Why I'm outraged over the real race war in America

By Marshall Connolly (Catholic Online)
4/11/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Where's the outrage over this very real conflict in America's streets?

As America revisits old issues of race and violence amid the allegations of the Trayvon Martin case, a lot of attention is focused on the possibility of a "race war" in the US. Racist groups like the New Black Panthers and Neo Nazis have pledged their arms to battle - if one erupts. Still, America is ignoring the real race war that is ongoing in America's streets.

It is time to stop obsessing over a hypothetical race war and pay attention to the actual race war that is devouring African American youth.

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - And make no mistake, it is a war in every sense. When we think of a race war, we think of whites and blacks clashing in urban riots, but the reality is blacks and whites have little need to fear one another. Instead, they need to fear themselves. In many circumstances, blacks need to fear blacks more than whites.

Black-on-black violence is an ongoing scourge that has been destroying urban black communities for decades. While violence appears to have peaked in the 90s, and dropped off since, black-on-black violence is increasing once again.

Meanwhile, some black community leaders, whose agenda is self-serving, ignore the daily murders of black people across the country at the hands of other black people while focusing almost exclusively on the one case where a mixed-race Caucasian/Hispanic man allegedly provoked a confrontation with a black teen and shot him.

As tragic an incident as that was, there is so much more to the problem. It is time to stop obsessing over a hypothetical race war and pay attention to the actual race war that is devouring African American youth.

According to a report on The Blaze, between March 16-19 of 2012, 41 people, nearly all African American, were shot and killed in Chicago.

41 people!

Where's the outrage? Where's the news coverage, the rallies in the streets, and the community organizers? Forty one human beings, almost all African Americans, were shot down in cold blood by fellow African Americans, yet not one iota of outrage, public attention or address from the President has taken place.

If Obama had a son, would he look like any of the 41 souls murdered in Chicago over the course of four days?

Today, if we lose one of our brave heroes in Afghanistan, it's headline news. We talk about "time to end the war" and express renewed urgency to "bring the troops home." We properly turn to prayer and petition to spare American lives overseas. There's nothing wrong with this.

The problem is that we do nothing of the sort for the thousands of black youth murdered in our country every year. And the figures are greater than war. Annually, between 8,000 and 9,000 blacks are murdered in America. Of those murders, 93% are perpetrated by other blacks, according to The Blaze report.

There's nothing wrong with sharing outrage over the tragic killing in the Trayvon Martin case. In that case, a young black teen who was said to be minding his own business was confronted by a highly motivated neighborhood watch captain. Regardless of the details, the incident should have never happened.

But every day, we are losing nearly two dozen African Americans to black-on-black violence. There should be community rallies and political speeches on the subject. We should have media specials and awareness campaigns. There ought to be chain status updates on Facebook and Twitter (as much as I dislike them) and candlelight vigils.

But there are none.

And that's why I'm outraged. What about you?

� 2012, Catholic Online. Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

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Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
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Keywords: Race war, America, black-on-black, violence, African American, Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin

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1 - 10 of 22 Comments

Vance
1 year ago
Sara, I believe you hit the nail on the head. Affirmative Action is a product of the Racist, Sexist, Anti-Catholic Socialist Democrat Party. The Marxist Democrat Party sees people as groups as a voting block. They could care less about the individual. The Marxist Media Complex incites division between the races, between the sexes, between the young and elderly, between the rich and poor, and they incite hatred against the Catholic Church. I refused to participate in the Marxist clap trap on revealing my ethnicity. This day and age businesses don't care about race and gender, they just want competent workers. It's the Public Employment arenas who are hung up on the political correctness.
Sara
1 year ago
Whoops I meant racist, not fascist. Sorry for the typo!
Sara
1 year ago
Here is something I would like you all to consider: to truly say that as a person I am not fascist at all, does that mean that race shouldn't play a role at all? If we're not racist, then on tests at school should I have to put whether I am "Caucasian," "Of African descent," "Hispanic," "Pacific Islander," or other Politically correct names they've come up with? On my job interview should I have to put my race? Does the color of my skin really matter that much? I think that people are so focused on not being racist that they unwittingly racist. Why do universities have to have a certain percentage of black students, white students, Hispanic students, etc.? How come in the workplace they have to have a certain percentage of women, blacks, and other major ethnic groups? Race is a big deal in our country, one that is made bigger by the people who don't want to appear racist.
Curt
1 year ago
Black on Black violence is the result of going on four generations where people are not taught to respect authority of any type. It started out as simple as "Do not trust whitey" and it quickly changed to do not respect authority (police, firefighters, government officials. Now, we have had a generation or two growing up not respecting authority of any kind. Not parents, not ministers, not grandparents, not civic leaders or even women; they are taught to respect NOBODAY for any reason.

