“America is unique in the world, given how it was founded. The centuries of slavery, oppression, explicit and internalized racism, and the resulting chaos and enduring inequities,” she said. “This is a First World country that promises opportunity for all. And yet, within its own boundaries, what is happening is so unbelievably unjust, unfair and so traumatic that it has really impacted how people are able to cope and even who they see as the enemy.”
For too many young Black men, that enemy is most often perceived as another young Black man, like himself. No offense is necessary. Sometimes just a wrong look is enough to trigger a shooting. Such is the effect of internalized racism, [Erica] Ahdoot said, and exacerbated by crowding poor Black people into isolated economic deserts. …
To end gun violence, commenters offered myriad suggestions: Ban guns, stop playing rap music, stop glorifying the “thug life.” Don’t have a baby that you can’t afford. Celebrate marriage, support two-parent households. End corporal punishment. Behave.
As Ahdoot sees it, piecemeal approaches to the problem don’t work.
“We have to address the underlying issues,” she said, “do the things that people refuse to believe can be done — end poverty, end racism, stop the injustice.”
That would mean the end of fear as we know it. And who would need to carry a gun then?
— Courtland Milloy in How To Stop Gun Violence? End Poverty and Racism.
