Six Kill One 15-Year-Old? A Conversation We Need to Have

Late last month, a few associates on my Facebook page got on me for daring to state in my column about a rash of music studio murders in Georgia's hip-hop music industry that the African-American community has a problem with black-on-black crime.

And, on Friday, WAOK-AM 1380 radio personality Derrick Boazman, a man I admire for telling "too much truth," condemned the six adult males charged with , but he argued that these were just bad men and that this was not reflective of some sort of "black-on-black" crime problem.

Well, I have a different view.

I agree that whites, Asians, Latinos and other ethnic groups kill. In fact, I would advise white America to take a look at the pattern of their white males indiscriminately killing entire communities of people in places like Columbine and Oklahoma City as well as serially (can you say Ted Bundy, Son of Sam and John Wayne Gacy?)

But that is their problem. I'm concerned with a serious problem I see in black America.

Look at the circumstances of the Norcross murder and many other violent black-on-black crimes.

Not all but a sizable percentage of our incidences to something like this: Someone bruised another person's ego. Or someone owes someone money. Or a gang member broke some rule. It's usually something petty like that.

Instead of trying to handle the situation in a rational matter, we just resort to anger and, then, violence. Sometimes someone ends up dead.

We also are willing to harm—even kill—each other for money and possessions.

Now, I know others races have these same types of violent crimes but, I'm sorry, I see it too much in our community. And, even if someone could prove other races kill for these issues at a rate equal to that of black men and, increasingly, black women, what does that prove? It is still a problem in the black community that we, too often, want to sweep under the rug.

In Facebook talk, I'm still SMH (shaking my head) over what happened in Norcross last week. Will someone tell me why these six adult black males—ages 19, 23, 32, 34, 36, and 46 and three from Atlanta—had to kill this 15-year-old black male, a football star and former school valedictorian?

"Home invasion"? For some stuff?? Another black male like yourself who also struggles with the mental challenges of life as a black man in America?

You are supposed to be mentoring the young man and preparing him for his future, not killing him!

As editor of a community news website, one thing I can offer is space for dialogue about this. If your focus is on the fact that this is an issue in other communities, fine, but can you tell me what we can do about the issue in our community? Can you share some proactive ideas for bringing about a change in our "Comments" section below or, even, with a "Letter to the Editor" to Cascade@Patch.com?

I do believe change is possible. We may not get there but we are wrong if we don't try.