Opinion
Gun Victims: Valuing Some Lives Over Others
T
he national support for the
victims of the recent Col-
orado shootings is great.
However, if we believe in the
equivalency of life, what about the
lives of young men in Chicago,
where there have been more
deaths than in Afghanistan so far
this year? While the hospitals in
Aurora say they will cover hospi-
tal bills for those without
insurance (one in three in Col-
orado), who will cover bills for
those who are hospitalized after a
drive-by? We mourn some deaths
and ignore others, which suggests
that some life is valued and some
life is cheap.
Does it have anything to do with
media attention? In Tuscaloosa,
Ala., a crazed man walked into a
bar looking for “a Black man”. He
shot a man who did not know him,
and with whom he had no beef.
He also wounded 17 other people.
Why has this story received only
limited national attention?
If we spend a minute watching
any news, we have heard about
Veronica Moser, the 6- year-old
who was massacred in Aurora.
We’ve seen pictures of her smiling
face and of her playing. Certainly
B ENNETT
C OLLEGE
Julianne
Malveaux
we can all mourn the tragedy of
her young life being snuffed out
by a madman. Still, some young
lives are valued, while others are
not. One of the young deaths that
rocked my soul was the 2004 mur-
der of Chelsea Cromartie, who sat
in her grandmother’s window
playing with her dolls when she
was killed by a stray bullet. She
wrote, in a classroom exercise,
that she was an “amazing girl”.
We don’t have to go back to 2004
to find a child’s death. Two weeks
ago, Heaven Sutter, who had just
had her hair styled for a trip to
Disney World, was shot. Again the
culprit was a stray bullet.
Details of the lives of those who
are killed humanizes them and
tugs at our heartstrings. In Auro-
ra, we have learned about a man
whose wife just gave birth, about
another who died saving his girl-
friend, of a young woman who
missed a Toronto mass murder by
a few seconds, aspired to be a
sports journalist, and was killed in
Aurora. Rarely do we hear about
the lives of those who are killed in
the inner city, about the lives of
Chelsea Cromartie and Heaven
Sutter.
The disproportionality of death
commentary hits home when one
remembers the stories in the New
York Times after September 11,
deaths in the United States in
2008. Eighty percent of the gun
deaths in the world’s 23 richest
countries happened in the United
States, as did 87 percent of the
deaths of children. We have more
than 270 million privately owned
guns in this country. When we add
the number of military (police,
sheriffs) guns, there is at least one
gun for every man, woman, and
child in this country. Some hark
back to their Second Amendment
rights in their gun ownership, but
Two weeks ago, Heaven Sutter, who
had just had her hair styled for a trip to
Disney World, was shot. Again the
culprit was a stray bullet
2001. For months, postage stamp
sized photos accompanied short
but revealing blurbs about those
who lost their lives. On one hand,
the blurbs were humanizing. For
me, though, they were a reminder
of the equivalency of life and the
lives we choose to ignore.
There were 12,000 gun-related
the Second Amendment was
passed before assault weapons and
Glocks. If people have the right to
bear arms, do they have to right to
have 6,000 rounds of ammunition,
obtained on the Internet? If we
can’t limit guns, can we at least
regulate the distribution of ammu-
nition?
In the same year that there were
12,000 gun deaths in the United
States, there were a scant 11 gun-
related deaths in Japan. Indeed,
while the United States has 90 pri-
vately held guns per 100 people,
the next largest per capita rate of
privately held guns is in Yemen.
In contrast, China has three guns
per 100 people.
The National Rifle Association
loves to say, “guns don’t kill, peo-
ple do.” As usual, they display
limited thinking. People with
guns are the ones who kill! Why
won’t we address that by dealing
with issues of gun and ammuni-
tion control?
The 12 people who lost their
lives represent a fraction of 1 per-
cent of those who die from gun
violence annually. As we mourn
these lives, let us mourn the lives
of the thousands who were also
killed because it is easier to buy a
weapon than it is to buy marijuana
in most parts of our nation.
Julianne Malveaux is a Wash-
ington, D.C.-based economist and
writer. She is President Emerita of
Bennett College for Women in
Greensboro, N.C.
Economic Dysfunction: Helping Others Build Wealth
A
mazingly, Black folks in
this country still don’t get
it. After all we have been
through and after everything we
have accomplished, prior to and
after integration, our relative col-
lective economic position in
America has changed very little.
