I’ve heard many people speak on the gang problem and black on black crime that claim our children are out of control, and worst yet are uncontrollable. Words like epidemic, pandemic, and genocide are thrown out so much that the words are probably tired from overuse. The tragedy of the destruction of lives and community is indisputable, the sorrow of those who have to live through it is immeasurable, and my spirit aches and moans for lack of words and adequate expression; however, I do not share the belief that our children are out of control or are uncontrollable. Our children are making harsh decisions, decisions that they don’t have the experience or understanding to proficiently make, based on the situations they are in and know what they are doing. They understand that for their every action there will be a reaction. Sadly to say our neighborhoods are the places of least resistance and least costly reactions to their inappropriate behaviors so our neighborhoods become the ground zeros for those behaviors.
The biggest myth in the world is that of uncontrollable gangs and irreverent children. When anyone uses these terms there stands a person who isn’t willing to reach deep enough into the bags of compassion wisdom and/or whoop-ass to change their conditions. So instead of taking responsibility for their actions they claim to be helpless victims of tyrannical children. Lies and b.s. is all that is. Let’s look at Oakland California, a place where 632 murders took place between the years of 2001 – 2006. I would imagine the three overused words would be used to describe this situation and used repeatedly in any discussions to drive the point home. But then we would look at Piedmont California, a city located in the middle of Oakland. When I say the middle I mean if Oakland was a doughnut Piedmont would be the doughnut hole. You can not get to it with out going through Oakland. The number of murders that took place there between 2001-2006....zero. That’s not a misprint, zero murders took place. How could people who were out of control and were uncontrollable kill 632 times and never once do it in the very center of their city? Are the murderers afraid they will fall off the edge of Oakland? Are there force fields or great walls separating them? Why no murders in Piedmont?
Here comes the whammy. There are no murders there for a number of reasons but the main ones are, they are neither tolerated nor accepted. No place is murder free forever but there are places where you rarely if ever have murders and that’s because it is affluent and rich people shop rather than shoot and/or it is known that the price to pay for “disturbing the peace” will be served swiftly with extreme malice and with no apologies. Piedmont is 79% white and the mean income is $134,270. Oakland is 31% white and the mean income is $40,000. The invisible line is drawn, much like the train tracks that separated rich neighborhoods from poor neighborhoods, and based on your income, color, and social status you knew which side to be on. These fearless children are afraid. They just aren’t afraid of us. Piedmont is not an anomaly. There are Piedmonts in every state in America. The lines are just as distinct and just as defined. Our children don’t go there because they can’t; mentally they are bent on self-preservation and understand that that preservation is not likely to happen if they act up in Piedmont.
Maybe it’s time we stopped making excuses and being afraid of our children and make them afraid of us. Not in the Plantation owner enslaved African way, but in the, I love you and will save you from everyone including yourself way. The, you will fear God or meet God way. Disrespect and ignorance are bought cheap and tolerated to the point of nausea in our neighborhoods. Compassion, wisdom, and whoop-ass should be the most used words in our conversation. When we create options instead of excuses and raise the cost of disturbing our peace to a price our children aren’t willing to pay then we will be able to occupy our time talking about building life instead of struggling to maintain it.
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