Still Invisible

Today, my heart was broken by a tweet:

“thing that hurts me more than the honor student that got murdered in chicago are the mofos who stood by, filmed and yelled ‘get a closeup!’” from (@Questlove of The Roots)

America’s blood lust has spilled over onto our children. Every time a fight breaks out at my school, students appear to be caught in trance that demands they see blood. Hurt feelings lead to harsh words. Harsh words lead to misguided fists. Misguided fists lead to tragedy. Most times, kids walk away from fights a little hurt, but not permanently so. But sometimes they don’t.

Today I caught the story of sixteen-year-old Derrion Albert on CNN. The news broadcast showed the utterly heartbreaking video of Albert being beaten to death by several suspected gang members.

After watching, in horror, for a minute, I had to turn away. I could not bear to watch a young man lose his life in such a heinous way.

My heart broke open
thinking about this child
his family
his momma
My son

My son
Will he have to deal with this at 16?

To my dismay, but not surprise, the story isn’t garnering much attention. Twitter is keeping it alive; many people are sharing information, articles, and calling for more light to be shown on this subject.

But where is the mainstream media?

This issue of teen violence isn’t regional. This story could easily be taking place in Los Angeles, in Harlem, in Detroit, in Atlanta, in Hartford. Why isn’t there major attention being shown to this story? Why aren’t there serious actions being taken to help our kids deal with the anger they harbor? Is it because these people are not wealthy? Are not white?

Is it because this is what they expect from us?

I expect more. I’m not an idealist. I’m not waiting for the next Martin or Malcolm or Obama to “lead” us out of the violence. It’s ingrained in popular culture. In our music. In our shows, our movies. We celebrate toughness. We celebrate one’s ability to “kick ass and take names,” so it is no surprise our kids function off of these same values. But this cannot go on. We cannot keep losing our kids, our future, to this type of senseless violence.

What steps can we take in our own communities to end this type of violence?

What will you do to help?

Share and Enjoy:

Gale Mullings

I'm catching up on blog posts and you and @LiteraryNobody are determined to make me break my defense mechanism. This issue is so difficult to cope with that I have done my best to put it out of my mind, all the while knowing that indifference is largely the problem. In college, I had an idea for a community center that I shared with my then Professor Amiri Baraka. I remember him saying, it would be hard to get started but not impossible. The black community needs to take a page from other communities in building strong foundations. I love The Art of War quote, "There is no honor in being a rich man in a poor society." As a group, we are only as strong as our weakest links. It breaks my heart that there are members of our community who have the power to do more, but prefer to invest in bling and other frivilous material items. Yes, they worked hard and deserve to be happy and indulge themselves but do they not feel a moral obligation to "give back"? Again, I am reminded of the Classic Slave Narratives reference to freed slaves buying other slaves to help them attain freedom. While I don't expect them to rescue everyone, I wish those in a financial position to truly affect change would begin to invest in the black community (housing, community centers, employment, education, etc.) in an effort to free their brethren from the modern day shackles of ignorance, poverty and violence.
christina

my thoughts are so tender on this. i am so glad you have posted the face of this child.
i never want to forget the way he looks here.
love you sis!
we were just speaking bout ya last night.
one love~
bygINCpresents

i never even heard about this until now.
soolebop

The main stream is numb to black on black violence, so the main stream media won't go full blast at it simply because WE are not considered main stream.
My thing is, we don't speak to the disease we go at the symptoms. Our children feel second class. Now third class w/spanish ppl doing anything 4$ their cheap labor[useful]. We need to pressure these so called stars. Y doesn't Jay-Z have a school? Russell Simmons? Technology makes it cheap and easy. Give out laptops school on line. Kids on there all day any way. Because the problem is... WE ARE IGNORANT! WE THINK WE REALLY ARE NIGGERS. We need real education starting with knowledge of self!
Sarah

Hi, I've been reading for awhile, but I haven't commented yet. You're a good writer and I enjoy your site. I just want to say that I do think the mainstream media *has* picked up this story (evidence: you first saw it on CNN, doesn't get much more mainstream than that). The story is also really highly ranked on Google searches: http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends

Anyway, I do think there is a segment of the population that unfortunately thinks this is what black people are like. As a (white) teen librarian who has worked in public libraries, I know this isn't the case. I also wonder if constantly showing the video on websites and TV makes us the viewers any better than the people watching. Things do need to change and teens, whatever their race, have a hard time defending their peers for fear of the teasing/bullying/violence being turned on them. It's our job, somehow, to empower them to do so. I wish I knew how.
Britni Danielle

Hey Sarah,

Thanks for your comment. Although I did see it on CNN earlier, I haven't seen it elsewhere since this afternoon. I think it's high on Google searches because people are talking about it. That being said, I think more attention should be paid to these types of things and people should start working on offering REAL solutions.

As you know, all teens aren't violent and as you've mentioned, teens have a hard time defending their friends for fear of retaliation. It's a shame. Violence is so entrenched in our culture (American Culture) that I don't even know how to begin to go about breaking this cycle. Somehow we need to stop celebrating toughness or coolness and celebrate those that do right. We need to figure out how to rescue the lost ones, those that don't care enough about themselves, let alone anyone else.

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