Black Secession:

Black Secession

(An old blog post but the issues raised are still, sadly, as pertinent as ever.)

If I were a black minister on the West Side or South Side of Chicago, I'd be preaching de facto secession for my neighborhoods. Because it has become patently clear that the city's white establishment does not give a damn about black lives. How else does one explain the side-stepping of the Independence Day weekend massacre by the talking heads of the Chicago Police Department, quick to note how orderly things went at Navy Pier and in the Loop before, during, and after the fireworks display? All the while black youth were killing each other....

Did the rockets' red glare obscure the blood being spilled? Did the sound of bombs bursting in air camouflage the pop!, pop! of shots being fired?

It's all well and good for white folks to talk about the need for local control; but when will blacks demand it? When will they stop allowing co-opted civil rights leaders, in bed with the Daleys and now with Emanuel, tell them what's best for their families, their neighborhoods--their lives?

Opting in for the status quo has only produced more bloodshed. Opting out and taking responsibility for what happens on black streets, in black homes and in black schools just might bring the results that residents of the West and South Sides so desperately need.