Advertisement

Column: Under the threat of police violence, some African Americans are writing their own obituaries in protest

Share

Newspapers write a number of obituaries in advance, because when heads of state or movie stars or Nobel laureates die, there’s no way to assemble what amounts to a substantive instant biography on a tight deadline. Ja’han Jones knows all that. The recent graduate of Arizona State University’s journalism school is the founder of Black Obituary Project, a Web platform for African Americans to post their own obituaries as they’d imagine they might read, if they are killed in an encounter with police. He began the project by writing his own.

Find the full archive of "Patt Morrison Asks" podcasts here or search for "Patt Morrison Asks" on iTunes.

To read this week’s column, click here.

Want unlimited digital access to the L.A. Times? Patt Morrison listeners can sign up here for eight free weeks.

MORE PATT MORRISON ASKS

We can't take credit for 'dude,' but L.A. is responsible for the creation of hundreds of words in its 235-year history

Why are Julian Assange and Vladimir Putin helping Donald Trump?

Stanford linguistics professor John Rickford on the legacy of Ebonics

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook

Advertisement