Jamiel Shaw

Angry Black Man Sounds Off

By Dennis J. Freeman

I am angry. I am angry because another black boy is dead because of street violence. I am angry because Jamiel Shaw’s dreams and aspirations have been silenced permanently. I am angry because Shaw, a star running back at Los Angeles High School, had his life of promise cut off.

 I am angry because a kid with Stanford and Rutgers University-caliber aspirations didn’t deserve to be shot in the head three doors from his own home. I am angry because a mother fighting for and protecting our freedoms on the streets of Iraq as a U.S. soldier has to come and bury her son.

I am angry because law enforcement officials, so far, won’t tab Shaw’s murder as a hate crime, even though they know he was more likely targeted and killed by Hispanic gang members just because he was black. I am angry because Shaw was shot to death on the premise that he was black.

 I am angry that evil seems to have triumphed over good. I am angry because hatred appears to have supplanted kindness. I am angry because this cultural war between blacks and Latino gang members has gone on too long. I am angry because our babies, black and brown, continue to perish because of this foolishness. I am angry at the fact that our children can no longer walk the streets without fear.

I am angry that the enforcement of hate crimes against African Americans has become nearly obsolete. I am angry that black men are once again the objects of hate at the expense and vile acts of another ethnic group. I am angry that another black mother has to weep and mourn the senseless loss of a child.

I am angry that our elected officials continue to dance around this black and brown issue. I am angry because of the anguish and pain the community has to go through is nothing more than a repeated cycle. I am angry because a child’s life is no longer immune from the spell of deadly violence. I am angry because we’ve all been part of the problem, not part of the solution. I am angry because I’m just sick and tired of it all.          

Stop the killings. Please. Somebody please help put the brakes on this cultural war that is leaving our young people dying on sidewalks. I’m tired of it. I’m sick of it. Enough already. Will just one elected official have the backbone to say and denounce these types of attacks? Black, brown, white, green and purple, it doesn’t matter. Just stop it.

I am angry at the fact that my children are growing up in a society that puts more emphasis on idolatry and the celebration of destruction than walking in peace. I am angry because society has lost its moral standards. People don’t value people anymore. I am angry because we all have the right to be when the life of a child, regardless of race, is callously and maliciously taken away from us.