A 16 year old was found shot dead on my block last night. I don’t usually let people know about this type of thing as I don’t like to share bad news about my neighborhood as it has enough bad connotations. But I feel during the Black Lives Matter movement, now is a time that we need to be aware of the hurt that is going on in the Black community. As a mom, I can’t imagine finding out my little girl had been shot and killed. As a mom, I can’t imagine burying or planning a funeral for my 16 year old. This 16 year old death breaks my heart as a parent. It makes me wonder what type of society allows this type of situation to happen. I wonder how systemic racism played a part and therefore, how did I play a part?
Did this 16 year old do something to deserve getting shot? Maybe, but this is the wrong question. I think the question we should be asking is how did our society get so messed up where this type of situation happens way too much. If you Google “16 year old gets shot in Milwaukee” you will see what I mean. Why are we OK with this? When we say that Black Lives Matter we should be infuriated when one of them is ended so prematurely. We need to do better for our youth. We all have to look at this and collectively say it’s not ok and we need to do something about it. Then we, the collective we – any of us living within 30 miles of where this girl was found dead, have to do the hard work of figuring out what that something to do about it actually is.