Be forewarned – this involves
critical thinking:
The death of a childhood friend and subsequent similar
homicides at the hands of criminals with guns in our inner cities has brought me a great amount of
reflective pause about how we visualize the legitimacy of homicide victims. Seemingly,
there is a great abundance of news headlines featuring homicides that have become
all-too-familiar. The victims are usually young, African-American, and live in
some of our most populated cities – places which used to be known for
significant wealth and prosperity but now are a reflection of something much darker.
Their assailants are also described as young, African-American, and from the
inner-city. If we’re being specific, there’s also the added description of the
homicide which usually “tells us all we need” – the murder was “gang-related”.
Many times, our initial summation and often ill-informed analysis hinges on
these circumstances. That “analysis” takes just under a few seconds but the power it conveys
lasts a lifetime.
What’s most striking is in this internal discourse of legitimacy
is not that we’re wrestling with the notion of whether the crime happened but
whether the victims “deserved” to be killed and if so, whether a crime even
occurred. Come on, admit it. How many times have you heard of a 16 year old kid
in Chicago being murdered and saw the words “gang-related” in the article somewhere and thought “Figures”? Oh, you haven’t heard of those kinds of homicides before? No worries, we’ll
cover that later.
This perception just doesn’t end with race. “Legit” victims
have political parties, live in certain neighborhoods, and subscribe to our
favorite religions. I’ll make a small wager – I could post the names of Chicago’s
shooting deaths and won’t get near as many “retweets”, “favorites”, “shares”,
or “likes” as I do when I post about cop deaths or guys in the military. Don’t
get me wrong – I served in both capacities and those deaths were honorable and
deserved being mentioned. That being said, what does it say about the value we place
on human lives, when we feel certain deaths are worth more of our attention
than others. Those officers died on those streets to stop crimes like those
murders from happening, yet we’re astoundingly silent when it comes to remembering those dead. Why is that? Is there some part of us that can’t or won’t acknowledge
a certain dark truth which is not “all lives matter”?
I was on the podcast, CovertContact not too long ago and somewhere in my rant there, you’ll
probably notice I was very emphatic about something I feel will be a pressing
national security issue soon. If we don’t embody what we preach which is “all
lives do matter” in every fiber of our national fabric, then those who continue
to feel devalued will act as those they and those who look just like them have
no value.
Sadly, the crisis we have growing exponentially doesn’t require me to
furnish any statistics to make this point – the truth is all too apparent. That
simple but very present reality is that unless victims match our skin color, go
to our churches, believe in exactly the same things we do, and are willing to
admit our supremacy on matters where we disagree, their lives are as
meaningless as those “retweets”, “favorites”, “likes”, and “shares” I mentioned
before. This is not a crisis we should crave or even begin to think we’re
adequately prepared for. Care not because their lives matter but care because
all lives truly do matter.
RIP Danny Williams, 29 years old, college graduate, Christian, father, son, brother, cousin, and loyal friend.
RIP Danny Williams, 29 years old, college graduate, Christian, father, son, brother, cousin, and loyal friend.
