What in the world does this mean?

Who told anyone that it wasn’t okay to be black and why does it need to be stamped on the sidewalk where hundreds of people are walking across daily?

This does not feel like a phrase of endearment.

She sits in class with markers on her desk all the time and every time I ask her to put them away, she then gives me a note.

Third Grade completed box book reports after reading Suitcase by Mildred Pitts Walter.

Suitcase is an old children’s book (published in 1999) about a six- grader named Xander ‘Suitcse’ Bingham who despite his love of drawing and his feelings of inadequacy as an athlete, works to become a baseball player to win the approval of his father.

I found the book in my classroom and wanted to read it since the protagonist was a male black character. The children could relate to it and for the first time, a lot of them begin to open up about the relationship between their parents which was really touching.