Teen’s death was a tragedy born of hatefulness
I was puzzled and saddened by the story of 13-year old Megan Meier that Leonard Pitts wrote in his Sunday commentary in the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer. The parents of an ex-girlfriend of Megan, who lived a few doors away, created a MySpace page and kept sending messages to Megan using the name of a fictitious cute boy called Josh Evans.
After befriending Megan and calling her pretty, Josh unexpectedly broke up with Megan and kept sending her mean and hateful messages. He had also been sharing her messages with the online community; describing her as a “fat slut.” In his last hateful message, Josh told Megan that she was a bad person, everybody hated her and the world would be better without her. …show more content…
In 2014, an estimated 16,400 people were murdered in the US; almost half of them were young black men. About 93 percent of the victims were killed by other young black men. Now, the leading cause of death among young black men is black-on-black murder. In Columbus alone, 20 people were murdered this year. Most of the victims and the alleged perpetrators were young black men.
The mixture of illegal drugs, easy access to handguns and young men who feel locked out of economic opportunity is what these statistics reflect. The violence stems from a combustible blend of cultural and racial baggage many young black men carry. The perceived devaluation of black lives by discrimination encourages disrespect for the law and drives many young black men to internalize anger and dislodge aggression onto others who look like them. The influence of violent-laced rap songs also reinforces the deep feeling among many young black men that life is cheap and easy to
I was puzzled and saddened by the story of 13-year old Megan Meier that Leonard Pitts wrote in his Sunday commentary in the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer. The parents of an ex-girlfriend of Megan, who lived a few doors away, created a MySpace page and kept sending messages to Megan using the name of a fictitious cute boy called Josh Evans.
After befriending Megan and calling her pretty, Josh unexpectedly broke up with Megan and kept sending her mean and hateful messages. He had also been sharing her messages with the online community; describing her as a “fat slut.” In his last hateful message, Josh told Megan that she was a bad person, everybody hated her and the world would be better without her. …show more content…
In 2014, an estimated 16,400 people were murdered in the US; almost half of them were young black men. About 93 percent of the victims were killed by other young black men. Now, the leading cause of death among young black men is black-on-black murder. In Columbus alone, 20 people were murdered this year. Most of the victims and the alleged perpetrators were young black men.
The mixture of illegal drugs, easy access to handguns and young men who feel locked out of economic opportunity is what these statistics reflect. The violence stems from a combustible blend of cultural and racial baggage many young black men carry. The perceived devaluation of black lives by discrimination encourages disrespect for the law and drives many young black men to internalize anger and dislodge aggression onto others who look like them. The influence of violent-laced rap songs also reinforces the deep feeling among many young black men that life is cheap and easy to