Violence In Chicago

More Black Children Die in Chicago from Gun Violence than Soldiers from Chicago Die in Iraq

By Phillip Jackson

Recently in Chicago, teen gunman boarded a crowded public bus near a high school and opened fire with a handgun. I imagined this scene must have been similar to the bus bombings that are so common in war-torn Iraq. As I researched this analogy, I found striking similarities between what is happening in Black communities across the United States and what is happening in a full-fledged war zone in Iraq. The major difference is that far more Black children are dying in Chicago than Chicago soldiers are dying in Iraq. At about 24 deaths a year, Chicago children are being killed 24 times the rate that Chicago soldiers are being
Chicago is no different than another city because deadly violence in the lives of Black children today is a constant, overwhelming reality in America! Unlike the massacre at Virginia Tech University, where 32 people were gunned down, no national or international outcry is voiced against the gun violence that easily and frequently destroys Black children. Nor is their the kind of grief counseling and support that Virginia Tech students received. It seems that the lives of Virginia Tech University students are intrinsically more valuable than the lives of Black children who live in ghettos and mostly poor communities across America. And sadly, the Black community's reaction to the massacre of its children can only be described as "ambivalent." For many Black children in America, the war in their schools and communities is far more deadly than the war in Iraq. Too many Black children fight with their teachers, their parents, the authorities, and each other. The actions of these children terrorize their communities. The fighting and the violence have seeped down into kindergarten and
All of this adds up to a kind of war-time mentality that directs Black children away from education, playing and learning and, instead, toward violence aggression and death. Their lives of constant exposure to killing make these children unafraid of death. Many Black children cannot imagine themselves alive in the future. The shame of America is that there is no organized outcry against this violence that is consuming Black children. In fact, the media, the faith community, our government, the lack leadership and even the Black community, itself, have not given the kind of attention the violence against Black children demands. Many of us who are working to help solve this problem are centered on the symptoms instead of the solutions that get to the root cause. We must have solutions that are structured, comprehensive, institutional, long-term and