Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s portrayal of Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show redefined Black boyhood on television. Through Warner’s work, generations of Black boys, from all backgrounds, found permission to be complex and unapologetically themselves.

The Reckoning spoke with two sets of Atlanta Black gay dads who are raising Black boys to discuss how Blake’s shooting has impacted the conversations they’re having as a family about police brutality, social unrest, and surviving in America when the color of your skin is perceived as a deadly weapon.