Wright Thompson

You know what I mean?

And like, because it's more and more rare.

And then he drove out to the store and money and just to sort of sit there with himself and think about it.

And, you know, I was at what would have been Emmett Till's 80th birthday party that his family and friends threw in Chicago and they invited me.

And I'm in this room.

It's unbelievable.

And this old woman stands up.

And it was his aunt.

And she's tiny and frail and, you know, beautiful.

Looks like a bird almost.

And she stands up and she says in this really soft voice where everybody has to sort of lean in.

And she said, I wasn't there the night he died, but I was there the morning he was born.

you just realize that like, yes, this is a crime that happened to a race of people.

It is a crime that happened to a country.

There's a reason that people don't know this, but if, you know, whether it's, you know, Fruitvale Station or Trayvon Martin or whatever it is, whenever someone is killed, their phone will ring and it'll be somebody from the Emmett Till family privately just being like, we know something about your future that you don't know yet.

You know, and so they've done a very good job of that.

But

It's also a crime that happened to a family and in many ways is still happening to them.

And so I don't think I fully appreciate that.

It's stupid in hindsight not to.