Stupid. Unnecessary — By John Reed
Stupid. Unnecessary.
Recently I mentioned my disgust that there’s so much more coverage of the deaths of so-called famous people. I guess it’s the way papers and broadcast media sell advertisements. So now we’re hearing about another white-on-black homicide.
To be clear: this was a stupid, unnecessary tragedy, and it’s taken far too long for law enforcement to act. Hopefully, transparency and clear heads will now prevail, and justice will be served. What bothers me, though, is the complete and utter silence greeting other equally horrendous tragedies, like:
–Jamareion Davis, age 13, shot to death.
–Jayce Bell, 7 months old, shaken to death.
–Jahfari Bullard, age 19, shot to death.
–Johntavies Coleman, age 30, shot to death.
–La’Terry Kendrick, age 24, shot to death.
It took me about two minutes to locate these tragedies in recent Columbus and Savannah police reports. Dozens more exist, in this state alone, in this year alone. All African-American victims, all with grieving family and friends. And yet, stone silence. No outcry, no outrage. Why?
Once again, it boils down to what sells ad dollars. Black-on-black crime apparently isn’t important enough to cover, to tweet about, to generate protest marches…even from the black community itself. Where’s the NAACP, the SCLC, the Southern Poverty Law Center, BET, Oprah?
We’re blessed here not to have as much of this kind of tragedy, yet we’re not immune. Through television, the internet, and other sources, we hear and see the stories from other places. But we only see what others decide we should see, which is certainly not the full picture. Democrat, Republican, Left, Right, we all view events through our own personal filters from life and belief systems. Hopefully, there’s one thing we can agree on:
Every. Single. Life. Matters. Black, Brown, Red, Yellow, White, Purple, Green, Polka-dotted, the color of the victim or the killer is only part of the issue. Every murder is a hate crime. Stupid. Unnecessary. As long as we wring our hands only for selected murders, the rest will continue.
