Nolan Wells
Authored by: Annalissia Padilla and a Third-Party Facebook Friend
White parents should be talking about this also. Have you taught your white children how to be friends with Black children, how to not tokenize Black children, how to not “other” Black children? This issue needs to be talked about EVERYWHERE. Do your children know how to spot when their friends group is racist towards minority members? How to stand up to their friends? How to use good judgement in who they hang out with?
The following is a quote from a third-party, posted on Facebook.
Nolan Wells’ death is all over my timeline. I’m seeing mostly Black folks talking about it and saying this is a cautionary tale for why Black parents should side eye these kinds of friendships where their child is “the only Black kid” in white spaces. What looks like acceptance and belonging could end up being a trap.
Fourth of July. Mississippi. An island. Water. A cluster of white boys. One Black boy missing. Nobody bothered to report him missing. That combination of facts lands in the Black imagination with historical weight and triggers our collective nervous system.
Black people are not reacting in a vacuum. We carry a whole archive of similar stories. We know what water has meant. We know what “boys being boys” has covered. We know what “accident” has sometimes been asked to explain. We know how many Black deaths have become official shrugs because the living white witnesses were granted innocence before the dead Black youth was granted humanity.
Now, that does not mean we know what happened here. But it does mean we know why Black folk are suspicious.