It seems that within the past 5 years, there have been some highly publicized acts of violence against young, black men. Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, Jonathan Ferrell and countless other young, black men have died at the hand of violence. It seems that our society has a target placed on the backs of young, black men. It seems that people assume that all young, black men are gang members, thieves, rapists, or thugs looking to do someone harm. There is a serious danger in viewing people based on stereotypes or how they are perceived in the media, movies, and music. People have to stop making these assumptions because it is killing our young, black men. They are being hunted down and killed just because they look like they are up to something, not because they were doing anything illegal. Time after time, we are seeing the same scenario played out on our television screens; young, black man gunned down, unarmed, just walking from the store, looking for help after a bad accident, playing music too loud. These are not reasons or justification for shooting someone down in cold blood.
Another issue is when they put the victim on trial as well. Pictures of the victims looking solemn, sometimes mean and not smiling are pushed into our faces. Pictures of them smoking weed, Facebook posts talking about guns, school records about suspensions, friend's criminal records; all of these things brought to the forefront in an effort to justify the murders of these young men. If they were not committing any of those acts at the time, there is no justification for killing them. Even if they were, there needs to be probable cause to exact the kind of violence these young men endured; the illegal act should be extremely egregious. Their past is irrelevant and people need not to focus on that. They are not on trial, they cannot speak up for themselves and explain their previous actions. They are victims.
And for those who want to say this is not a race issue are clearly in the dark. I heard this a lot when I would go on rants on Facebook during the Treyvon Martin trial. Just because our president is half-black and identifies himself as a black man does not mean that racism has magically disappeared. It is now carefully hidden; many are afraid to show and express their racist feelings. However, it is now spilling out and manifesting itself into violence. I guarantee you that these young men were viewed as a threat because they were black. It doesn't matter if the shooter was white, Hispanic, black (there are blacks that hate other black people and stereotype them), these young men were seen as a threat that needed to be extinguished. This type of violence is reminiscent of what was going on during Jim Crow, when young, black men were assumed to be looking at white women or disrespectful toward whites and were lynched because of it. They were seen as a threat and were killed as a result.
All of these incidents have caused my husband and I to reevaluate the discussions we have with our children. We now have to tell them how they should interact with someone that may approach them in a hostile manner. We now have to tell them when they are stopped by the police to not make sudden moves and to announce to the police when you are about to do something ("I am about to reach into my glove compartment and get my registration"). We now have to tell them to not be mouthy or sassy when the police question them so they will not be perceived as a threat. These conversations were not necessary 10-15 years ago, but due to all of the violence enacted up our young, black men, the dialogue has changed. This saddens me. I should be talking to them about having fun and being young instead of how to stay alive through adulthood. So I ask the question, are young, black men becoming extinct?
