Families of Many Colors Respond to Trayvon Martin Tragedy

Like many of you, I have been reading extensively—and sadly—about the tragic shooting of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African American student. Some of the most insightful pieces I’ve found have come from parents—whose families cover a range of color.

• New York Times columnist Charles Blow, a black dad with two black sons and a black daughter: “The Curious Case of Trayvon Martin.”
• Blogger and founder of My Brown Baby, Denene Millner, a black mother with a black son: “Black Boy Swagger, Black Mom Fear.”
• Blogger Nadirah Angail, a black mother of a black daughter, about to become mother of a black son: “Joy and Fear: When a Black Mom Finds Out She’s Having a Boy.”
• The Prospect columnist E.J. Graff, a white mom with a black son: “Walking While Black.”
• Blogger J. W. Moxie, a black mother of two black sons and two black daughters, and surrogate mother to a white child: “href=”http://thesmartness.com/smartone/2012/03/what-trayvon-has-taught-me.html”>What Trayvon Has Taught Me.” (Thanks to Deb for the tip!)
• Journalist and blogger Erin Kotecki Vest, the white mom of a white son: “When A White Boy Wears A Hoodie.”
• Blogger Nick Chiles, a black dad with a black son: “Teenager Killed in Florida by Neighborhood Watch Brings Terror To My Heart.”

Chiles also wrote—back in 2010—about the shooting by police of an apparently innocent 20-year-old, black, Pace University student, Danroy Henry, Jr. (Coincidentally, records in that case just became public this month.) As with the suicides of gay teens that hit the news in the fall of 2010, tragedies like these are not in fact new, but part of a long and disturbing trend.

What can we do—as individuals and as a society—to create a world that values all our children, in all their diversity?