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by Gina_Silva

Last Post 7 days, 23 hours Ago


Gunned down for the color of your skin
Mar 5, 2008 | 9:47 AM
Category: News
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 Back in college my boyfriend innocently asked, "Wouldn't you like to live back in the 50's and 60's when life was simpler?"  I remember looking at him in utter amazement.  Why would I want to go back to a time when blacks were being lynched just because of the color of their skin?  Why would I want to go back to a time when businesses proudly displayed signs on the windows saying "No mexicans and dogs allowed"  Why? Nothing reinforced my fears more than the movie "Mississippi Burning", which was based on the true story of three civil rights students killed in 1964.  

 I told my boyfriend, "No, thank you. I like the way things are now."  


  It's now 2008 and things have changed a lot since I made that statement.  Now, the two groups who were once persecuted by racists and could have united to fight that kind of hate are out killing each other. Sometimes for no other reason than the color of their skin.

   Last week, five children and three adults were shot as they waited for the bus.  The gunman? A black man who witnesses say fired about 15 rounds from a semi-automatic handgun. 

    On Sunday, Jamiel Shaw, a black high school athlete with a promising future was shot and killed by a group of latino gang members.  On Tuesday, a 6 year old African American boy was shot in the head as he was inside a vehicle with other children and his mom.  The suspects? Two young latino men who flashed gang signs. 

  The boy is 6 years old!!!  Is there anything sacred with these hateful gangs?  A homicide detective tells me the racial war between latino and black gangs in many Los Angeles neighborhoods has been going on for years.   But they're not just killing each other. They are out killing innocent people who aren't in gangs.  People who in their eyes happen to have the wrong skin color.  Isn't that ironic? 

  Despite this madness, there are plenty of people working hard to find solutions to this problem.   Just last week, I went to Cleveland High School for a  "Black-Brown love" assembly.   Students used the power of words to talk about ending the horrible violence plaguing so many black and latino neighborhoods.  One female student read a short poem she had written. Here's a part of it.


     "We should be a generation of peace.  

      But all the hate just won't cease 

      and all the murder won't decrease. 

      And....we give another statistic to police

     when we could be bringing the world peace....."


I couldn't agree more.  How do we stop this insanity?

5 Comments |  Add a Comment

Member Comments Total Comments: 5
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theaveragejose
Mar 9, 2008 | 2:58 AM

What’s happening is beyond stupid.
Gangbangers (all colors) are the most cowardly people around us. They are afraid of their own shadow. That’s why they pack, that’s why they run in groups. It takes a few of them to make a “pair”
I too was going down that path in the early 80s. Amazingly enough, it was a couple of old “veteranos” that convinced me not to follow in their footsteps. The people that I wanted to be like, told me that I could do better. Being shot at, burying young friends, fighting to a bloody pulp did not deter me one bit from wanting to be a hardcore hommie. But the words from those veteranos, changed my whole thought process, and I was lucky enough to leave that lifestyle before I became totally brainwashed into it. We have to get to the young ones before the leeches do. Given a choice, kids just want to be kids.

(we have to start somewhere)
LOOK AROUND YOU

look around you
don’t pretend to be naïve
“brown hommies” are killing blacks
‘cause of the color of their skin
while cheering Kobe and Fisher
as they notch another win

“we don’t want them in our hood
don’t cross the line there will be strife”
brown hommies loudly exclaim
while proudly wearing 81-
Tim Brown-Raiders for life

look around you
at gangbangers uniforms
oversize pro-sports jerseys
seem to be the norm

if the pro sport leagues cared more
than just the bottom line
they would discourage use of their image
by those hell-bent on committing crime

come on pro leagues
show us you really care
bombard the airwaves
radio tv and internet
with adds like
nosy4 read my blog
Mar 9, 2008 | 12:43 PM

IM NO SMART AZZ BUT I AM HERE TOO SAY I LIVE IN GANGVILLE USA,THE BLKS.AND BRWNS.NO ONE ANSWER IT'S FAMILIES,CHURCH,SCHOOLS,GET INVOLVED,PUT CAMERAS IN NEIGHBORHOODS,NOT IN TRAFFIC WHO CARES ABOUT ATICKET? my daughter was murdered in 1996,three people in one house and DNA DID'NT HELP SOLVE THE CASE NOBODY TALKED,THAT IS ANOTHER PROBLEM PEOPLE AFFRAID TOO TALK,I STILL WONDER WHY DO LATINO'S HATE BLACKS THESE ARE THE TWO MOST HATED PEOPLE ON EARTH AND THEY FIGHT EACHOTHER WHY,JOIN HANDS PROVE BOTH THAT THEY ARENT ANIMALS AND ARE CAREING PEOPLE,EACH CARES ABOUT THEIR FAMILIES FRIENDS, SO WHAT MAKES THESE PEOPLE KILL EACHOTHER? DON'T YOU FEEL WHEN YOU BROTHER IS SHOT DOWN WELL SO IS IT TRUE FOR THE OTHER FAMILIES GANGS ARE COWARDS,AND THEY SHOULD BE SENT TO IRAQ BRING OUR MEN HOME LET THEM GO THERE AND KILL IF I WERE A JUDGE THATS WHAT I WOULD DO WITH GANGBANGERS,THIS IS JUST MY THOUGHTS IT'S NOT DIRECTED AT ANYONE PER-SAY comments that's all.
gelatoprobono read my blog
Mar 10, 2008 | 12:14 AM

Racialized people; LOL!
gelatoprobono read my blog
Mar 10, 2008 | 12:17 AM

WE ARE NOT NAZI'S; WE CANNOT ELIMINATE GROUPS OF PEOPLE BECAUSE OF THEIR BEHAVIOR, EXPECTATIONS, AND PERCEIVED CONTRIBUTIONS TO SOCIETY. EACH PERSON IS SCRUTINIZED BY THEIR INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOR. cool, huh? I love living in America.
stanhootzz read my blog view my photos
Dec 3, 2008 | 12:11 PM

Yes I remember these things well, see my uncle was the first native American Lawyer in Alaska, so my family became very politically activated in the arena of native rights.
At this time Alaska leads the nation (per capita) in teen suicide, alcoholisim, drug abuse, rape n domestic violence n diabetes. As opposed to our counterparts in lower "48".
To tell the truth, seems like we have made some lil progress n lost ground in others.

By the way, Sarah Palin was and is all about doing away with native subsistance rights in Alaska, would put alot of native peoples in a real bad place (alot more on welfare roles) n of course make the fishing industry more money, is what its all about idnt? The folks that love money n the folks that dont?
LOL'S, no overall, seems like actually things are worse now than back in the day, the erosion n corrosion of culteral values that sustained the native peoples is more on the decline than what we remember from growing up.
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Gina_Silva

On any given night or morning, you might catch me doing everything from consumer/investigative reporting, anchoring, entertainment, weather, even sports (not my favorite). On the weekends, I can also be found washing the news trucks. :-) O.K. that's not true, but that's probably my next assignment! If you have any story ideas or would like me to look into a situation you feel may be unjust, please let me know by commenting on my blog!

Member Since: 7/4/2006


 

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