Contiued Miseducation of the American Negro

Stop blaming victims

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The horrific murder that took place at Northgate Mall on Dec. 27th is beyond words and my belated sympathies go to all families involved for their losses. And after reading the Brian McGhee's letter of Jan. 4th, I am completely vexed by this cycle of blaming the victim. I feel another onset of WPFS (White People Fatigue Syndrome).

This crime scene had two victims; the obvious, Lazarren McClean, the valiant young brother who laid down his life for his sister, and the latent, Lamar Bass, the nihilistic, self-destructive young brother accused of doing the shooting.

To fault parents (in this case, Bass') merely perpetuates a cycle of blame thereby continuing a crisis of overdue discourse that urgently needs to take place.

What drives so many young men to commit murder? And how do they get handguns in the first place? Where was security to prevent the shooting at Northgate from happening?

These questions have at least three intuitional answers. Granted, parental/guardianship culpability is a must; at the same time, this issue and others like it lack the luxury of being viewed through the convenient myopic lens.

This emergent problem requires public accountability to where we stop criminalizing and demonizing the folk "in da hood" and start jailing politicians and public officials who allow these pre-existing, criminal social-conditions to proliferate further in our collective city.

W. RUSSELL ROBINSON
Durham
January 8, 2006