On The Death Of Christopher Lane

Many high profile African-Americans lamented the image of young black men as criminals during the Trayvon Martin tragedy. To them, it isn’t fair that young black males are the victims of racial profiling. Although there is a long way to go, many people listened. And now look what happened. A young and promising white Australian man, Christopher Lane, was killed by two bored black teenage males. It should also be noted that a white teen was charged with being an accessory to Lane’s murder. We don’t yet know if this case was racially motivated or not. We do know that it is another blow to race relations. It’s also a reminder of a chilling fact that many people just don’t want to deal with. Here’s a quote from a piece by John McWhorter:

The numbers don’t lie: young black men do commit about 50% of the murders in the U.S. We don’t yet know whether the attack on Lane was racially motivated,

Young black men murder 14 times more than young white men.

That numbers are staggering since black men make up 6% of the population give or take a few percentage points. BUT, as horrible as this crime and the stats are, I cannot ignore a few things:

1- Since Chris Lane was a white man, he will most certainly get justice. Racial double standard or not, he deserves it.

2- The young thugs will probably be in jail for the rest of their lives if they don’t get the death penalty. Either way, they deserve it.

3- Black women are going to have to face and triumph against increasing racial hostility. That might require sacrifice.

4- If President Obama had a cousin on his mother’s side, he’d look like Christopher Lane.

5 – If you swirl, your rainbeau might look like Christopher Lane.

I see no reason to be optimistic about the damning statistics or current racial climate in this country. Are you ready to deal with it?