The Familial Language of Black Grief
Black people feel the pain and loss of black life as if it were our very own blood that had been brutalized—because it easily could have been.
I cracked a joke to break the tension. “Everyone put on your seat belts, because the cops are definitely pulling us over tonight.” Psychologists say that laughter relieves stress and reduces anxiety—I guess that’s what I was going for in that moment. We were five black men sitting in a very nice car, a black Range Rover, about to go out for a night on the town. As I recall, we really tore it up at the local coffee shop with our lattes and pour-overs.
It was the autumn of 2015 and the phrase was then, as it is now, the subject of a
