As I opened the show this afternoon, I mentioned a 9-yr-old Black girl fighting for her life in the hospital after she was hit by a stray bullet when a couple of Black guys were shooting at each other. As I continued talking about it my passion grew and I began expressing total outrage over the idea that Black leaders in our city were not expressing their outrage over the incident.
Where were our Black leaders? Where was Mayor Cantrell? Why the silence? If the young girl had been hit by a bullet from 2 white guys shooting at each other they would ALL be outraged.
It saddened me that this happened and it was the white guy on the radio who seemed most outraged. Maybe the media is partly to blame. Maybe it wasn’t a story worthy of focusing on because it happens all the time. But this tacit tolerance for this kind of activity must end. And don’t blame the Klan or white supremacists or anyone other than Black individuals for what happened to that 9-yr-old girl. And she’s not alone - it happens too often, but it should never be acceptable.
It is not fair to blame the entire Black community for this. This incident is the result of the relatively small group of young people who have no guidance in life and they turn out to be thugs. This would be equally tragic if the young girl were white, but there is a tolerance for these types of shootings from the very community that looks for people to blame for tragedies.
After talking about this for 2 hours, New Orleans Councilman Freddie King called into my show and we talked on the air. King said he has met with young criminals and asked why they were in that position and what would make a difference. The answers he shared with me were shocking and very sad.
The councilman talked about young people having no father, no parents who check up on them, and they are embarrassed to go to school because they don’t have clothes and are made fun of. I actually understand that and while that might seem like a flimsy excuse, in the minds of young people I think that, plus other factors are legit. And in most of the cases the young people were without parents who care.
I’m not totally excusing the behavior of the young men who shot at each other, but until the Black leaders stand up and blame those who share their skin color - nothing will change. That’s the problem. The Black leaders don’t care about the Black community - they use them to get elected. If they really cared they would be outraged by the action that led to a 9-yr-old girl fighting for her life.
Listen to my conversation with Councilman Freddie King in the audio player above.
