Jasmine Lynn, a Spelman sophomore, was killed by a stray bullet as
she walked on the campus of Clark Atlanta University on September 2 just after
midnight. She was chatting with friends not far from the place where six shots
were fired during a fight at Clark Atlanta.
One of her friends heard the gunshot, saw the weapon, and yelled
for Jasmine to get on the ground. But as she moved to the ground she was shot
in the chest, and died shortly thereafter.
The 19-year-old student from Kansas City, Mo. is one of
approximately 2,500 Black youth 15-24 who die each year from gun homicide.
African American youth are more likely than any other group of young people to
be killed by guns. In contrast 950 Hispanic youth and 600 white youth die from
gun homicide. Can we really afford to lose 2,500 young people each year to this
horrible violence? What are we prepared to do about it? My heart breaks for
Jasmine's family, and also for the Spelman family who gathered to mourn one of
their own. It is ironic that this happened during HBCU week. The commemoration
was anchored with a presidential proclamation, and a conference that drew
dozens of HBCU president, including Spelman's Dr. Beverly Daniels Tatum, to Washington,
DC.
I cannot imagine Dr. Tatum's horror in leaving a dinner that
celebrated HBCU's and returning to a campus tragedy. Of course, Jasmine's death
is not only a campus tragedy, because gun homicide is so prevalent in our
community (with more than six youngsters being shot each day), it is an
African-American tragedy, a national tragedy. Jasmine, or another young woman,
could have been shot almost anywhere.
Actually, not almost anywhere. She probably could not have been
shot in the lobby of an upscale hotel. It is unlikely that she would have been
shot in a wealthy suburb. People know better than to bring guns to those
places, and to exchange shots in those places. But in innercity neighborhoods,
it is apparently okay to pull guns out, regardless of what is going on around
you, and just shoot. Infants have been killed by flying bullets.
Young girls sitting in their aunt's front room have had their
lives shortened by thugs who, on a public street, decided to disregard the
vibrant neighborhood life around them and have a shoot-out.
How many of us will get as excited about gun violence as about
racist minutiae? How many of us are actually willing to rail against the guns
that have seeped into the hands of mostly young Black men who are costing us thousands
of lives each year. What do we lose when we lose these lives? We lose scholars
and mothers, chemists and diplomats, young people whose potential has not yet
been defined, potential snuffed out because of gun violence. As much as African
American leaders rail about social ills, we must rail about these guns that cut
too many lives short.
It is time to stop the socioeconomic litany of excuses to explain
high rates of crime in our community, and especially the senseless violence
that costs us 10,000 lives every four years. It is time for us to declare, in
the most emphatic terms, that this is behavior that cannot be excused, cannot
be tolerated.
I am talking to myself as much as to anyone when I say it is time
to draw a line in the sand with all of the excuses that we make for folk who
choose, let me repeat, choose, to use guns to resolve disputes, notwithstanding
the innocent bystanders who may be killed. We have all heard it all -- about
the proliferation of guns in our community, the escalation of violence, issues
of "self esteem", and so on.
Legislatively we can fight to stop the proliferation of guns, and
we should fight the National Rifle Association and all of those folks who seem
to want to make firearms more readily accessible, regardless of the
consequences. Morally, however, we must say that this violence is unacceptable,
that we have zero tolerance for it, and that it must stop.
We talk lots about racial disparities - health disparities,
economic disparities, and other disparities, and we can get very detailed about
the ways these disparities affect our community.
Here's a disparity - an African American youth is 18 times more
likely to die in a firearms homicide than a white youth. And for every
youngster killed by a gun four are injured. Indeed, one of the young people
walking with Jasmine Lynn was struck in the wrist by another of the stray
bullets. Firearms rank as the leading cause of death for Black youth. If we
believe our rhetoric that children are our future, then we ought to do
something about gun violence, especially gun violence among young people.
Many young people are organizing to educate themselves and each
other about the heavy toll of violence.
Seasoned leaders must lend a hand and strong voices to say
"enough." Not just because of Jasmine Lynn, because of 2,500 a year.
Because this violence is corrosive and enough is enough.
Julianne Malveaux is President of Bennett College for Women in
Greensboro, N.C.
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