The Atlanta police recently made their first
arrest in connection with the murder of boxing champion Vernon Forrest.
Demario Ware, 20, will be charged with murder and detectives are
currently looking for four other suspects. Besides the fact that six
lives will be lost (Forrest to death and the five suspects to jail),
the most unfortunate part of this entire situation is that senseless
violence will occur again. A young black male will kill another young
black over something as meaningless as a material item. More families
will grieve over the lost of love ones to violence. And more black
males will grow old behind bars.
The absurd violence that destroys black communities should be old by now.
It shouldn’t be cool to carry pistols and assault rifles only to aim
them at people who share the same skin complexion. Somehow, we have
allowed our culture to become saturated with self-hate. In a
well-structured environment, entertainment should never be considered a
cause of violence. However, due the fact that many poor black
neighborhoods lack strong male role models, a lot of young black males
are strongly patterned by the words of Gucci Mane and Lil Wayne.
So how can a young impressionable black male not be affected by
self-hate when Lil Wayne says, “Man f**k these n****s, Imma spare
everything but these n****s, I flip the gun and gun-buck these n****s,
take the knife off the AK and cut these n****s.” On the same song,
Gucci Mane matches Lil Wayne’s ignorance with the lines, “Toni Braxton
sniper rifle, make ya neva breathe again. F**k that n****a, kill that
n****a, bring him back, kill him again.” The song entitled “We Steady
Mobbin,” exemplifies the dysfunction of powerful entertainers who are
using their influence to perpetuate violence on other black males.
Lil Wayne and Gucci Mane do not have to worry about going back the
projects or poverty stricken communities where young kids, who enjoy
their music, are being trained to destroy themselves. Their salaries
have afforded them a life where they can preach genocide from of
distance.
It
could be a premature notion to correlate violent rap lyrics to the
death of Vernon Forrest. But I’m sure that hearing “Kill that n****a,”
over a nice beat will not cultivate the minds of young black males who
are afflicted by self hate. –
