Esau McCaulley is assistant professor of New Testament at Wheaton College. He is also a military husband and father of four children. His column in the New York Times is well worth following.
In this particular article, “How I’m Talking To My Kids About the Derick Chauvin Verdict,” McCaulley shares what it’s like to talk with his thirteen-year-old son at such a painful time- feeling relief about the verdict while grieving the most recent losses of Daunte Wright and Adam Toledo:
The United States demands too much wisdom from Black parents. We must walk that fine line between telling the truth about how cruel America can be toward Black bodies and souls and the hope that our children can be their free Black selves. America requires too much of its clerics, who must minister, console, lead and organize a people weary of Black death. Millions of African-Americans have to educate, cook, clean, practice law and govern while processing a series of traumas.
He offers his children and his students the truth, about being Black in America and about being human. He offers them place and space to lament and mourn. He also offers them, and us, hope: “a just God governs the universe, and for that reason, none of our efforts are in vain.”
