"Whats going on in our community and what should be done to stop all the violence and killings?"

Jessie Washington, age 17. Burned alive in Waco Texas while white people smile and laugh (May 1916).
Update 12/6/2010. I have seen this pic many times and only now noticed that you can just make out 2- 4 men standing in a tree for a better view of the slaughter. Look just above the man lifting his hat. GI

Student of the Mind: 

I understand that there is still racism that exist, but our young people are becoming murderers at such young ages and some parents aren't raising these children right. Recently, I experienced a loss in my family because of a gang initiation requiring two young men to kill two random people on the same night. Even before this recent incident, I noticed the downfall of some African American communities. Its only getting worse. Whats going on in our community and what should be done to stop all the violence and killings? 

Ghetto Intellectual: 

First we have to stop stereotyping black youth. Most black youth are not violent. I think we can acknowledge that violence is a problem in our communities while avoiding the promotion of stereotypes that do nothing to solve the problem. Second, some of us have grown more fearful of each other than we are of our oppressors. If you see a black youth who is out of order, talk to them and try to correct them. 

My position is that the criminal justice system has as its primary aim the control and oppression of African Americans because we have been and continue to be a constant threat to the status quo of white elite domination. Black gang violence is directly linked to the white government-sponsored assaults on the Black Freedom Movement of the late 60s.

Thus we cannot adequately address violence in the black community until we have addressed violence in America--much of it sponsored by the United States government. We cannot address violence in the black community until we have addressed American belligerence abroad (imperialism)--all of it sponsored by the United States government. GI

Please review:

• Amos Wilson videos ,especially Black on Black Violence: the psychodynamics of Black self-annihilation in service of white domination (he has a book by the same title).

• Michelle Alexander The New Jim Crow
• Blakmon Slavery by another name

• The website Without Sanctuary

• Crips and Bloods: Made in America

• Black Wallstreet

• Violence: An American Tradition 

• The Lynching of Jessie Washington

• COINTELPRO  
• Khalil G. Muhammad The Condemnation of Blackness

tags: violence, gangs, african american, crime, criminal justice, imperialism