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Jackson said part of that missed connection is what she saw as a \"missed learning opportunity\" from the parents of the young girl who pointed at Elijah.

\"They looked at my son, they looked at me and they kind of reached out to her and said, 'Come on, stay close,' confirming her unwarranted fear of him, when they could have said, 'Oh baby, he's just looking for a friend. Go play,'\" she said. \"Moments after, a white child walked by and she waved hello and the girl waved hello and the parents all made eye contact and chuckled with each other.\"

Jackson said she felt devastated after the incident and described the kind of \"unspoken language\" Black mothers have about seeing \"the shift\" that happens with how their sons are viewed in the world.

\"If our kids push a white kid down, it's not going to be seen with the same level of innocence as, 'Oops, you just had a tumble.' It's going to be seen as my son being aggressive,\" she said. \"Black kids don't get the luxury of being loud and running and stumbling. They don't get the same space.\"

\"We often say that childhood is a luxury for young Black kids,\" Jackson added. 'They don't get to be silly and loud and wild and free kids because it can always be mistaken as something else.\"

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A post shared by Publicist & Friendship Coach (@daniellebayardjackson)

/>Just days after Jackson posted about her experience as a Black mom, an Illinois-based artist, Maggie Meiners, shared on Instagram a painting she created in 2015 that shows a Black mom overlooking her sleeping Black sons as she holds a copy of the Chicago Tribune headlined, \"Another Black Youth Shot.\"

Meiners' painting is an adaptation of Norman Rockwell's 1943 painting \"Freedom from Fear\" that shows white parents tucking their children into bed.

\"To all of the African-American and Black Mothers out there —- I made this for you,\" Meiners wrote on Instagram. \"I see you, I hear you and I feel for you.\"

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