Over the past few weeks, Cleveland has been in crisis mode. Multiple children have been shot in drive-by shootings. These kids were caught in the crossfire of people who decided that a glock and bullets was better in solving beef than words and fists. As someone who knows the family of Major Howard, the 3 year old killed in a drive-by on September 15th, this situation has caused so much anguish and pain to everyone this little boy touched.
As the circumstances of his death came forth, there were a lot of comments made on social networks about black on black crime. That blacks killing other blacks negates the #blacklivesmatter movement. Pictures such as the one above were shared everywhere. Smart alec comments were being made that almost implied that blacks deserve to die because we protested the police. Instead of coming together to exact change and stop people from killing our children, people are coming together to place blame on our race as a whole.
My thing is this: why is it cases like the September 19th murder-suicide in Medina and the September 23rd Elderly Costco shopper assault in Los Angeles are not considered white on white crimes? Why do the crimes of blacks mean a blight on our entire race yet the crimes of whites not reflect on any of them at all? This black on black crime people want to throw in our faces has NOTHING to do with whether our lives and the lives of our children matter. Our lives matter. Period. We bring the world diversity, we bring the world talent, we bring the world a new point of view, we bring the world entertainment, we bring the world color. Without blacks, there can be no whites. We are the yang to the white world of yin. The world would be pretty boring if everyone was one color.
Contrary to the photo, black lives do matter to black people. But the streets have taught black people that in order to make it, we must kill or be killed. Damn anybody that was in the way. Now a bunch of our youth is being snatched from us because people don’t know how to act. And our whole race is being blamed for their foolishness.
Major was laid to rest September 22nd, and I can’t help thinking about the finality of such a thing. A funeral symbolizes the end of life - it shouldn’t be someone whose life was just starting. He’s gone because he was sitting in a car in front of a house that was the target of someone who couldn’t see beyond their actions. Three other children were shot and killed or shot and wounded because they were playing outside, or walking home from a game. How many of us have to die before our slaughters really do negate the validity of our lives?
We have to do better out here. Don’t prove to our critics that our lives don’t matter. Show a united front against those that oppress us. Protect our future by allowing our children to go outside and play and not fear that their going to get gunned down. Continue to keep telling the world that our lives matter. Not only do our lives matter to everyone else, but know that our lives matter to ourselves. #blacklivesmatter #justice4major
Thanks for reading,
Kimberly Steele