I remember as a youth being told not to wear a baseball cap in fear that someone might mistake me for a gang member or a criminal so I never worn one. As I got older and rode public transportation more I would see other youth primarily White youth wearing baseball caps and I couldn’t tell whether they were gangbangers or criminals. Then it hit me like a bolt of lightning when I overheard a mall cop at Century mall say that he was following a group of gangbangers all wearing black baseball caps. So I quickly follow from a distance and see who he is observing and it was a group of Black and Latino youth wearing Raiders baseball caps. What bothered me was that there was a larger group of White youth walking around and they all had on baseball caps as well but this mall cop was focused on this handful of Black and Brown youth. I realized then that it was the color of their skin that was the wrong accessory to the baseball cap! So I marched into the nearest shop and bought myself a Black Raiders cap just like those other youth. As I’m checking out the cashier asked if I wanted in a bag I said ‘no I’ll wear it out’ so the cashier cut off the tags for me and I put that cap on my head and went looking for that mall cop. Once I found him he was out of breath in a corner trying to “blend in” and I made eye contact with him and he froze. As I walked passed him I gave him a look to let him know that I was there and wasn’t going away and it felt good.
With everything going on in Florida all these old feelings come up and I get frustrated because all of a sudden “activist” have an opinion about a Black youth being gunned down for looking a certain way. The reason I get frustrated is because last weekend 40 + people were shot in Chicago and several dead but no outrage from anyone really other than for the death of a beautiful 6 year old girl. What if Trayvon was a “gangbanger” would we be just as mad? I can almost bet my life to say NO! Reports would come out about pass arrest and face book postings and drawings found in his room etc… How do you think the parents of a recently deceased “gang related” youth feel right now? Should they say to themselves ‘well it is sad that our son died but this case in Florida is worse’ does that make sense? No it doesn’t because the death of ANYONE in an act of violence should not be rated according to affiliation or not to a street organization.
These are youth that were shot dead (not a complete list) since 2007 from only two out of over 200 neighborhoods in Chicago:
Albany Park community:
Sean Agusto 16 Gunshot sidewalk 7/28/2008
Franco Avila 17 Gunshot sidewalk 3/10/2009
Leon Deakyne 17 Gunshot sidewalk 12/12/11
Nicholas Camacho 19 Gunshot Alley 1/2/2012
Austin community:
Levon McNeil 19 Gunshot street 3/11/2007
Jerel Smith 17 Gunshot sidewalk 9/8/2007
Randy Eiland 18 Gunshot sidewalk 10/25/2007
Marcus Greer 17 Gunshot residence 4/15/2008
Benny Lynch 19 Gunshot residential yard 6/13/2008
Gerald Perry 16 Gunshot sidewalk 6/29/2008
Steven Nelson 16 Gunshot residential yard 8/2/2008
Paris Jackson 19 Gunshot Park property 8/30/2008
Where was the outrage then? There was none other than the family’s outrage because the rest of society expects this to happen to “these” types of youth because there was some sort of loose link of possible “gang affiliation” in these cases. Does it really matter? It shouldn’t but it is obvious that it does matter if you are gunned down while being profiled as a “gang member” because it has become easier to forget the names above.
We cannot expect our society to care if we are choosing who is more important because I’m sure that the shooter in Trayvon’s case wasn’t the first person to think he was up to no good. While he was alive he was just another Black youth expected to fail.
Are you ready to expect ALL youth to succeed?
Are you ready to release youth from YOUR conditions so you can provide a service to them?
Are you ready to fully educate each and every one of our youth?
Are you ready for Peace?
I know they are.
So am I.
Peace/AMOR
Gerardo
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