Blackness and violence
published: Monday | December 2, 2002
THE EDITOR, Sir:
IT IS unfortunate that you chose as headline for a letter on Tuesday, November 26, the odious line, "Black on Black Killings".
May I remind you that "blacks" do not have a monopoly on killing members of their communities. Other peoples kill their own, too. But we don't see newspapers where they come from captioning letters or articles "white on white violence" or "Chinese on Chinese violence", etc.
Why, then, should "Black on black killings" or "black on black violence" have such eye catching effect in a country that is....well, we won't go there.
It seems there is this notion that "blacks" are angels and if they don't live up to some predetermined standard of charity, they ought to be reprimanded from on high.
This kind of sensationalism can have a paralysing effect on the mind and really detract from efforts to deal with the issues of indiscipline and violence. Could we return to those efforts, please, Mr Editor?