In some cases we have regressed
in terms of ownership of land,
from some 20 million acres of
land (31,000 square miles) in
1910; and in our ownership of
banks, of which 128 were founded
between 1888 and 1934 and 64
Black-owned banks existed in
1912. As for other necessities
such as supermarkets, manufactur-
ing concerns, and distribution
networks, we are not even on the
economic radar screen.
In light of the latest news reports
that predict yet another recession
just around the corner, and the
financial “cliff” from which we
will soon fall, as reported on
CNN’s, “Your Money,” one would
NNPA C OLUMNIST
James Clingman
Lamar Odom’s contribution. We
just love to check in on those
“wives” of wherever and listen to
their vulgarity and watch their
extravagance. We can’t seem to
get enough of the gossip shows
and things that will take us
nowhere while making others
quite wealthy.
Bob Law once said, “Black folks
are just happy because Oprah is
rich,” as he pointed out how
ridiculous we have gotten when it
comes to our own collective eco-
nomic empowerment. He also
chided us for just wanting to see a
Black man in the White House –
that’s all, just to know he is there.
Most of the people we follow
and nearly worship are multi-mil-
lionaires and couldn’t care less
We can’t seem to get enough of the
gossip shows and things that will take
us nowhere while making others quite
wealthy
think Black folks are busy getting
our economic act together, our his-
tory of business ownership and
mutual support notwithstanding.
Sad to say, we are still flounder-
ing, enamored by the trappings of
the “good life” and living vicari-
ously through reality television
shows and the shallow personali-
ties thereon. Instead of working
on our own economy we seem to
be more interested in the
economies of others, like the Kar-
dashians who make about $30
million per year, not counting
about us. They wouldn’t give
most of us the time of day if we
saw them on the street. Yet we
idolize and follow them in all that
they do, as we slip further and fur-
ther behind in building (or should
I say rebuilding) our collective
economic base.
Recent reports cite how impor-
tant the Hispanic consumer market
is and that it comprises more than
$1 trillion in buying power. They
also point out that Hispanics are
the second largest population
group in the U.S. and by 2015 they
will be 18 percent of the total pop-
ulation at nearly 58 million
persons. Those of us who were
paying attention to Claud Ander-
son 15 years ago heard him predict
just that. He also warned that if
we didn’t get anything from this
society when we were in second
place, what do we think we will
get when we fall to third place?
He begged us to get prepared but
we were too busy helping every-
one else build up their wealth and
take care of their children. As the
saying goes, “It’s time to pay the
piper.”
What can we do now? For
starters we can look into a mirror
and admit how we have played a
role in our own economic demise;
and then ask, “What can I do to
contribute to our collective eco-
nomic uplift?” Establish or get
involved in a local effort to
empower Black people, whether
through education, politics, eco-
nomics, or all three. You have to
take action.
Remember when the lady on the
school bus was harassed by stu-
dents, and a couple of days later
more than $660,000 was raised for
her through Facebook? That’s
how easy it is for us to do some-
thing collectively to help
ourselves, yet we fail to take
advantage of models that have
been and could be implemented to
help ourselves.
There was, and could be again,
the Blackonomics Million Dollar
Club that sent money to 20 Black
institutions; we tried to get just
200,000 people to send $5 each to
a designated charitable entity, but
at its height there were no more
than 1,000 participants involved.
We have the Collective Empower-
ment Group (formerly Collective
Banking Group) that should have
a chapter in every major city
across this country, but some
heads of churches are too egotisti-
cal and individualistic to get
involved. We had the 10-10-50
Movement, the Nationalist Black
Leadership Coalition, the Bring
Back Black Movement, and even
a Black-owned and operated dis-
tribution network, The MATAH.
Of course there have been many
more opportunities that we have
squandered for lack of involve-
ment.
Now we have the Unity Move-
ment (myunitymovement.com),
which is calling for 2 million peo-
ple to simply sign up on its
website in an effort to capture a
critical mass of folks to begin a
collective effort to inform and
educate, and to start, support, and
grow Black businesses. Will you
at least do that?
Week on the Web
Report: Nationwide,
Black Kids
Disproportionately
Killed in Car Accidents
… in NW News
Senator Jeff Merkley
Proposes Government
Help for Homeowners
… in NW News
Breaking: Michael
Alexander to Lead the
Urban League of
Portland … in NW News
‘Farm the Congregation’
Brings Healthier Food
to Inner City … in NW
News
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August 1, 2012 The Portland Skanner Page 5