By Dr. E. Faye Williams
(TriceEdneyWire.com) – I am comfortable with the fact that most of my friends come from varied and divergent backgrounds. The perspectives they bring to our relationships are based upon their many experiences. My friendships afford me the opportunity to develop a synthesized and broader understanding of life that would not be available to me within the simple confines of my own experiences.
In the face of the current culture wars related to the resolution of gun violence, I benefit from opinions that come from a friend who believes in nothing less than a total disarmament of the general public, as well as a friend who’s made a career in the military and who places personal self-defense and Second Amendment rights among his prime considerations and values. These opinions meld with those I developed from my upbringing in rural Louisiana and some of my socio-political experiences –like my exposure to the Deacons for Self-Defense or the non-violent teachings and activities of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and others who share his philosophies.
Like most other Americans, I realize the answer to the question of gun violence is not a simple one. I’ve seen the acrimony that overwhelms this discussion and I wonder if it is reasonable to think that our society can reach a consensus in the resolution of this question. With millions of other Americans, I wait anxiously to see what opinions will prevail in the legal response to this problem of gun violence.
While uncertainty rules the legislative outcome of any resolution, I am certain, for effective change to take place, we must first address the normalization of violence within the lives and character of members of our community. For positive change, we must first acknowledge that, for many, violence is a first choice in their personal strategy for conflict resolution. We must reverse this “first choice of violence” with the introduction and acceptance of a personal belief system where violence becomes a last resort.
Among other acts of wanton national violence, this past week in Washington, DC, thirteen citizens were gunned-down in a drive-by shooting. As I write this, complete details of this event haven’t been released, but, it seems there is no rational reason for such an act. There’s no excuse for endangering human welfare on that scale. What’s more shocking than events like this drive-by is the tacit acceptance of such action as routine.
Although events like this drive-by receive the lion’s share of our attention, I believe they draw our focus away from the logical starting point for a change in our national ethic of violence. While focusing on the more dramatic, we minimize the significance and impact of the gateway violence of verbal abuse, child abuse, bullying, hazing, domestic abuse/sexual assault (of which I, like many women, am a survivor) or many other forms of violence that are commonly practiced.
For the Black community, some will speculate that the internal violence we experience results from the legacy of violence associated with slavery. History tells us of the belief that the best way to achieve compliance from a Black person was with a strap or beating. Although I don’t accept this as a good explanation of our current circumstance, I have seen sufficient evidence not to discount the desire for compliance or submission as a possible goal of violence.
I’m weary of seeing Black mothers on television lamenting the loss of a child. I long for days past when a main goal in our community was acting in a way that would protect us from violence. God knows we’ve suffered external violence for too long. I pray for a time when our community will renew the high regard we once had for the sanctity of life -especially our own.
Dr. E. Faye Williams is national chair of the National Congress of Black Women.