You can tell someone is being a useful idiot if they’re asking you why you’re talking about this and not talking about that, even when what they really mean is “will you please shut up now?”
And that’s what this crap is. Every time someone comes on your teevee and tells you that people ought to talk more about black-on-black crime, what they’re really saying is “Shut the Fuck up about Trayvon.”
I got the hint the first time, I just chose to ignore it because it comes from a dishonest and dishonorable place. Black folks rally about gun violence in their neighborhoods on a regular basis. I’d say that the media just don’t cover it, but they actually do cover it a lot of the time. I can remember many, many times that I have seen Channel 6 Action News here in Philadelphia do stories on rallies against gun violence. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg of what goes on. There’s anti-gang activity. There work being done to improve neighborhood safety. There’s pressure to increase after-school activities and improve education generally. There’s work being done to attract businesses and jobs. A tiny bit of research will yield a ton of information about what black folks are organizing to do in an effort to improve the lives of their children, keep them safe, and give them more opportunities. I’m a little out of the loop after living in the suburbs for several years, but I used to have first-hand knowledge of what was going on when I was working for ACORN in North Philly.
It’s really stupid to suggest that black parents aren’t talking about black-on-black violence. If kids were getting gunned down in your neighborhood on a regular basis, would you mention it to your spouse or neighbors or coworkers or fellow parishioners?
It’s not an easy problem to fix. Try passing a gun control law in Pennsylvania. And even if you succeeded, the guns would just come in by car from Virginia or some other place. Try fixing broken neighborhoods with no resources. Try educating your kids with no resources. Try keeping your kids on the straight and narrow when there are no jobs. But it’s easy to judge. I can see that.
You know what would be easy? Arresting George Zimmerman and giving him a fair trial. I think people are going to continue to talk about that until it happens. Telling us to shut up isn’t going to work.
