Do Black Lives Matter?
- Nov 11, 2015
- 2 min read
Yesterday, we laid to rest a 9-year-old child Tyshawn Lee who was gunned down, execution style. Chicago's violence isn’t new to our urban neighborhoods; in fact, Chicago's crime rate is higher than that of any other city. It is suspected, and still under investigation, that Tyshawn was a target because of his father being involved in a Chicago gang. Social media faults the mother as well, for the boy's murder, because of her promiscuous lifestyle. Despite the atmosphere in which the 9-year-old boy was raised, this innocent child being shot down like a dog can never be justifiable. Tyshawn Lee was violently robbed of a life, of making right and wrong decisions, learning from them and the opportunity to make this a better world.
It is a shame that we live in a society where we protest and scream, “Black Lives Matter,” when a white man or a police officer kills a black child, woman or man, yet, we as a people do not scream, “Black Lives Matter,” when our own people kill our young. Instead, we yell, “Put The Guns Down,” but the message never has enough energy to stop this senseless violence. Hopefully this boy's death was not in vain. Maybe something positive will come of this tragedy. As a people we need to start loving each other and valuing each other's lives.
I spoke with “old heads” that were involved in gangs in the late 70's and early 80’s. They mentioned that gangs were originally organized to keep the young ones in line and to control our communities in a positive way. Of course, we know that today's gangs are not positive. But people like Abdul Malik Kadah (his real name is Jeff Ford), founder of Black P-Stone Nation in the 1960s, and Larry Hoover, co-founder of the Gangster Disciples, were leaders. Along with the wrongs that they had made in the past, the government also saw them as a threat because they were leaders that taught young men to protect their communities and make money. Since our neighborhoods do not have leaders that understand the “hood life," our teenage kids are running around creating their own laws which are destroying our communities.
ABC 7 has a brief exclusive article that discusses Larry Hoover's and Abdul Maliks Kadah's input on Chicago’s violence, of which they are appalled and disappointed in our youth.
Read the article below:
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