Defending Against Monsters

The Success Tech shooting prompted me — as well as many others — to make a number of snap judgments; some of them inaccurate, others racist, and still others yet downright despicable. Why did most of us immediately assume the youth pulling the trigger was Black? Was it because the rampage occurred in a Cleveland public school, or was it because we’ve been inundated with so much violence emanating from young Blacks that the assumption (erroneous though it might have been) was somewhat valid?

And then, when word spread the young man took his own life (and still no mention of his race was made) why did I — again, along with others I was in contact with as events unfolded — automatically then assumed the youth was White? Was it because Blacks bent on homicide rarely commit suicide? I undoubtedly was unfairly stereotyping. And then, the part I’m most disgusted with myself about is the sense of relief I felt as the thought “Thank God he isn’t Black” crossed my mind.

A child was dead, four people were wounded, and here I was trying to mentally protect my race from additional opprobrium — and, again, I know that I was not alone: Many other Blacks (and perhaps some Whites) were feeling the exact same sense of relief. Maybe it’s human nature, but if it is, it’s certainly the sicker side of it. But I suppose that members of any race are subject to experiencing similar feelings when one of their own behaves in a heinous manner. The other side of the coin of course is ... perhaps that sense of relief in Blacks that the shooter (I refuse to call a boy a “gun-man”) was White hints at the sense of shame we Blacks have been feeling for sometime now as the spate of shootings by usually young Blacks continues unabated.

The last sickening part of this is ... while I am horrified over the event and feel deep sympathy for the victims — including the troubled shooter — I nonetheless am stuck with the notion that more positives will perhaps come out of this crime because Whites were involved. I know that in itself sounds heinous, but the simple truth is, if the act of violence — even though it occurred in a public school — had entailed solely Black-on-Black violence, the sense of outrage and concern would be a bit more muted ... just a little bit less urgent. Part of the racial dynamic in America is that Black deaths don’t count, don’t resonate, as much as White deaths — sad, but true.

But the Success Tech shooting spree — simply because the shooter and two of the victims were White —just might serve as a wakeup call that ill-raised children, access to guns, and a propensity for violence are not as exclusive to the Black community as many folks would like to think. It’s a problem that affects us all and race doesn’t — or at least shouldn’t — matter.

School officials and security experts will of course now put in place metal detectors and additional guards to protect our most valuable assets, our children, but over time security becomes lax and less vigilant (it’s human nature), and therefore less able to insure their safety from the next sick child or adult bent on violence. Of course we have to increase security, but society’s best defense against senseless violence is not to attempt to turn our schools into gulags; our best defense is to institute mentoring programs that vastly reduce the number of children — Black or White — that fall victim to horribly bad parenting in the first place.

There are literally thousands of children in Cuyahoga County being raised in similar dire circumstances as Asa Coon and his siblings were trapped in ... and we as a society almost turn a blind eye as these kids get off to a very bumpy start in life indeed. This family was so dysfunctional these children would have probably been better off raised by wolves.

Yes, the social service systems in a couple of states did intervene, but, as it happens all too frequently, far too little was done, far too late. We simply must become more aggressive in terms of providing full-time mentoring to parents whose child-rearing skills are so deficient they should not be allowed to try to raise puppies or houseplants on their own ... let alone children. In the end, our only real defense against monstrous acts of violence is ... to quit raising monsters.

Once again, for those of you who might have missed it, former US Senator Bill Bradley put forth a mentoring plan that had we instituted it at the time we would not be facing much of the youth violence we are currently incurring. But American society is not good at making quantum leaps, especially in terms of social policy; we just inch along. Thinking innovatively and outside the box is almost exclusively the province of private industry. But, mark my words, one day we will adopt Bradley’s plan. Why? Because all else will have failed to solve the problem, and, as more Whites are impacted by random violence the swifter we will move to institute real solutions.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com
(:divend:)