Tayari Jones appeared on NPR’s “All Things Considered” this evening to discuss the tragic death of Trayvon Martin.

Learning about death and dying is part of growing up. If we are lucky, we come to understand that death is natural through the passing of a grandparent or some other elder. If we are lucky, we will be taught something about a life well lived.

But for too many of us, we are made aware of our own mortality seeing our peers — the boys we want to go to the movies with, the boys who used to pull our hair — we learned that they could be killed for the crime being themselves. Young. Black. And Male.

Read the full essay, and listen to audio on npr.org