Hello I'm Nula McGovern and we're bringing you BBC OS, conversations about race here on the BBC

World Service.

As the repercussions of George Floyd's death continue around the world, we hear from the mother of Elijah McClain, another less well known victim.

Plus, two white women in the US and South Africa who adopted black sons and

witnessed firsthand how their children's skin color affected others.

My son was out front raking leaves and somebody in the neighborhood was very alarmed by that and called the police.

The end result was three squad cars come blazing up to my house. The killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis not only forced

important conversations about race and racism in the United States and

around the world, it also brought to light other less publicized cases of black people who died after encounters with police.

One such incident happened almost a year ago in the city of Aurora, Colorado.

Massage therapist Elijah McClain was a 23 year old African American who simply went to a local shop and never returned. Like George Floyd,

Elijah was put in a chokehold by police officers and can be heard on police body

cam footage saying, I can't breathe. He was also injected by

paramedics with the sedative catamine. At the time no one was found to have done

anything wrong and no charges were made. This decision

gained local but not national or worldwide attention but after a recent petition

gathered more than 2 million signatures. Last month the state of Colorado

announced that it would re-examine the case. Those signatures are now at 4.6

million. Family lawyer, Mary Newman, describes what happened to

Elijah and I should warn you that some of these details are difficult to

listen to.

Elijah had gone to the coroner store just blocks from his house to get some ice tea and he had a very friendly

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