Why is America Indifferent to Deaths of Black Children?
Zerlina Maxwell of the Ebony wrote a piece studying the reasons why there is an absence of national mourning when African American children become target of violent gun shootings. Her piece includes two expert opinions.
It is interesting to see the huge difference between the public’s level of involvement among two separate incidents of gun shooting, one in Sandy Hook Elementary School and the other concerning Trayvon Martin.
After the Sandy Hook shooting, there was a huge public outcry for more stringent gun laws. Vice President Joe Biden was asked to lead a task force with tangible support from the public. It’s not there’s something wrong with it, but it delineates the lack of response when gun shooting incidents occur in inner city communities like Chicago. Clearly there is indifference when black children are killed compared to Whites.
“We are only a few generations away from Black people not having any value in our society beyond being chattel,” Tom Burrell, author of “Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority”, said during his interview with EBONY.com. “We were judged to be three-fifths of a person and that was because of politics,” he added.
Burrell, of course, was referring to the infamous pact between the Northern and Southern states to count Black slaves as three-fifths of a person in order to increase the population and thus the corresponding taxes and representation in Congress. Emory