The Mothers

by Brit Bennett

boys,” she said. “Obviously it didn’t work, so I won’t tell you that. You just gotta be smart and you gotta be careful. Boys, they can go around careless their whole lives. But you can either be careful now or careful later. That’s your only choice, really. You got big things ahead of you. Don’t you give that up for nobody.”

Black boys couldn’t afford to be reckless, she had tried to tell him. Reckless white boys became politicians and bankers, reckless black boys became dead.

“Too dangerous,” he said. “Black boys are target practice. At least black girls got a chance.”