By Pastor Rasheed Z Baaith
“Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb is a reward.” (Psalm 127:3)
Black Lives Matter has called attention to the most insidious form of racism there is. Which is murder. They have made the cause a battle cry. It is a fight we and the world should have engaged in a long time ago. We have been marching day and night to show these killings of Black people will not be tolerated any longer. But there is a crucial omission in our stated concerns.
When we say Black Lives Matter are we including the lives of those Black folks killed by other Black folks? Especially our children?
Over the July 4th holiday weekend there were 87 shootings in our communities across the country. Of those 87 Black people shot, 17 of them were killed. Of those 17 killed six were Black children. They ranged in age from 6 – 14. It may well be that all of the children were murdered by Black people.
I’m waiting for the rage and indignation, for the calls to protest and to march. I’m waiting for traffic to be stopped by protestors, for streets to be closed. I’m waiting for those angry, determined interviews to be given about this genocidal behavior of Black people towards other Black people and how it must be stopped now.
This is a behavior symptomatic of self-hatred and a demonstration Black people are seen as having no value to each other. And it is against the most vulnerable of our selves. Our children. If the lives of Black children do not matter to us, why should they matter to anyone else? We can no longer put our heads in the proverbial sand and ignore the devastating psychological and familial impact this madness is having on our communities.
No six-year old child anywhere should have to be worried about being killed on the way to school or on the way to the store or while in a mall or coming from church or anywhere else for that matter. This is a devolution of our own making and only we can stop it.
We have to deconstruct the way we think of ourselves and those who look like us. It cannot be only an intellectual advance but the utilization of every means available. It means re-educating our young, it means our leadership being involved in street activism like never before. And it means understanding the true worth of family. Surely if the belief is that police who walk a beat regularly are known in the community, the same is true of elected officials.
All of us need to be a part of the effort to stop the deliberate, insane killing of us by us.
I have family living in Chicago and I hear these horror stories about how our young people, male and female, are killing each other at every opportunity. I’m told they commit murders on the sidewalks, in the stores, as they ride down express ways and everywhere else.
I hope Black Lives Matter is listening and the rest of us too.
