What is the price of a Black child's life? Host Erika Washington sits down with returning guest Alvin Hill — entrepreneur, formerly incarcerated father, and constraint navigation researcher — to unpack two cases that shook the internet: the not-guilty verdict in South Carolina v. Rick Chow, where 14-year-old Cyrus Carmack-Belton was shot and killed over a suspected dollar water bottle, and the 35-year sentence handed to 18-year-old Karmelo Anthony in Texas.

Erika and Alvin go deep on the layers beneath both cases — from the complexity of young Black boys carrying guns in dangerous neighborhoods, to how a defense attorney can strip a child of their innocence in a courtroom. They wrestle with hard questions: Was justice served? Can you judge anyone's reaction? And what do we tell our kids about a system that was never designed for them?

Alvin gets raw about his own past, fathering a son in Southwest Detroit, drill music, and what it really means to teach Black children to maneuver a world that's stacked against them — without snuffing out their light. The conversation also touches on the calls to boycott Asian-owned businesses and what it truly means to support Black businesses with intention.

This one is layered, honest, and necessary.

• (00:00) - SNC S3 Alvin Hill - "Murder Was The Case"