I just finished reading Kirsten West Savali’s excellent article on The Root about the grand jury failing to indict the officers who gunned down 12-year old Tamir Rice in Cleaveland. ""Given this perfect storm of human error, mistakes and communications by all involved that day, the evidence did not indicate criminal conduct by police," prosecutor Tim McGinty said on Monday.

In her piece, Savali quotes an officer who radioed in Rice’s slaying describing the boy as “black male, maybe 20.” Savali  accurately points out, “in a country that overwhelmingly distorts black childhood to fit its vile and violent racial prejudice, Tamir never stood a chance.”

It made me think of something my “Aunt”, (really a cousin, but the age difference makes me think of her differently) said when I visited my family in New Orleans for Mardi Gras in 2012.