Black boys became criminalized. I was in constant dread for their lives, because they were targets everywhere. They still are.
With 'Dear Black Boy,' I wanted to encourage BIack boys to dream outside of sports and think differently.
Playing in the NFL isn't really - and shouldn't have to be - every black boy's dream. But black boys don't always know that their dreams off the field matter.
I am an earnest advocate of manual training and trade teaching for black boys, and for white boys, too.
As a father of two black sons now, you ask yourself, 'What do I have to do to assure the safety of these boys?' It can be daunting.
Black boys shouldn't have to feel that being good at sports is the only way to be cool - or to be valued by the world.
Our criminal-justice system has for decades been infected with a mindset that views black boys and men in particular as a problem to be dealt with, managed, and controlled.
As young black boys in Alief, Texas, my friends and I often spent afternoons imagining ourselves scoring the game-winning touchdown at the end of the Super Bowl.
Of course Black Lives Matter and the killing of young black boys is heartbreaking to all of us. Everyone knows I am a black mother of a black son, so there is no way I could watch what's happening and not be affected.
In some states, not even 50 percent of black boys finish high school.
What age is a black boy when he learns he's scary?
