An Unnatural Endangered Species

An Unnatural Endangered Species

How many times have you watched the news, and were informed that another life was taken out due to murder.  The news report usually says something like, “Another shooting occurred over night in the 4800 block of 18th Street in District Heights, Maryland where 22 year old John Smith was murdered over what appears to be an attempted robbery, etc.”  I’ll answer and say just about everyday, or every other day, right?  And when you read about or see such senseless crimes on the news, what reaction do you have?  Is it one of sorrow?  Disgust?  Anger?  Or are you simply happy that it isn’t someone you know, or better yet, happy that it didn’t occur in your neighborhood.  Well, I’m guilty of all of the above emotions, but I’m tired of the senseless murder of an unnatural endangered species better known as black males, between the ages of 15 and 30.

An endangered species is usually defined as an animals, birds, fish, plants, or other living organisms threatened with extinction by man-made or natural changes in their environment.  It has also been defined as a species likely to become extinct unless the circumstances and factors threatening its abundance and survival cease to operate.

I’ve defined this unnatural endangered species; as being black males between the ages of 15 and 30, threatened with extinction by gun shot at the hand of another person because the circumstances threatening their survival is thriving.

I’m saddened!  I’m angry!  And I’m down right sick of burying my future.  Over and over again, black teenage children and young black men are being murdered!  In September, a young man from my old neighborhood, was murdered over what appears to be retaliation of a previous incident!  In November, we buried another one of my classmates who was murdered in what police classified as a robbery… and the list goes on, and on, and on, and on.  Over the past 20 years, I have personally lost between four to five young black males each year.  This does not touch the record number that I read about or hear about in the news.  Black males, between the ages of 15 and 30 have become an unnatural endangered species.

As I pondered the effects of so many senseless murders, the range of emotions consumed me.  I felt sorrow, because each young man’s life was cut short, and because he was some mother’s son.  As a mother who’s lost a child, the pain of burying my child was UNREAL.  And when the death is compounded by the fact that the person was murdered at the hand of someone else… it's almost unbareable!

Anger… anger because it does not make sense!  Anger because it seems that nobody really cares!  Anger because the community responds and has responded in the same simply terms for the past 20 years.  The friends and family create a make shift memorial at the site of the murder; the homies or boys go out and drink in the name of the deceased… pouring a bit on the ground and then consuming the rest; and the RIP (Rest In Peace) T-shits are modeled at the funeral on the dead’s behalf.  I asked myself “What’s wrong with this scenario?”  Is this the best we can do?  “What messages are being sent?”  “What lessons are being learned?”… and as a community are we doing anything to break this cycle?  Folks… this is unnatural and these young men are endangered! 

Disgust…Did you know that it’s more likely for a young black man from the Washington Metropolitan Area between the age of 15 and 30 to be murdered or sent to prison, than to earn a college degree?  That’s appalling!  Think of the negative impact that this has on the community… our society as a whole… The inability to compete for jobs, lower paying jobs, broken families, fatherless children, and the list goes on.

Even after all of my feelings and pondering on the matter, I have no solution.  I don’t know what can be done to remove this Unnatural Endangered Species from the current list of world problems; but I do know, something has to be done.  So I pray for the day, when we will be able to remove black males between the ages of 15 and 30 from the Unnatural Endangered Species list.