Commentary: The video of Tyre Nichols’ murder is unbearable. But it shows why we need stories of both Black pain — and joy

The murder of Tyre Nichols and the individual and collective reckoning we have all encountered — whether or not to witness the brutal images of his final moments — sent me back to an issue that I’ve been wrestling with for two decades.

In the fall of 2001, I started writing the seeds of a book project with the intention of examining the multigenerational reverberations of my great-grandfather’s lynching. I started writing this story before the #BlackJoy movement, but even back then I faced some resistance.

“Haven’t we heard enough race stories?” a friend asked. Besides, he said, “you’re so funny. Write something funny.”