Gun Violence in Our Communities Needs to Stop.

This is not a Black and brown problem. This is a societal issue.

Photo by Holger Woizick on Unsplash

Are we the biggest threat to our legacy?

The other day, my childhood friend and I were sharing news that one of our peers had passed away. We both lamented that we had buried a lot of our peers. More than would be expected at our age. We both grew up in inner-city Boston. The first boy I had a crush on died due to gun violence. He was shot in the head at 14 in front of the corner store on our block.

“Only with gun violence do we respond to repeated tragedies by saying that mourning is acceptable but discussing how to prevent more tragedies is not. But that’s unacceptable. As others have observed, talking about how to stop a mass shooting in the aftermath of a string of mass shootings isn’t ‘too soon.’ It’s much too late.”
— Ezra Klein, co-founder of Vox & columnist for The New York Times

Trap music doesn’t cause people to shoot other people. Black Americans are not responsible for gun violence. Celebrations focused on Black and brown communities do not foster “bad people” coming into our communities to commit gun violence. Gun violence happens in our communities daily, including at events and public gatherings where Black and brown people are absent and at events not focused on Black and brown communities. It is sad and disturbing to see members of our communities present these narratives in response to the violence at the Boston and Worcester Caribbean American Carnival celebrations. I expect to hear that from the MAGA  and “Back the Blue” crowd. But from my community, wow.

There were more than 600 reports of gunshots and more than 20 shootings in Worcester in 2022. Between 2013 -2022, there has not been an incident of shooting or gunshots at the Worcester Caribbean American Carnival. Even this year’s incident occurred across the street on separate property where no carnival event occurred. Yet, we have allowed a narrative to be created and, in many cases, contributed to it.