is a different kind of joy for Black moms in America / Dartinia Hull --
Yet, we continue to march together / Michelle Duster --
When George Floyd called for his mama, I felt pain : because I'm someone's mama / Vanessa Magic --
Never free / Betty Winston Bayé --
He called for his mother / Lottie L. Joiner --
The lives of our Black men matter / Lynn Norment --
George Floyd : "can we live?" : the daughter of civil rights activists on the question that's haunted her for decades / Tananarive Due --
The more things change / Rosemary Bray Mcnatt --
That lump in the throat that never goes away / Anita M. Samuels --
The killing of Black men and boys by police and other Black men needs to stop / Jenice Armstrong --
Part II : Special circumstances --
"I'm just different" : disabled at high risk of harm by police / Angela P. Dodson --
Always "the other" : young Black men on the spectrum / Geri Coleman Tucker --
Mental illness while being Black : a mother's reflection on the death of her son / Iyunolu (Iyun) Osagie, PhD --
Part III : The Black bogeyman : media and stereotypes --
Mike Brown's shooting and Jim Crow lynchings have too much in common. It's time for America to own up / Isabel Wilkerson --
Let's go to the videotape! / Audrey Edwarads --
"Hope it's not a Black man" : racialized TV news and the "dangerous Black male" stereotype / Sharon Bramlett-Solomon --
Motherhood, my two Black sons and media / Gina Gayle --
Reflecting on Trayvon Martin's death in a post-Newton America / Rahiel Tesfamariam --
Too close for comfort / Charisse Jones --
Part IV : Close encounters : stops, arrests, and death --
Stop and frisk / Ingrid Sturgis --
Breathing while Black / Yanick Rice Lamb --
"Thingifying" Black people / Patrice Gaines --
"I can't breathe" / Sharon Leslie Morgan --
Cousin Ray / Sonya Ross --
Two Tonys : Black men and prison / Jackie Jones --
A mother of suns / Donna Hill --
The content of our character / Nicole Major --
Section two : Activism --
Part V : The talk : training our sons --
Excerpted from a Black mother's survival guide for her teenage son / Meredith walker as told to Alysia Santo --
After Jacob Blake and Kenosha, what good is the talk? Do words even matter? / Donna Brazile --
Let's talk / Sandra Dawson Long Weaver --
Part VI : Educating our sons --
Saving our sons : reflections of my journey / Dr. Brenda M. Greene --
Education as activism / Nicole Bailey-Williams --
Private schools, Black boys, and racism : an unjust choice / Sheila Dean Brooks, PhD --
Part VII : Race, Privilege and Justice --
Why they kill us / Gloria J. Browne-Marshall --
No justice, no peace : after Rodney King / Gayle Pollard-Terry --
What chance did Trayvon Martin, the 'suspect,' have in court? / Mary C. Curtis --
Yes, it is about race / Lisa Bloom --
Derek Chauvin's guilty and so is the whole damn system / Goldie Taylor --
The emerging movement for police and prison abolition / Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor --
Part VIII : Healing and moving forward --
George Floyd called for his mama. We need to answer / Amber Perry Rainey --
Add another name to the roster of thoughts and prayers (the urgency/futility/fulfillment) / Dorothy Marie Rice --
The traceable roots of police brutality in Black communities and how we feel / Dr. Brenda Wade --
My brother was killed by the police. Now I ask, who does George Floyd belong to? / Donna Britt --
