Recently on two consecutive days gun violence erupted in our neighborhood. Evanston, a place that is widely considered a safe suburban community. Evanston, a town now recognized nationally as one of the first cities to pass reparations, is a story for another day.
Last night a community meeting was held at Robert Crown by 2nd Ward Alderperson Krissie Harris, Chief Schenita Steward and her Information Officer, the mayor with other city officials. I have attended many such meetings, and the formula is always the same – a statement from a city official which includes phrases like, “This is not who we are…”, and “…shouldn’t happen in our fair community.” Followed by the mayor with a sincere hope that we as a community can get past this and the hope that this brings us closer together. Finally, an update from the police who provide specifics from the ongoing investigation. If you have ever watched one of the countless news conferences every time tragedy strikes a community, you know this script all too well. Rinse and repeat.
Twelve years ago, after the murder of Justin Murray, a young man I’d known for most of his young life, I went to the community meeting at Fleetwood Jourdain where there was at least 300 people in attendance. Evanston was outraged as this was the second murder in just over two months of a young Black man, Dajae Coleman a promising basketball star. Community leaders, the mayor, and the police spoke…rinse and repeat.
If my memory serves me correctly, there were breakout sessions moderated by different interest groups to discuss solutions to the uptick in violence and the root causes of young men resorting violence in Evanston. Listening to the mostly white participants providing opinions and the why’s they believed this was happening, I realized, this is a problem that may be best handled by Black men. I decided to try and gather a group of Black men in the community and formed Black Men Against Violence.
In the meeting last night, the majority was white. I listened but maybe for the first time I listened with what the late great Joe Madison, activist, radio host, and inductee in the radio hall of fame, called my “third ear”, the ability to hear what’s below the surface. The Information Officer provided details and opened the floor for questions, which he answered to the best of his ability and was honest about things he could answer at the time related to the cases. He told the audience that there have been arrests made, weapons recovered, and charges pending. He told us that the two shootings were completely unrelated. In observation, the questions and statements started to devolve into an opportunity to express their “white fragility”, questions like “did they have Concealed Carry (CCL) and Firearm Owner ID’s (FOID) cards?”, which really means how on earth could these people ever acquire guns if they don’t have a license to have one. This led into a discussion about stolen guns from cars and the need for gun locks, as if another cause of Black-on-Black crime is exacerbated by guns acquired from parked cars.
Then the real issue started to surface, “I’m afraid to go outside” and “I haven’t been able to walk on my block since this happened…” Let’s be clear, I was afraid too, I had never seen a person who had been shot laying on the ground until August 6th. But this was more than that because next was the collective agreement that maybe it’s because of the Black owned businesses in the neighborhood, or the residents in a specific house or apartment building. What bothered me in particular was that one of the residents pointed out the house directly across the alley from me as, “always being a problem”. Let me set the record straight; for nearly 30 years the house in question has not been a problem, for about 12 years it was occupied by two Haitian brothers who looked out for my house and neighborhood all the time. When Sam (one of the brothers) died, the other one moved out. Over the years there have been many renters, including kids I’ve known for years, and currently a young couple. The common denominator is Blackness.
By far the most disheartening moment of the meeting came from a rambling statement from a participant attending virtually on Zoom. Based on what she was saying I know she was Black (no camera). When she was hypothesizing on the “why’s” of young Black men shooting and killing each other she said, “the problem is the city is not providing enough vocational programs and training in trades because we know we (they) are not good at math…”. Miseducation, stereotyping, and self-hate are the root causes of keeping us from solving our own issues. She evidently doesn’t know that Black people created math, science, astronomy, and agriculture. She also doesn’t know that every vocation and trade require math!
And finally, to belay the fears of my white neighbors, take this into consideration; on the Citizens Network of Protection website in the report on homicides from 1979-2020, there has never been a shooting of a white person by a Black assailant in Evanston.
If you want change, let’s work together as a community. If not, we’ll see you at the next community meeting in the aftermath of tragedy.
