On the terror front, the enemy within is gangs
LITTLE ROCK — If one waits long enough, word gets around. In a recent issue of American Spectator, conservative writer Ben Stein announced that “in the five and a half years since September 11, 2001, there have been roughly 40,000 killings by gangs and gang members in this United States of America, mostly in the African-American and Hispanic sections of large cities.” Stein goes on to say that the innocent members of those communities, infant to elderly, “are living in a nonstop reign of terror.”
It is good that Stein has noticed this and that he is making clear to his conservative readership that it has kept its head in the sand while thumping its chest and declaring its deep resolve to stand up to terrorism. “Why don’t the leaders of this country ever address this problem?” he asks. “How can we conservatives,” he wonders, “explain how it’s a conservative position to simply ignore the loss of lawin our cities?” Good questions.
As if obliquely addressing the liberal supposed “friends of people of color,” Stein throws this one right across the plate: “Is it non-PC to even mention it because the killers are almost always non-white?”
I have wondered these same things for years and have come to the conclusion that the black and Latino communities have been left on the chopping block of anarchic urban terrorism because the realities of American life now challenge too many prefabricatedopinions based on ideas about victimization or lack of individual drive.
In other words, we can never “blame the victim” because we all should knowthat so-called minorities are inevitably helpless to stand up against the economic and environmental circumstances that shape them into a decidedly small percentage who actually join gangs and the drug crews responsible for so many coldhearted murders. On the other hand, if these people had more pluck and a stronger work ethic, they wouldn’t even be there when the bullets fly, killing innocent people of all ages who actually should be living in the suburbs, watching the carnage with their white neighbors.
Both “visions” are cowardly.
What we need in this time of extraordinary urban and domestic terror is actual leadership focused on the preservation of American lives. One of the first things liberals, conservatives and moderates who would lead need to think about is what they would do if those responsible for nearly 40,000 murders among so-called minorities were not “people of color,” but white gang members and drug posses.
This is the deepest racial irony of our time. None of the perpetual arguments or explanations for barbaric behavior is ever made when the perpetrators of hideous crimes are white.
For instance, when James Byrd Jr. was murdered by a trio of white men, one was quite hard put to get the regular “analysis” used for lower-class minority murderers, such as poverty,class envy, lack of self-esteem and the need for a feeling of empowerment. Berry, Brewer and King were not seen as helpless victims of circumstance and social pressure, men who needed to feel as though they “were somebody.”
An all-white jury treated them as what they were: conscious predators who had themselves some fun at the cost of another man’s life. They were sentenced to death.
But imagine if Byrd had been murdered by three black members of a Texas version of the Crips. Fairly soon, Byrd would have been no more a victim than his murderers, all of whom were “forced” to bring attention to themselves through violent action.
I think that all of those running for president in 2008 need to confront this issue of national terrorism and tell us what they intend to do about it other than wring their hands. This should be a defining issue for both parties and all political persuasions. It is time for those who would lead to lift their heads from the sand of denial and face the harsh, murderous light of anarchic terrorism in the big cities of this country. This issue will make it clear as thesummer sun just who is serious about the proven threats to American life and who is not.
Stanley Crouch can be reached by e-mail at scrouch@edit.nydailynews.com.
It is good that Stein has noticed this and that he is making clear to his conservative readership that it has kept its head in the sand while thumping its chest and declaring its deep resolve to stand up to terrorism. “Why don’t the leaders of this country ever address this problem?” he asks. “How can we conservatives,” he wonders, “explain how it’s a conservative position to simply ignore the loss of lawin our cities?” Good questions.
As if obliquely addressing the liberal supposed “friends of people of color,” Stein throws this one right across the plate: “Is it non-PC to even mention it because the killers are almost always non-white?”
I have wondered these same things for years and have come to the conclusion that the black and Latino communities have been left on the chopping block of anarchic urban terrorism because the realities of American life now challenge too many prefabricatedopinions based on ideas about victimization or lack of individual drive.
In other words, we can never “blame the victim” because we all should knowthat so-called minorities are inevitably helpless to stand up against the economic and environmental circumstances that shape them into a decidedly small percentage who actually join gangs and the drug crews responsible for so many coldhearted murders. On the other hand, if these people had more pluck and a stronger work ethic, they wouldn’t even be there when the bullets fly, killing innocent people of all ages who actually should be living in the suburbs, watching the carnage with their white neighbors.
Both “visions” are cowardly.
What we need in this time of extraordinary urban and domestic terror is actual leadership focused on the preservation of American lives. One of the first things liberals, conservatives and moderates who would lead need to think about is what they would do if those responsible for nearly 40,000 murders among so-called minorities were not “people of color,” but white gang members and drug posses.
This is the deepest racial irony of our time. None of the perpetual arguments or explanations for barbaric behavior is ever made when the perpetrators of hideous crimes are white.
For instance, when James Byrd Jr. was murdered by a trio of white men, one was quite hard put to get the regular “analysis” used for lower-class minority murderers, such as poverty,class envy, lack of self-esteem and the need for a feeling of empowerment. Berry, Brewer and King were not seen as helpless victims of circumstance and social pressure, men who needed to feel as though they “were somebody.”
An all-white jury treated them as what they were: conscious predators who had themselves some fun at the cost of another man’s life. They were sentenced to death.
But imagine if Byrd had been murdered by three black members of a Texas version of the Crips. Fairly soon, Byrd would have been no more a victim than his murderers, all of whom were “forced” to bring attention to themselves through violent action.
I think that all of those running for president in 2008 need to confront this issue of national terrorism and tell us what they intend to do about it other than wring their hands. This should be a defining issue for both parties and all political persuasions. It is time for those who would lead to lift their heads from the sand of denial and face the harsh, murderous light of anarchic terrorism in the big cities of this country. This issue will make it clear as thesummer sun just who is serious about the proven threats to American life and who is not.
Stanley Crouch can be reached by e-mail at scrouch@edit.nydailynews.com.
posted by Braye Cloud at
8:14 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home