GLAMOUR

A Black mom and a white mom discuss raising Black children in the South

fear has shaped my experience as a mother

We met in North Carolina at the family-friendly café that Natalie and her husband own. We are both moms to toddlers at a wonderfully adorable and precocious stage—obsessed with Daniel Tiger, unanswerable questions (like why frogs have four toes), and critically specific snack requests. We are also both moms to Black babies living in Durham, North Carolina—a liberal city floating in a sea of conservatism and evangelical Christianity. Our first conversation involved a thorough discussion of the best diverse schools in Durham.

We are a Black and a white mom who live with a constant ticker of background worry—for our country, our community, and our children. We discussed what it’s like to raise these small people to be confident, strong, and most important, safe in the South—a region that keep reading.....