I was tucking him in bed one night and he said to me, not his dad.

He said to me, mama, do black people eat poop?

This is Joel Parker Rhodes.

She writes novels for young adults and she took that question from her son in amazing

stride.

And I said, well, mama's black, right?

And he said, yes, I said, have you ever seen mama eat poop?

No, I said there.

Black people don't eat poop.

And it turns out that he had been being harassed at school.

Jules kids are grown out.

She's black, her husband's white, and they've been talking about race and discrimination

since way before they became parents.

But you'll notice that not all families talk openly about these things, especially if

they're not forced into it by facing discrimination themselves.

Jules latest novel Ghost Boys is about a police shooting of an unarmed 12-year-old boy.

And it's meant to give kids a starting point to talk about racial violence and injustice.

This is the longest shortest time.

I'm Andrew Selenzy.

And today, Joel Parker Rhodes will tell us about the history and family experiences that

inspired her to write Ghost Boys.

Heads up, we're going to be talking about police shootings and hate crimes.

...