Understanding Violence in the African American Community

Black Lives Matter is a good concept, but how do we address Black on Black violence? African American people kill one another in record numbers throughout the United States. Other cultures also kill, however, African American leaders have failed in their efforts to reduce homicides in their own community. For example, Chicago is struggling with high levels of homicides. Over eighty percent of the homicides occur in the African American community.

Other big cities like Baltimore, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Dallas, St. Louis, Detroit, and Memphis find themselves in the grips of an urban epidemic, gun violence, when comes to the African American community. The police cannot solve this age old problem because they do not possess the ability to penetrate the community to stop the violence on the front end. There is a great chance that younger leaders can address the issue by reaching out to their counterparts to help establish peace treaties or violence free zones.

A segment of the population does not want to hear anything about peace. If you really want to prevent a homicide, one must have the ability to intercept whispers within the community that could lead to an act of violence. It's so hard to prevent a homicide because no one really talks about taking a life. People just step up to the plate and pull the trigger. This is one of the main reasons why you need trained individuals that come from the community to reach people in a moment of distress. Black Lives Matter can help start the much needed dialogue to bring more attention to the issue of Black on Black violence in the same way they are bringing attention to police brutality.

It takes hard work to reach high risk youth in the community as it relates to working on the peace process. Some organizations might find it more newsworthy to deal with other issues, such as police brutality, excessive force, gun control, and combating illegal drugs before taking on the big responsibility of ending violence in the African American community. This type of work is not for the faint at heart and oftentimes you will not be mentioned on the news. Several leaders are making names for themselves by talking about the violence after someone is killed. We should all make an effort to talk about the violence once we stopped an incident before it happens. The main goal is to save lives and Black Lives should matter to Black people. The possibilities are endless if the Black Lives Matter organization takes on the issue of urban violence. There could be an immediate impact in the community where it really counts. Let's band together to stop all killings and remember that All Lives Matter!

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