Shattering the Myths Surrounding Black-on-Black Crime

[IsraelJordan]

Time and time again I see it come up on GaG about BLM and "black on black crime" being the real problem. Well guess what? YOU'RE RIGHT! Black on black crime is a huge issue in the black community. The thing is BLM is not about black on black crime, but that doesn't mean that we don't care.

Black on Black Crime

It's a ridiculous claim to say that black people don't care about black on black crime. Yet we've all heard it repeatedly since protests began against cops killing unarmed black people on video. Let me ask you: Do you really believe that black people are content watching a generation of their young people self-destruct? Do you black people are OK with the daily shootings in their neighborhood, the constant fear that an errant bullet might come crashing through their bedroom window or the terror that one day their own child might not make it home?

Are you saying that black people are so immune to violence that their hearts don't break every time a black boy is shot down in an alley by someone who looks like him, lives like him and who probably one day will die just like him? It's ridiculous that you could say something like that and actually believe it. Yet you insist that black people only rally against gun violence when a white police officer is involved. Maybe that's because you aren't paying attention.

Did you hear about the men of Alpha Phi Alpha, the nation's oldest black Greek-letter fraternity, marching last month to protest shootings in Chatham? How about the army of mothers in Englewood Chicago who gather at the scene of every shooting and patrol the streets of their neighborhood on foot? And what about the annual peace march in Grand Crossing that draws hundreds of South Siders onto the streets at the start of the school year? This is a sample of what you overlooked while you were busy keeping tabs on the weekly death count. You need those numbers when spouting off that blacks kill more blacks than white cops do.

Then you have the audacity to say black people don't care about black-on-black crime. You tell those who live in violence-torn communities that their inability to stop the killings in their backyard makes them different from other people. Most important, they are different from you. Shifting the responsibility for the violence onto those who live in the midst of it relieves others of responsibility. It allows you to sleep well at night, convinced that a murder in the black community is is "their" problem, one that can only be solved by "them." Black people, perhaps more than anyone, want to see an end to the shootings, regardless of who pulls the trigger. Some of you say the answer is simple: Just stop killing each other. But it will take social and economic investments in their neighborhoods to get kids to put down the guns.

What we all know for sure is that whenever a child is murdered, it's a tragedy. When a white gunman killed 20 mainly white schoolchildren in Newtown, Connecticut, black people wept for them the same as you. No one said, "It's their problem; let them deal with it." In the aftermath, the entire country, people of all races, engaged in a vigorous discussion about how to stop the bullets. Why can't we, as PEOPLE come together to figure out how to stop the shootings that are tearing our country apart? That can never happen as long as folks keep shifting the blame.

The next time you get ready to argue that black people don't care about black-on-black crime, pause for a moment and think: How much do you care about it?

Hope you enjoyed. If you didn't i don't care :)