SOFIA: But Sabrina started digging, looking at 19th-century magazines like Harper’s Bazaar, and what she found was troubling; articles warning American women – well, middle-class and upper-class white women – they needed to watch what they eat.

STRINGS: And they were unapologetic in stating that this was the proper form for Anglo-Saxon Protestant women. And so it was important that women ate as little as was necessary in order to show their Christian nature and also their racial superiority.

The fear of being killed while Black by a police officer is more than just a distant fantasy– it is a palpable and ever-present reality. I hear the words of my father, a man who survived the segregated south and had more than his share of encounters with police, state, “let me know you made it home safely.” From the time I began driving unchaperoned or was allowed to go places overnight, in college taking road trips across state lines and through adulthood living away from home, he would make this admonition. Be safe, he would say. Stay calm if you are pulled over. Keep your hands in sight. Even with my father’s passing five years ago, these almost ritualistic words have remained with me.