"Anywhere you have the public frequenting in numbers , you could very well expect this to happen."
This was city parks director Donnie Snow's comment following the recent execution style murder at the King Center.
Isn't it the job of a parks director to bring the public together?
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Interesting. Granted, this is taken out of context, but it sounds so matter-of-fact. Like, how could we expect any less? So by this logic, there should be shootings at nearly every public event. Why do we even attend then? I’m skipping Harborfest next year; with all of those people, there should be 8 or 9 shootings.
Did you notice we don't play high school football inside city limits anymore either? In Milwaukee you basically get locked into the gym after high school basketball games begin. So sadly, Snow's comment is just honest from his context (city sporting events for youth)and he likely is more frustrated than the rest of us.
I included this quote on my blog because it seemed so strange and fatalistic, as though the number of execution style murders can be predicted by the number of interactions between people. I don't suspect that Mr. Snow actually believes this, but this is often the nonsense that rolls off the tongue of black leaders after episodes of violence.
Denis, I agree it's fatalistic, but maybe it's realistic for those who live in the roughest neighborhoods and spend days and nights inside city limits. The daily tally of night time northside Milwaukee violence serves as a bookend to the day's Iraq casuality report. Basically it's a bizarre comment to you and me because we don't live a world like that, but perhaps that's what is expectyed in Snow's world.
Well yes Eric, this may be what "their" world is like. Maybe it is realistic to expect execution style murders in "their" world. But I think it is time for "them" to ask WTF is wrong with "their" world.
Eric,
Can we can agree that the majority of people at the King Center that night were Black. Then in Mr. Snow's world it is a matter of fact that anytime you get enough Black folks together someone is bound to get shot.
Yes Eric, that is what Mr. Snow seems to be saying. And if that is what he believes, he should ask what it is about black people that makes them more inclined to shoot each other.
Oops, that last comment should have been directed to Wade, not Eric.
Couldn't agree more. But your posts seemed to express a Casablanca like moment of shock/surprise. We've been watching the brothers kill each other on a regular basis for years now, and the last couple years more frequently here in Racine. Why jump on Snow for stating his reality? As for whats wrong with "their" world, you run any group through centuries of slavery, another of Jim Crow and add on the well intentioned but very misguided 'Great Society' and you have a recipe for social disaster. Civil rights acts finally arrived in the 1960's, and affirmative action in the 1980's. If you look around you will see some black families have made real progress, but most people don't take notice if the glass is only 20% full, even when that's a 15% improvement. But for the majority of the black community it took a long time to get them as messed up as they are today, and it will take time to turn it around. Most of the black leaders ascended in the 60's and 70's and haven't figured out new strategies, tactics, and actions are needed for them in the 21st century. A political reality is that their relative importance and power is diminshing as they decrease as a percentage of the overall population. But they don't seem to have figured that out. Witness the front page JT article today, Separate, unequal? which included mostly comments from NAACP head Beverly Hicks. She's stuck in the 60's (and the teacher's union for that matter), when she should be advocating for school choice vouchers and adopting Cosby's mantra to not waste what her generation fought for in the 60's. But in Racine there is no new black leadership on the horizon as far as I know. One likely scenario is that when the metro train connects through here, developers will displace many of the problemed people we're talking about. It's sad though, to watch 10 - 15% of our population, and the talents and potential in that 10 - 15%, get flushed down the toilet going on 3 to 4 generations. Can any society afford to constantly write off that large a percentage? Beyond building jails, is there anything we can do to help them?
Excellent points Eric. I think there is something that can be done. I couldn't agree more on vouchers. But we can challenge statements such as that made by Mr. Snow. Blacks don't have to accept execution style murders. And whites have to get over their guilt an speak the truth about the problems of violence in the black community. We are getting no help from the leaders of the black community who are, as you mentioned, stuck in the 60's. The answer for anyones problems can mostly be found from within. Thus we can oppose the attitude, mindset, and policies that suggest that government can solve the problems. That has been tried and has failed.
Sorry Eric, didn't mean to hijack your name. I've used it in the past, and hadn't seen it otherwise. I will not use it again.
The problem in the black community is simple, the solution is not. Those who succeed, unless it is in sports or music, are shunned by the community. They are said to be “trying to be white”. Where is the incentive to be good in school and succeed in the real world? Many who do, try to help, to no avail. They then give up, and move on with their lives “being white”. Bill Cosby hit it on the head, the older folks know it, but the younger ones think he is pandering to whitey. As long as divisive leaders such as Jesse Jackson are the voice the community listens to, nothing will improve. As mentioned, the 60s are over.
The black community can only heal itself, it just needs to realize that not all of us are against them. Until then, things will only get worse.
Denis/The other Independent,
I pretty much agree. Even if you are a victim, you have to take responsibility and action to heal thyself, rather than to just moan and expect others to provide a remedy. I do think the true voucher program Denis advocates will help, albeit slowly at first. However along those lines, I think the historical experience of blacks in the US has been so extremely bad, that a government remedy is warranted. If I were king for a day I'd enact a college voucher program for blacks that would be provided to black students who could earn college admitance on their own merit, and I'd continue the program until blacks were proportionately represented across a set of social/economic categories, and when they achieved that balance, I'd stop the program. I have always understood it that when you wrong someone you apologize, try to make it right, and move on. My idea provides "a carrot", hopefully motivating blacks into and further along the education path. I understand the issues of such a program and that it would also not be an overnight solution, but I believe it to be the right thing to do. I also understand blacks are in the best position they've ever been before in this country, and its time they assume some responsibility and move forward. They've got to get past the white=American paradigm, or the white=Christian paradigm for that matter (as I believe this is how we've gotten Kwanza and black Muslims). Again, this is the 60's mentality, and as Hispanics, even the illegal ones, fight for collegeg access the relatively smaller black population looks backwards, lost, and rudderless.
I have aproblem with a blacks only college voucher program for the simple fact that it discriminates on the basis of race. Should Michael Jordan's son get a college voucher while a poor white kid, or Mexican should not? This kind of discrimination will have the unintended consequence of pitting race against race. I don't think it is such a good idea, for any race of people.
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