Then when you couple the things that makes a young person to be seen as "cool." Such as the gangster rap and hip hop music. That only ads fuel to the fire and going on four generations now. It is a fire out of control.

How to stop it? Prayer
Uzoma
1 year ago
The writer of this article ironically is pushing an agenda that the article has criticized: Race baiting. Writer tries to be cheeky about this by pointing to the well documented issue of crime among blacks. What audience will be more sympathetic to that message? A white audience. The sad thing is you use a catholic (not just any Christian denomination) forum to push your racist agenda forgetting that some of us Catholics are black and have known no other Christian way of life since birth. This article is very painful to me as a proud black Catholic Christian. No one knows all the facts of the case. What we want is a fair opportunity for the judicial process to run it's course. Stay on issue. A boy (black) was shot while returning from a convenience store. Police arrived on the scence, interviewed the accused then summarily concluded no wrong was done and effectively found him 'not guilty'. If Trayvon was your son, how would you feel? Will you sit on your hands and be thankful that he didn't die from black on black crime? This article is wrong and hypocritical. Also, using a Catholic Christian website to push non religious agenda is wrong. I googled this website to get explanation for biblical chapters to enhance my relationship with God. I don't think I will be returning to this website.
robert matzinger
1 year ago
I live near Detroit MIchigan, which is one of the most violent, black-on-black crime cites in America. But this is nothing new and there is rarely any "outrage" against the violence, especially from black leaders within the comminuity or from outside it. Much of the reason for this lack of outrage appears to be that no one, especially black leaders both inside the city and outyside, have any idea how to stem the violence or a willingness to take it on. Another problem in the city of Detroit is the "extended families" where most blacks have someone they're related to engaged in criminal actvity and because of that, they're not likely to turn them in. Occasionally some black church leaders will organize a "rally to take back the streets" and march up and down some street for a few hours, and that's it. And of course nothing chnages. If you get really tough locally on black-on-black crime, which it is almost exclusively in the inner city in Detrioit, black organizations such as the NAACP complain bitterly about blacks only being arrested, profiling blacks and black criminals in black communities, arresting large numbers of blacks, etc. and the police agencies will then back off. And in the end, you have this "acceptance" that this is just the way it is in Detroit and if you don't like, move out. And there is no change coming and there will be no one to rescue you from the bad guys.
Diane
1 year ago
Blacks seem to think the answer to their "community problems" is political power. It isn't, it's moral power. If they continue to support and have so many abortions and fatherless children, of course their youth will continue to practice "black on black" crime so much. Their leaders, after King was killed,have spoonfed them "agitation and violent change" ever since. Lenin understood and preached that perfectly. No, I am not outraged. Until blacks take back their own families and communities and practice non-violence and responsible morality towards one another nobody can help them. I'm sure many of them are going through devastated expectations as they see that political power doesn't do much after all. They have let the Communist/Socialist destroy their communities.
Rob
1 year ago
There is no outrage over this because we do not care. We will gladly spend trillions to fight wars in countries where they may pose a threat or something might happen in the future, but we refuse to deal with the terrorism that is going on day after day in this country. I'm not sure how we have just learned to live with it. Vance, I'm glad you brought up Margaret Sanger, because I'm sure she's happy with the way we are leaving things. As for the shooting that prompted this article, I personally never saw this as a race thing, but it is unfortunate that it took folks like Al Shaprton to increase the pressure to move this thing along. Those first 27 days when that family's son was killed and there was no investigation happening must have been mind blowing to the family. Maybe the media got it wrong, but with no pressure this death would have gone unanswered. Dan, this shooting was 100% avoidable. GZ went looking for trouble. His intention was crystal clear the moment he ignored that police dispatcher. And we seem to lose sight of the fact that had GZ not been following this kid, I don't the news would have covered a teen boy going to the store to buy some candy. Not sure that is news worthy.
Stephanie
1 year ago
An African American guy I know of was recently shot in Oakland and died. He was just standing outside, minding his own business. He was not a member of any gang. But a group of black people drove by and shot him. Were they members of a gang? Did they mistake him for someone else? Nobody knows why they shot him, but he's dead. He was only 20 years old and is survived by two children, one is five and the other is one year old now. Now the kids have no father and their mothers will have to raise them alone.
Cheryl Wickham
1 year ago
"Race War"? Those are media hype words.There is no such thing as "Race War"....it is all "people behaving badly" .
I may have the legal, even moral right to "shoot someone dead", but it has never been my first choice of action. Choice, free will, is what we have. If we are confrontational in our actions and we push until someone pushes back, are we not part of the problem?
Did not Jesus tell Peter to put away his sword?
So, we (including me) spend our time debating actions that we were not privy to. Speculating on what happened. This is all just a spectacular excuse for gossip.

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