Growing up, education was practically stuffed down my throat.
My parents constantly watched my grades and critiqued me. If nothing else, they wanted successful children. They were not the only ones though. I saw it all around me. Aunts, uncles, grandparents, and even friends of the family did the same for their children. They constantly paid attention to their children's grades, bragged when their children had great grades, and they'd ask about mine. It was clear that education was very important to everyone around me.
For a while my teachers looked like me. The majority of my teachers from elementary through college were Black. The students were too. My elementary and middle school years consisted of 98 percent Black people.
While I can't say everyone that grew up with me succeeded, many of them that I'm still connected to via social media take education seriously in the forms of their current careers. Some of them pride themselves in the amount of money they make and others take pride in the clothes they wear. Whether they are doctors, nurses, lawyers, writers, teachers, or even working at grocery stores, they let the world know through the pictures they post.
So it really baffles me that every time a Black person is murdered, the community starts screaming of Black on Black violence. Everything everyone previously took pride in goes out the window with these conversations. Instead the conversation is how we all need to stop killing each other. The issue is that the Black faces on television and in our middle class neighborhoods arguing on the issues are not the murderers. The family members we have these conversations with are not the murderers. Yet, we hold these conversations as if we are all walking around pointing the guns at each other.
I'm not a cop. Cops defend each other, even when they are doing criminal activity. Cops murder innocent people and other cops will stick up for them in the name of "not all cops are bad". I'm not sticking up for criminals just because they are Black. Those criminals need to do the punishment for their crimes. But I'm also not going to treat all Black people like they are criminals either when a murder or robbery happens.
I hope they catch the killer of Secoriea Turner.
