Black on Black Crime

Black On Black Crime (Causes and Cures)

Sitting in class one day at Albert Thomas Middle School in Houston Texas, this had to be in the early 80’s due to me graduating in 1983. We had a substitute teacher he had a Ebony Magazine and on the cover was Black on Black Crime. He showed it to the class and stated the crisis were in as a race of people. I felt the sorrow in his voice.

Coming from the ghetto, as my teacher stated that South Park was becoming a ghetto and if we don’t get involved now it would be a horrible place to live. Living down the street from South Park Village playing outside as a little girl we would always see the ambulance pass down South Park Blvd which is now Martin Luther King. As children we would say “going to the Village” with no clue of the crisis us as the black race were and still face till this day.

One day sitting at home listening to the radio I heard Deric Mohammed talking about going to an apartment complex with the “No More Blood Shed Movement” to end the violence and to raise awareness.

I was so eager to get out in the community since it’s been a while so I decided to go. I was so excited to get out to raise awareness for love, unity and peace, I took a two hour ride on the bus. However there was a little disappointment due to me wanting to knock on doors and them marching. We shut down a Texaco gas station for 10 minutes that refuse to cooperate with us, and we were told to leave by police. The ten minutes shutdown was useless.

I might get some criticism for this article however the uneducated mother has to make sure her children are educated. Everybody can’t be a sports professional however he can be a doctor, lawyer or just a worker. Children are fragle sponges and they absorb to their environment, very few make it out of the ghetto without experiencing jail, juvenile detention, or even death or death of a loved one.

Don’t get me wrong we’ve come a long way with a longer way to go. I would also encourage mom’s to begin eating dinner with their children and discussing what’s going on in their lives and to put high demands on making good grades, instilling morals and values in they lives and get in thiers as well.

Dr. King once said “ How shall we turn the ghetto into a vast school? How shall we make every street corner a forum, not a lounging place for trivial gossip and petty gambling, where life is wasted and human experience withers to trivial sensations? How shall we make every house worker and every laborer a demonstratior, a voter, a canvasser and a student.

Let’s teach them to become first class citizens, we can’t have our young men shooting up the block, we have to show them they value in this world. We can’t have our young women walking in the store talking loud and being rude and idle.

Who’s to blame for this? Can we point the finger at any one? At one time I felt Hip Hop was to blame, however this crisis been long before Hip Hop came along. Don’t get me wrong sometimes I feel some Hip Hop now takes more than what it gives, however it’s only what’s happening in the lives of many.

If we truly want a cure for this crisis it’s going to take dedication and hard work. Education is one of the things we have to do. Working in the community us as poor blacks have become so comfortable with handouts. Of course we take care of our own, however where do we draw the line. There’s a line that have to drawn

Model: for the next Venus generation. Photo by: Kareem Thompson

16 JUSBU MAGAZINE