The Hudson Family Murders

The recent murders of Oscar winner and singer Jennifer Hudson's mother, brother, and nephew have raised the social ire of disgust and disbelief within mainstream society. The sheer force and horror of the brutal murders expose the pain and suffering thousands of black families face every day in this country.

As quiet as it’s kept, until Jennifer Hudson's family murders, this type of inner-city carnage remained below the mainstream radar of important issues. Most mainstream news outlets ignore blacks murders on a national basis. Inner-city violence isn't important enough to ask presidential candidates questions about what they planned to do about it.

Yet this murderous rampage within our cities is far more dangerous to blacks than terrorist plots from overseas groups. The annual murder rates in Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Oakland, Detroit and New York already surpass the total number of U.S. military killed in Iraq since the war began. Unfortunately, since these murders are not tied to a national political agenda, they are not a top priority for us.

Today, inner-city murders are accepted as part of the social fabric in this country. We pay very little attention to them. Murders, such as those of the Hudson family, rarely raise a whimper from either those close by or those living in relatively secure neighborhoods. To most Americans, widespread violence is confined to those living on the fringes of mainstream society -- blacks, Latinos, and poor whites.

In the meanwhile, many blacks afflicted with Obama fever seem to favor voting over taking personal responsibility for changing the cultural attitudes and habits that's destroying the soul of the black family. These politically inoculated blacks are allowing political candidates -- blacks and whites -- to marginalize their problems. They seem blinded by fear and apathy, which has created an impenetrable wall of social malaise.

Part of the problem is the social stratification existing between "old school" and "new school" thinking blacks. This social schism has created deep fears and suspicions among the older residents. In many instances, they are too afraid to confront the young terrorists who are destroying their neighborhoods.

After decades of societal racial oppression, it appears that many inner city blacks have anesthetized themselves with too much fear and apathy. This causes them to sleepwalk past the carnage littering their neighborhoods. For many, it is easier to huddle in fear behind closed doors, while their neighbors' blood flows like sewage on the sidewalks and streets lined with makeshift memorials to commemorate their love ones.

During my experiences living in the"Killing Fields" of Oakland, California, I talked with so many blacks who felt powerless in their homes. They believed no one could do anything about the murders, except God. So they turned to prayer for the solutions. Unfortunately, far too many of them found that prayer without action do not solve life-threatening problems.

Nevertheless, whenever deaths occurs, it leaves the victims' families with a cacophony of sobs and screams. When you live at ground zero in the "Killing Fields," the carnage from the constant fusillade of gunshots is grief, a deep grief found only in the stench of the night air permeating the streets with lifeless bodies. When you see something like this, you can never ignore death again.

In the meanwhile, those who are fortunate enough to survive the inner-city-death squads sigh deep sighs of relief that death passed by them. Sadly, for the families who are not as fortunate, they must seek comfort wherever they can find it. To them it's to try an escape from the memories of their neighbors' faces contorted with lines of grief and pain. They find it difficult to forget the faces of grieving mothers, wives, girlfriends, and children paying their final respects to loved ones.

It takes a strong person to maintain control of your emotions when you watch a grieving mother's face distorted by swollen, teary eyes, runny nose, and her limp body trembling uncontrollable in search of a spiritual sanctuary to assuage her pain. When you witness this type of behavior, you clearly know we're facing a real epidemic of inner-city terrorism.

As long as mainstream media continues to ignore the murder epidemic in our inner-cities, grieving mothers and fearful fathers will continue to huddle in darken houses to shield themselves from the bullets spraying their neighborhood.

The challenge for all of us is a simple one: We must remove the social and class distinctions among African-Americans. To do this requires participation from inner-city blacks and those who have the intellectual and monetary resources to contribute to solving this problem.

For now, I am bringing the issue to the forefront for us to discuss and become aware of the destruction that inner-city murders have on black families. From this vantage point, we can begin to put forth some ideas to solve the problem.