The challenge to all of us is to figure out how to discourage the cycle of family breakdown and fatherless children, writes QuinHillyer.
Young, who is black, said on June 1, “There’s a subculture of gun violence in the city of Mobile with young black men, and it’s high damn time we did something about it.” He challenged area officials, media, and colleges to study how to solve it. “The most important question is, how do we get these young black men to stop killing black women, and children, and each other. ... Do background checks of who has single fathers, and what were their education levels. Let’s figure out a solution.
Young provided sickeningly ironic context: “Ciara is 14. She died on the street named after Michael Donald, who was the last known lynching by the Ku Klux Klan in 1980. Forty years later, more innocent blood is shed on that street that is supposed to memorialize that death and sacrifice. And a black girl is gunned down on that street by a black man. It’s disgusting! I said it! So, no one has to be called a racist anymore.
Young then said he doesn’t care if he is pilloried for his message. “If you want to slay me in the media, fine,” he said. “But don’t forget these innocent black lives that have been lost. ... The loss of a tragic life is my point at this time.”