The myth of good times are here again
I write this column Halloween night, following more tricks in the form of murders, violence and misleading statistical reporting, and fewer treats of honesty. There has been three murders over the three-day Halloween weekend of October 28-30.
Our community’s darker spirits again inflict pain and suffering on fellow neighbors, one shot and killed in his apartment and two in their automobiles. And once again another African American female has been gunned down.
Never before in the history of our African American community have so many African American females been murdered the same calendar year, the latest being an innocent African American grandmother, never before involved in any criminal activity or conflict, caught in a deadly crossfire along the 3800 block of Queen Avenue North.
About four-and-a-half hours later, a 31-year-old African American father of three was shot, execution style, along the 4800 block of Bryant Avenue North. Another was killed by a man using his car to run down another man with whom he had had a dispute.
So we again wonder how is it that our African American community, allegedly enjoying new prosperity, still experiences so many deadly outcomes of murder, mayhem, and death. For a community that has allegedly received $36 million in economic assistance and $4.2 million set aside for at-risk youth, we can’t avoid the question of why so much violence in the midst of such prosperity?
Or are misrepresentations being made to allow those who are the community gatekeepers to profit from the African American community by using the narrative of false job and revenue statistics? A main theme in this column for over a decade is that evidence and experience demonstrate such acts of violence are driven by a lack of education, lack of training, lack of jobs, lack of housing, lack of cooperation with public safety, and certainly a lack of prosperity-focused leadership in the African American community.
Some will be upset and angry at these words. Then ask, where is the counter analysis to explain why we have such violence in the midst of such alleged prosperity. Instead, we again offer condolences to the survivors of loved ones who have lost their lives to community negligence and failed administrative promises to the African American community.
We would all like opportunities to walk in step with the prosperity of Vikings’ “Peoples Stadium,” US Bank Stadium. But is “good times are here again” the correct slogan?
In our next column, in two weeks, we will touch on the presidential election. If Hillary wins, it will be a lack of prosperity as usual for African American communities, not a cause for celebration. If Donald wins, we will wonder what kind of “fire next time” will usher in. Will it be us or corruption that gets burned? With Hillary or Donald, will we get new spin doctor narratives or, finally, real hope and change?
Will the major political party institutions, the media and news institutions, and the academic and think tank institutions continue to choose to be untruthful to Black communities, perpetuating their prosperity at the expense of dangerous and perilous hopelessness and lost opportunities for positive change for us? Will Chicago, with over 600 murders to date in 2016, prove to be the exception or a sign of our future if city, police, community and gangs don’t cooperate and collaborate?
Will White and Black leadership continue to skip along their yellow brick road fantasy and leave the rest of us on the road to Chicago? Will they finally look at our 51 solution papers for good ideas?
Stay tuned.
For Ron’s hosted radio and TV show’s broadcast times, solutions papers, books, and archives, go to www.TheMinneapolisStory.com. To order his books, go to www.BeaconOnTheHillPress.com
Reach the MSR staff at msrnewsonline@spokesman-recorder.com.