Karmelo was 17. Cyrus was 14. The machinery that turns Black children into adult threats has a name — adultification — and a research record. Stop calling it a feeling.

The jury deliberated barely longer than a lunch break and called it justice. A jury with not one of his peers on it. The Sixth Amendment has been making us a promise it never meant to keep since 1880.

Before the mother could leave the courtroom, folks were online doing the math on how to take the house. That’s not grief. That’s fungibility with a notary.

Every accusation is a confession. When they swear the verdict wasn’t about race, they’re telling you exactly what they needed it not to be about.

Two things can be true. A child lost his life and that’s a real loss. AND the system that processed both deaths has never priced Black childhood at par. Refusing to choose between those is the whole discipline.