Vox:

It’s been said again and again and again — more frequently and publicly since unarmed black teen Trayvon Martin was gunned down by a neighbor who perceived him as a threat in 2013 — but probably for as long as black people have been in America: black kids just can’t do the same things white kids can. At least not if they want to survive.

A TED Talk by Harvard University doctoral candidate Clint Smith is a recent, and especially thoughtful, personal narrative about this topic. Filmed March 2015 at TED2015, it’s titled “How to raise a black son in America.”

Smith starts by explaining what inspired him to think about this topic, making reference to the recent series of high profile police-involved deaths of unarmed African Americans, which have inspired protests in Ferguson, Missouri; New York City; and Baltimore: