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The Big Bad Gun!

 
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Maurice
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Joined: 08 Jul 2006
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 08, 2006 10:20 am    Post subject: The Big Bad Gun! Reply with quote

The Big Bad Gun!

By Maurice Ali, Journalist





The cover page above is from a very large local (Toronto) paper called The Sun and it is currently running a seven part look into the problem of guns. Specifically, they are talking about guns and Black youth who use them in gangs in and around the Toronto area. But this problem could be the same in any major metropolitan area; Latinos in Los Angeles, the Cuban crime wave in Miami, or even the Italians in my town when I was a kid (every Italian was in the mob.....weren't they.....). What I want to challenge here is that it is not the GUN that is the problem; rather it is more of a socio-economic problem. Let me explain.

Any new migrant group faces the problem of assimilation into the new community; furthermore, established societal segregation based on race.....creates a permanent problem of assimilation into the community. In areas with bothersome crime areas, you will likely find a targeted definable group blamed for the crime troubles. But it is not that group to be blamed, it is the establishment in power who is the real cause and the only group that can change the situation. Affluence and prestige are the wants of most societies; but how are disadvantaged groups able to partake in a country's wealth if they are systematically denied the upward mobility based on race? The answer has historically been that they make their money illegally via the truest form of capitalism: Crime.

Criminal activity has no glass ceiling, it is blind to race, does not care where you came from; it is the purest form of the free market there is. Anyone who blames Black youth for organized crime via gangs and such and derides that race as being incapable of bettering themselves - is not seeing the paradox. The fact that disadvantaged groups are doing well in the criminal arena is de-facto proof the enterprising spirit is alive and well in the oppressed community, they are trying to improve their lot in life the only way they can.

All these people are not stupid; even with an education, it is extremely hard to break into a well paying status position if you are a minority. With twenty years of school behind myself, I still work in a blue collar job; and I am not alone. What happens if you don't have a degree behind you and you are - let us say- a young Black man, what are your options? Your options are minimum wage or criminal activity, am I painting the real problem here?

It is time the establishment owned up to the reality of their responsibility in youth and organized crime. Open the opportunities for disadvantaged youth and you will see the crime statistics go down. Finger pointing at the oppressed group and telling them to "clean up their act" never worked. This is hard but it can be done, you have to fight the stereotypes that never seem to die. I wonder if "The Sopranos" (One of the highest rated cable shows in North America about the Italians and organized crime) is on TV tonight.....

The Big Bad Gun.....or.....The Big Bad Establishment?




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