By Kenneth L. Hardin

“I never ever ran from the Klu Klux Klan and I shouldn’t have to run from a Black man.” I’ve been on the other side staring at young wannabe thugs with criminal intent twice, but I stood my ground. I’ll never retreat. When I receive daily calls about gunfire erupting in this city during daylight hours and the shooters being described to me as resembling little Black children running away from the scene, I can’t help but silently recite the line from that song made 26 years ago.

Hip Hop artist Kool Moe Dee melodically delivered those words, back in 1988 as part of an ensemble group of heavy hitter relevant rappers of the day on the song, “Self-Destruction.” They were brought together by the socially conscious musical artist, KRS-One, back in 1988 for a Stop the Violence Movement effort. All the proceeds raised went to the National Urban League to address violence in the African communities in this country. If only some of these sold out, mumble mouth, self-indulgent rappers of today would take the same approach instead of promoting a fake thug persona and similar make-believe lifestyle, we wouldn’t lose so many of our young skinfolk to the streets. If these young shooters and gangbangers would heed the words of a man I talked with recently, who spent a significant part of his life incarcerated, “These young folk out here shootin’ and killin’ need to understand ain’t nothing out in these streets waitin’ on them but a casket or a prison bid.”

I’m disappointed with the response to the gun violence here in the sleepy city. Instead of a necessary level of genuine concern, we have circled our racially identified wagons and taken sides to lay blame instead of seeing it as a universal problem absent of color. I recall one of our current elected officials saying to me in a telephone call, “Kenny, with all the shootings and murders in the Black community, do y’all not care about all the violence?” Really? It’s easy to deny the reality of a societal ill when it doesn’t touch you personally. And the media’s slanted reporting of it causes even more damage. There’s no such thing as Black on Black crime or any other violence mutually exclusive to one community or ethnicity.  If you look at crime data, people harm those in closest proximity to them. Until we stop assigning a color, or an ethnic and cultural designation to the problem, while exhaling in relief when the news identifies a perpetrator who doesn’t belong to our racial fold, we’ll continue to suffer as a society.

Every time I read about a juvenile shooter; I lament the thought that these kids couldn’t see a life beyond the bullet that would help them realize their lost dreams. I wonder at what point in their lives did they give up on hope? Billie Holiday’s soulful voice comes to mind as the theme song to this woeful realization. In her 1941 rendition of “God Bless the Child,  Lady Day sadly made it plain, “Them that’s got shall get, them that’s not shall lose. So, the Bible said and it still is news. Mama may have, papa may have, but God bless the child that’s got his own.” Unfortunately, too many of these children don’t have their own and struggle in poverty. To compensate, they engage in illegal and illicit activities to get their own.  People in positions of authority, who could ameliorate this condition and break the cycle, would rather criticize poor people for being poor, withhold resources, talk about imaginary and illogical bootstraps, and offer failed interventions. When none of it works simply because they gave the people impacted what they thought they should have instead of what they needed, they criticize and label them as lazy, uninspired and ungrateful. New rec facilities, sponsoring a sports camp or sartorial adjustments like encouraging young people to simply pull up their pants is about as relevant and effective as the idiotic “Just Say No” campaign of the 1980s.

Until we stop babies from having babies, nothing we pretend to do or actually implement will be successful. If a shooter is 15 years old or less in age than their parent, they can’t instill morals, values, decency or hope because it was never instilled into their parent. They don’t possess the mental, emotional or physical resources to pass it on or break the cycle. Several weeks ago, I witnessed two young males and a female juvenile sneak into the bathroom at the old mall and lock the door behind them. Fortunately, the security officer witnessed their actions, banged on the door and escorted them out. What was about to happen between those 13-year-olds was another entry into this vicious cycle of a life being created that may possibly grow into a shooter 13-15 years down the road.

We have to break the cycle.

Kenneth L. (Kenny) Hardin is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists.