Pretend you have a child (a generic child) that doesn't get much attention. This child goes up to mom or dad and tugs and says, "Mommy, Daddy, look what I did." They nod and give a non-committal "Uh huh." This child keeps up this behavior for a while and starts to notice, even though she may not have words for it, that her parents just aren't paying attention to her. Then, one day, she's tossing her doll about and knocks over a glass. Suddenly, Mommy is paying attention to the child. A few days later, the child does something else, spills some milk on the carpet. Daddy is suddenly paying attention to the child.
The African-American community has been tugging at our shirts for some time now, trying to get our attention, trying to tell us peacefully, that something just isn't right. That the young men in their community are being hunted for lack of a better word. We've watched mothers grieve on TV or in the paper and some of us say, "Oh that's too bad, we should do something about that." And those people are gung ho for a while until the next shiny object comes along. Then we watch another parent grieve publicly over their justifiably murdered child and some of us say, "Oh, that's too bad, we should do something about that."
Of course, there are the expected responses from the uncaring--surely this black child deserved to be killed because all black kids, particularly males, are thugs. They got what was coming to them even if they were doing nothing but walking through a store, holding a toy gun while talking on the phone.
Finally, one black human too many is killed and the community just can't take it anymore. So, what can they do to get our attention, to get everyone's attention? They've tried peaceful conversations, they've tried placing grieving mothers on television in an attempt to humanize the skittle carrying child but it just doesn't seem to hold our attention for very long. Well, I'd venture to say they have our attention now and we can't condemn them for their actions really, because they've been trying to get our attention on this matter for a long time and we've basically been nodding our heads and saying, "Uh huh."
I too don't think fighting destruction with destruction is the answer but I can see why it's being done and I understand the sentiment behind it. If their community doesn't give a damn about them, why should they give a damn about their community?
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