A recent incident where one teenager tried to rob another of his drugs and money at a McDonald’s in Penn Hills led to a gun battle in broad daylight ending in one dead. This has become more and more common in the Black community where young Black males care nothing for human life.
Some say it’s because of the economy. Some say it’s the lack of parents. Some say it’s a lack of education. Some say it’s all these guns. Some say it’s the drugs. And some, like me, say it’s all of the above plus some. But how do we stop it?
First lets’ stop making excuses. It’s because of the economy? If you study Black history, there has never been a time in this country that Blacks have not been struggling. The 1990s during the Clinton administration was probably our best time and many of us still were in poverty. I grew up poor, yet I or no one else I knew even thought about robbing our neighbors, who had no more or less than us. If the economy is the problem why not go into Squirrel Hill, South Hills, Fox Chapel or some other suburb where people have money to rob. Think of how much more money the White drug dealers have, because their clients make far more money.
I could understand it if they were doing this to keep a roof over their head, food on the table and clothes on their family’s back. This is not the case. Most are living with their mothers or girlfriends.
Education? Yes the lack of education is one of the base problems. But do we blame the schools, the system, society, parents or the kids. All schools and their curriculums should be geared to all kids, which includes the kids that are not interested in college. Teachers and students should have input into the curriculum. I understand higher education is becoming one of the largest businesses in the country and we need as many Black professionals as we can get, but somebody needs to look out for the students by providing a consumer curriculum as well, geared toward what is the best for each child. But with all this, there are some kids that should be in jail. Nothing you try is going to work, so get them off the streets and out of the schools.
Parents? With babies having babies, and more single parent homes, most children are not receiving the guidance and direction that they once got from mother, father, four grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other extended family. Many mothers today don’t want teachers, extended family and even fathers to discipline their children. And even the government has gotten involved by telling parents they can’t spank their children. Are you kidding? Yet it’s the government building the jails and prisons for them if they don’t abide by their rules. And we wonder why our kids are running wild.
If drugs are supposed be such a lucrative business, then why, other than fancy cars, don’t all these drug dealers own anything in the community? Why aren’t they building businesses in the Black community? Why aren’t they building homes for themselves and family in the Black community? Why do we have all this drug trafficking, killings, violence, yet we don’t see any positive results coming from all this so called big money available for our kids? Most of these kids don’t even have the bling bling cars.
Because of the leadership from the New Pittsburgh Courier, Pittsburgh has made this one of their top priorities the past few years with many rallies, vigils, and events to stop the Black-on-Black violence. There have been more of these in Pittsburgh than just about any other city in the nation because families losing children are working to stop the violence, as are various community groups such as B-PEP, the Northside Oldtimers, CEA, and the Urban League, to name a few.
There is no one solution to this problem. But it starts with our young Black males. All 9 homicides last month were Black males at the hands of Black males. What can we do to make them realize that without an education they might as well put a gun to their heads. For some reason our young Blacks, especially males, feel it’s not cool to study, read or learn a trade or what’s going on in the world around them. The thug life or being a gangsta is being cool. We need to find a way to get it across to them that education leads to jobs and jobs lead to self respect, food on the table and a roof over your head. A job is not just lawyers, doctors, teachers and other professionals, but mechanics, plumbers, carpenters, electricians, repairmen, nurses, secretaries, computer programmers, janitors, cooks, sales, etc. An honest job is one where they are not always looking over their shoulders for the police or someone trying to take what they have; not having to carry a gun or have a partner with a gun for their own protection.
It’s amazing when you look at the overall homicide rate in Allegheny County and throughout the country; Blacks make up from 10 to 20 percent of the population, yet make up 90 to 100 percent of the homicides. Something is wrong with that picture. This should say to all of us that we must become involved in finding a solution, because without our young Black men where is our future?
No, there is no one answer. But our hats go off to the Pittsburgh communities and the various organizations, and groups who have made “Stopping the Black-on- Black Violence” a major priority.
(Ulish Carter is the managing editor of the New Pittsburgh Courier. He can be reached at ucarter@newpittsburghcourier.com.)
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