Black Chicagoans stand by shaking their heads again after another week of senseless violence. The latest victim, 16 year old honor student Derrion Albert, was said to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. But that’s what they say about all young black boys that are murdered? This is the third case I have heard about in Chicago where a “good” kid was killed. Young black boys all at random places being killed by other young black boys. Boys getting killed coming out of church or going back and forth to school. Honor students are supposed to be the ones that stand above the fray. These are the students that want something more for themselves. They had plans and were working toward their goals. Now all their parent(s) have are dashed dreams.
What happens to a race when its brightest assets are murdered? What does it mean when our future lawyers, teachers, doctors, architects, engineers, scientists are murdered??? These murderers have decided that they are tired of killing rival gang members or people that they have a beef with. They have decided that everyone is now fair game. Either join them in the genocide or face a beat down or possibly worse. Between jail and getting killed in the streets it’s a wonder why Derrion wanted to study at all. The hopelessness of a race is being displayed on our streets everyday.
But who do we blame for this? It’s easy to throw blame on government as the usual suspect. But are they really to blame for the atrocities that are taking place in our cities?
Sure state and local governments could do a better job with providing employment, education, clean water, quality housing but then what? Providing resources won’t make someone work hard, take care of their property and be an overall better citizen. When the education system is discussed by my local city council they blame everyone but the parents. I guess they don’t want to upset possible voters. We have bad children in our schools because we have bad parents. People assume parenting is like riding a bike. A great deal of parental learning comes by trial and error. The rest naturally comes from the parents (grandparents by this stage). But when Grandma is single and 30 what can she really teach you?
It’s also sad that the only time you see black male honor students are when they’re getting a 2X4 upside their heads. It used to be that you couldn’t find news stories on our best and brightest. But if they are getting snuffed out, then why bother? When I was born, I never knew the males in my race were a dying breed.
I see my fellow black female bloggers’ complaining that black women don’t get a fair shake. That they are treated with disrespect and are devalued. No matter how Russell Simmons tries to spin it, black women are correct in their beliefs. Some black men have not done their jobs when it comes to protecting and providing for their women. Soon black women are going to start making black men their last option. They just don’t have time for black boys to stop killing one another.
I don’t want to make disparaging remarks about all black boys because that is not what this is about. Black boys go off to college every year and graduate becoming young men. They have moderate – highly successful lives without any dealings with prisons or gangs. Then you have the Derrion Alberts 0f our breed. Potential not fully realized because of horrible acts by people that look like their victims. Or maybe the perpetrators should be called animals? That might be disrespectful because farm animals have the common sense not to murder in cold blood. Possibly they could be wild animals? Raised in an animalistic environment that is full of hostility. You know the type I’m talking about. These days even black folks move to the other side of the street when they see young black boys coming. What does it mean when you are afraid of your own race?
This senseless violence has been going on for along time and we sighed – shed a tear and gone on with our business. We have set up memorials and made t-shirts with the faces of the deceased. And someone would always say “it’s just gangs, let them kill themselves.” Well the violence is now spilling over into a collateral damage stage. So the question becomes this – if we can’t save the bad ones and we can’t save the good ones, who can we save?
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