In November 23, 2012, while sitting in a parked car with three friends, 17-year-old Jordan Davis was shot and killed by 45-year-old Michael Dunn following a verbal dispute over loud music. The story of a white man who became so angry at the impertinence of four black teens that he fired 10 bullets into their SUV came to horrify the nation. Black parents clutched their children tightly as they watched Jordan’s parents, Ron Davis and Lucia McBath, face a loss both unimaginable and horribly familiar. The whole tragedy served to emphasize the constantly present threat of losing our black children to a world that seems out to get them.
The documentary 3½ Minutes, 10 Bullets is about the aftermath of Jordan’s killing—the trial that revolved around the effort to humanize the killer and dehumanize the victim…