Mother, mother
There's too many of you crying
Brother, brother, brother
There's far too many of you dying
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today - Marvin Gaye, 1971
That was over 35 years ago, and it looks like nothing much has changed. Except black society is more disfunctional & violent. This brokenness is glorified in a pervasively malignant gansta rap culture parroted in most high schools and on many street corners - with deadly results. It looks like the worst of it is here in Missouri.
Missouri leads nation in black homicide rate for 2005. In 2005, there were 127 homicide victims in Kansas City. 86 of those were African-American. In 2006, there were 115 homicides, with 94 of the victims were black. In 2007, out of 94 homicide victims, 64 were African-American. And, so far this year, out of 9 homicides, 7 victims were black.
After 30 years of studying the problem, community activist Alvin Brooks thinks he knows why more blacks are being killed. “There's a correlation between education, poverty, crime and violence,” Brooks said. “And then the accessibility of guns and then the drugs and you put all that together and you have a ticking time-bomb that takes place in urban America."
Ed. note: I would have linked to this story via the KC (red) Star, but the editors seem h3ll bent on burying this story. This morning, it was on the front page. Now it has mysteriously disappeared. If you can find it, let me know. Same goes for Jason Whitlock's excellent columns on Imus, Jena 6, & the 'N' word. For some reason, they are scrubbed from the KC (red) Star's search results. If you can find them, let me know.
