Her tears, she said, are for the senseless, callous murder of another innocent unarmed Black person, for the constant terror that African-Americans live under because of police brutality and extra-judicial murders; and a deep and persistent anxiety about her sons’ safety.

“My son came to me crying because he is a Black man in America and he doesn’t understand why all this is happening,” she recounted.

Sylvestre Hamilton, a 45-year-old mother of a son, said she is deeply angered by Floyd’s murder and understands the rage in Black people that has led to protests with no end in sight.

Dr. Key-Sparkman, Hamilton and other interviewees spoke of the heavy burden racism, discrimination and inequality has on Black people, the psychic, emotional and mental damage, the incalculable cost of being denied one’s personhood and humanity, and the numbing fatigue they all feel.

Dr. Avis Jones-DeWeever has two sons and said she’s always tried to be honest with them about the perils and pitfalls of being Black men in America.