Gilbert Arenas-A culture of violence

Gallows laughter as shown in pictures of Gilbert Arenas and his mostly Black team ates as Arenas pretended to shoot them, is not funny. Gallows laughter does not fit the situation-its a distortion of what is actually happening. Imagine having someone say that they are fine and shaking their head while saying it. Its a mixed,confusing inappropriate reaction. It is also deadly.
2500 Black youth between the ages of 15-24 each year die from guns-as compared to 950 per year for Hispanics and 600 each year for whites. This is an epidemic and nothing to laugh about.An epidemic that has been with us for many years There are so many ways to approach this..the availability of guns,the drug wars, but the one that hits me the most is that I have seen many Gilbert Arenas as children when I worked in the NYC school system.
I would see the youngest of children in elementary schools, not walk but strut their way through hall ways. I would see children emulating what they saw on TV often with scowls on their faces and with open shoe laces the way prisoners are depicted on television. Some may say that this is a style-maybe not. I remember some boys talking about "bitches" and "ho's". The misogyny and glorification of violence was rapent in song lyrics.
In one school we tried to increase the awareness of children in regard to these messages. we would ask the children "how many of your mothers,grandmothers,sisters, aunts,teachers were bitches and whores;? They children would look at me kind of confused. I would ask how many? This is what is in the music and the violence and the mixed messages of buying the music that is so harmful to their communities and their friends and neighbors. "If its bad..why do you buy it?" Buying something that advocates violence. A deadly mixed message-that many adults can't interpret-for the young is almost impossible.
There were many times when students would act out and when reprimanded by school officials (race and ethnicity didn't matter) and a student would say "I'm going to fuck you up man". School staff would shake our heads wondering where would these kids get this from? Sadly, we knew-from what passed as current cultureal norms poisoning children.
There is going to be public outcries about what happened with Gilbert Arenas. Al Sharpton rightfully said the other day that if the situation had involved a white player the outrage and public response would have been different and that gun play with two Black men was somehow more acceptable. What makes this situation so frustrating is that for many years writers such as Bob Herbert, Bill Cosby Stanley Crouch and Juan Williams have written about just these issues. The articles are re-runs of work they published years before. There will be an outcry..a boycott-here and there but to know avail-violence sells-hate sells and as someone once said "people will keep making crap as long as people buy it." Just what is the cost benefit of just one child's life? Apparently not enough.
When people shake their heads and start asking how did the situation wiht Gilbert Arenas arise and how did someone have such a cavelier attitude about guns? The answer is very simple: we all saw it coming, we shake our heads "no" but say "yes: , and did nothing.