'I don't really know what he could have become because America robbed me of that,' Samiria Rice, Tamir Rice's mother, said. 'You know, they robbed me of it.' We spoke with 31 Black teenagers about growing up in Tamir's America. Here are their stories:
, Rayshard Brooks and Ahmaud Arbery, die after encounters with police or neighborhood vigilantes. Some have been marginalized by their classmates, discriminated against by adults who were supposed to protect them. Others grew up surrounded by the hardness of poverty.Tamir Rice was also meant to turn 18 this year. The 12-year-old Black child was shot to death by a police officer in November 2014 while playing with a toy gun at a park in Cleveland.
Tamir Rice would have celebrated his 18th birthday this week. The USA TODAY Network spoke with 31 Black teenagers about growing up in Tamir's America.Amari Ajamu remembers how it felt to hear the full sounds of the Grambling State University marching band for the first time: When the band’s drumline passed, he could feel the marching snare in his chest.
In May, his uncle arrived in Memphis to congratulate Ajamu for graduating from high school. He’d been released last year, after Ajamu’s mom advocated for a reduction to her brother’s sentence. Sykes doesn’t want to be bitter about how it feels like his white friends have an easier life, but it’s hard not to ignore the obvious signs. In elementary school, his friends lived in big houses with multiple bathrooms, but his reality looked different: streets with no sidewalks, clothes with holes and a refrigerator with no food.
Ismail knew the store well. When he was a baby, his mother would take him to that Target, where he would wave his tiny hands around to high-five the sales clerks. One died in December, weeks after the game. Alvin was at a friend’s house when he heard Bryce was missing and, later, that he had killed himself.Alvin was taught what to do if he got pulled over by a police officer. He’d heard of a 12-year-old child being shot by a police officer. He knew it could happen to him or his friends. But suicide? He wasn’t ready for that.
Jordan grew up with his three older siblings. As the baby of the family, he’s the only child still living in the family home. “We were just going to leave actually, then he said, `Yeah, you'd better.’ He was like threatening us or something,” Jordan says.He has watched the Floyd protests but tries not to let it get to him.
When he was younger, he had shuffled between his mother’s house and his father’s place, where he clashed with both, mostly about him not taking his education seriously. He skipped class, not doing school work. William Brown, about George FloydQuote icon He had other challenges in D.C. On his way to get a haircut last summer, three younger boys robbed him at gunpoint, taking his iPhone 7 and ear pods.
Brown is staying away from the protests over Floyd’s death. He’s worried about the crowds, the looting and the dangers of the coronavirus. ‘You have to act a certain way’ He is troubled by the bitter division he sees over the nation’s first Black president. Bruner was 6 when Barack Obama was elected.
“If only we could just realize that the battle would be easier won if we could just face it," the 17-year-old said on a recent episode of his"The Miracle Podcast.” Obama launched the program after Trayvon's death. That shooting also influenced the way Heron, then 9, saw race relations in America.
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