With the 50th anniversary of Dr. King's famous I Have A Dream speech, and the ongoing protests over the Trayvon Martin verdict, the black community has been assembling on social media and also on the National Mall to bring attention to the current state of race relations in America. At this juncture, there is clearly racial tension being exhibited both on social media and also in the news - although nowhere near the levels it reached in the early 1990s with the LA riots.
The black community has every right to be outraged by the shooting death of an unarmed 17 year-old, and equally outraged that this crime did not result in a conviction. What is being missed, however, is that courts and law enforcement are limited to enforcing only laws on the books as they are written. George Zimmerman was found not guilty because he did not break the Florida stand-your-ground law as it is written. The various protests, marches, and vigils that have been cropping upon across the country in response to this verdict are moving and appropriate, although misguided. Those appalled by the not guilty verdict in the Zimmerman murder trial would be well-served to borrow a page from the Tea Party's playbook. They have assembled and protested and marched against Obama's presidency, but also they have assembled politically and legislatively, and have very effectively moved the national political conversation to topics they would like to discuss. If the tea party, which makes up about 10% of the population of America, can steer the economic conversation to the right - then certainly African Americans (who also make up 10% of the population) can steer the national gun-control conversation towards their benefit.
Regardless of the racial implications of discussing gun control within the black community, it needs to be done. When 10% of the population is involved in 50% of all gun-related homicides, a conversation definitely needs to happen. The facts alone are enough to make me fear that we are plunging into a neo-wild-wild-west, between the NRA mass producing guns on a level that would make Henry Ford jealous, and racial and political ignorance on both sides of the aisle that are causing people to arm themselves to the teeth like never before.
Last 100 Homicide Deaths by Age, Gender, and Race
Since April of 2013 (or 5 months ago), 82 black men have been shot and killed in the city of Baltimore. In total, there have been 150 homicides in the city of Baltimore so far in 2013. Based on these numbers, we are on pace to see 164 black men shot and killed in one city in one year. Why hasn't this made national news or caused outrage? Because most of it was black-on-black crime. Last weekend there were 20 shootings in 80 hours. Not all were fatal, but still - 20 shootings in a little over 3 days. That number boggles my mind.
It is absolutely reprehensible that those who protest en masse for the death of one of their own at the hands of a member of another racial group would simultaneously turn a blind eye or ignore altogether the harm that is being self inflicted in inner cities around the country. To focus on the death of one and ignore the deaths of 82 others - many I am willing to bet under similar circumstances, flies in the face of the sense of equality that Martin Luther King fought and died for.
Sure, racial issues and tensions strike a chord with just about everybody - we are, after all, all members of one race or another. Racial headlines grab readers' attentions and generate ratings, which is what modern-day news is all about. But the fact that we are still so infatuated with race - which is by definition a social and not physiological construct - shows how primitive a people we still are.
The political right has made a fortune selling cocktails of fear and hate to its older, white constituency. What this has eventually led to is the mass production of firearms on a nuclear-holocaust level. These guns are eventually stolen, borrowed, bought at gun shows, or even purchased legally - and are more and more ending up on the streets in the hands of a black teenager. Fear leads to increased gun production, which leads to an increase in guns on the street, which leads to higher crime rates, justifying the fear that was initially manufactured. It is a vicious cycle that needs to end, and leaders of all interest groups involved are to blame.
I grew up about 20 minutes east of Prince Georges County, Maryland. It is a predominately black county, and one of the wealthiest predominately black counties in the country, if not the world. All of the people I have met from PG County - both black and white - have been smart, educated, hardworking, family oriented, and otherwise wonderful. They share the same family values and sense of community as their equally wealthy - and white - neighboring counties. What I am hoping is that we can grow and spread these values within Americas inner cities.
What happened to Trayvon Martin is a travesty that I am hoping will not be repeated anytime soon. Stand Your Ground Laws need to be revised or repealed (or both), but that doesn't change the fact that social fabric of the inner city needs to be seriously reevaluated. Until this happens, 15 Trayvon Martins will continue to die on a monthly basis in the streets of Baltimore; I am just hoping that next month, I won't be the only one who cares.