INNOCENCE

By Marcella Taylor

Eleven-year-old E.J.’s world is filled with video games, sports, and hanging with his friends. He is oblivious to the ways in which his father has to move about the country as a Black man. Over the course of one afternoon, E.J.’s worldview will forever be changed as he witnesses several instances of racist and prejudicial treatment toward various Black men and teens while walking home from baseball practice with his two best friends, Jordan and Daniel.

Witnessing men that look like him and his father being prejudged and treated with suspicion gives E.J. a newfound respect for his father as he sees how hard life can be for Black men and envisions his own future in the men he encounters.