In recent weeks, residents of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County have been subject to an almost continuous onslaught of murder and aggravated assaults. Much of the murder and mayhem has occurred in working-class and low-income communities inhabited by the poor and people of color.
To date, there have been over fifty-five (55) homicides throughout Allegheny County. The murder victims have been disproportionately Black/New Afrikan males under the age of forty. Possible motives for the rash of shootings and killings include personal disputes, robbery, drugs, retaliation, neighborhood conflicts, police-involved and domestic argument.
I contend that such violence is rooted in decades of racism, White-supremacy, self/group hatred, poverty and structural inequality.
While numerous individuals and community organizations scramble about in a frenzy of activities such as consoling family and friends of victims, helping with funerals, erecting memorials, a basic question remains unanswered: where is the outrage and sense of urgency?
No, not on the part of the communities. They continue to respond as best they know how, in spite of all the stereotypes, racist ridicule and structural inequalities heaped upon their neighborhoods and families.
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