Please Don't Kill My Black Son Please

Hope Wabuke

As a black mother, every moment of the day I walk in fear for my son's survival . . . What does it mean to raise a black son in modern America? How can a mother help her child navigate the racism they experience every day without losing his life or his joy? And how can she keep him safe in a world that is trying to kill him? When Hope Wabuke became a mother, she welcomed her son with open arms, yet could not separate her excitement and love from her fear. She knew the names of the unarmed black boys and girls who had lost their lives in recent years. She knew what the world was capable of doing to her son. In this searing, eye-opening and profoundly moving memoir, Hope Wabuke wrestles with the violent realities her son will face growing up black in America, set against the realities she herself faces as a black woman, a single mother, the daughter of refugees, a scholar, an artist, and a survivor of domestic abuse and sexual assault. How can she take the lessons from her own life, of the systemic oppression of black bodies, and teach her son not just to survive, but to thrive?