When I arrived home last night, my wife informed me that a
family member, only twenty-one years young, was shot-dead.
Because of the fresh wound of the family loss, I will not
divulge any details other than to say he was shot by another young black man.
I doubt if there will be any international coverage of our
loss or even a local demonstrations of outrage demanding the immediate and
thorough investigation of this crime. Perhaps, this type of incident is an all
too familiar condition in our community to merit any special attention. As you may know, I am advocate for the fair
and just resolution of the Trayvon Martin case. I signed petitions, blogged,
tweeted, demonstrated here in D.C. and discussed the case with all who wanted
to share their thoughts, not knowing that my family will be mourning the
violent loss of one of our own, almost three months to the date of Trayvon’s
murder.
You may remember me stating that I was troubled by Trayvon’s
death, but I was more concerned about the senseless carnage being created in
the black community; black-on-black murders. I said that I hoped that the
Martin family’s loss will bring attention to the thousands of kids being lost
in the streets every year with little more than an up-tick in the homicide
crime statistics. More blacks are killed by other blacks than by racist white
people. So, where should my concern be when my family members step outside the
door? Who should I be more concern about? Some red-state yahoo, openly
strapping a nine-millimeter pistol and spouting racist’s venom or should I be
more concerned about a young black boy with baggy pants, tattoos and a
reluctance to look me in the eyes?
I cannot bring my family member back. Writing this blog is
cathartic and therapeutic because I do not know what else to do immediately. The
loss of a young person strikes at the core of your being. It is like no other
pain that one can experience!
As a card-carrying NAACP member, I am imploring this great
organization to help me mitigate the loss of our future, our young people that we
are losing every day. My single voice in the wilderness represents family
members all over the country who don’t have a bully pulpit like Rev. Al or
access to the national media or to the best attorneys that our judicial system
has to offer. Our organizing should not start at the death of a young person,
but at the point of counseling for unwanted pregnancies, signs of ignorance,
chronic poverty and broken educational systems.
If something cannot be done now, when? If we don’t do
something, who will? We must take responsibility for our children’s educational
and moral development. These children are supposed to survive us and our survival
is our responsibility and no one else!
…..a bleeding black man.
