I had to share this one. Heres the back story: In 2008, then 19 year old James Broadnax, whos featured in the video, murdered in cold blood two young christian artists in a robbery that only netted he and his accomplice $ 2.00. He currently sits on death row. This interview was conducted shortly after his arrest. As I watched the video, my initial reaction was outrage and harsh judgement, but as I continued to watch, I saw a 19 year old kid hiding behind bravado and in pain but most definitely guilty of a heinous crime. No one is born like this and the question that has to be raised revolves around what this kid experienced to make him develop in the way in which he did. Thats an objective question thats perhaps difficult to raise if one happens to have been a victim of this kid, but one that has to be raised if theres any hope of solving the problem. Its very easy to call for more jails and death as a form of justice, but my thought is that once we get to that point, weve really failed as a society. These things are a last ditch effort to warehouse a problem or to kill it in response to the failure. Today I read about a situation in my local newspaper about a couple of white kids who got robbed in a drug deal by an integrated team consisting of another white kid and an African-American. The two white kids who got robbed borrowed a couple of black gang members to seek retribution and wound up killing the father of the white kid who robbed them by mistake. The point of bringing this up is to illustrate how widespread this sort of problem is becoming. The problem is tied to economics and a system that yields far too little opportunity while supporting a level of dysfunction that is reflected in torn families and youth with nothing to live for. Added into the mix is all manner of destructive suggestive music and advertising that appeals to the most base desires. There is no appeal to the higher nature of anyone and certainly not these kids. Although these issues are aggrandized within African-America and Hispanic communities, there is a real danger is seeing this as a problem of the other. This is a serious problem for the country. Unfortunately, it will take awhile for that to be acknowledged and even longer for enlightened solutions to be developed. We in the communities most affected by this cant wait until the rest of the country comes around. We desperately need to craft solutions now. Theres nothing more important than this as our house is engulfed in a fire thats raging out of control. A warning about the video---extremely foul and graphic language through out.
Posted on: Fri, 17 Jan 2014 02:15:58 +0000
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