Hatred Had to Be Reason Behind Jazmine Barnes’ Murder, But Love and Unity is Solution to Such Hatred
Back in the good ole days, certain groups of people stayed off limits to criminals.
Those living a life of crime did not mess with the elderly.
Additionally, criminals stayed away from harming children.
Basically, if you did not participate in criminal activity then you probably would not become the victim of brazen criminals because civilians stayed off limits.
Nowadays, we live in a society in which people could not care less who they hurt or even if they actually have a beef with that person.
In the 21st century, people will kill others for no reason and think nothing about it.
On Sunday, 7-year-old Jazmine Barnes became the innocent victim of a random shooting as her mother drove her and her siblings to purchase coffee and shop at a Houston area grocery store.
A White man, possibly in his 40s and driving a red pickup truck, shot into the car Jazmine Barnes traveled in.
The heinous act injured her mother, LaPorsha Washington, and fatally wounded the 7-year-old.
Jazmine Barnes was a month shy of her eighth birthday and she dreamed of one day becoming a schoolteacher.
On Wednesday, Jazmine Barnes’ father Chris Cevilla told journalist Isiah Carey on “Isiah Factor Uncensored” (KRIV Fox 26 in Houston) that now he will never see his daughter reach her eighth birthday.
He will never see his daughter go to her senior prom.
And he will never get to see his daughter graduate from school because of the senseless act of this man.
And Barnes did not even live to see 2019 because of this man.
Whether the crime has a racial motive or not, somehow Americans have to come together and unite as one.
And Americans have to stop looking for certain a leader/TV personality to unite us when we can do it ourselves.
America has to be better than the leadership we have now because our children and their future depend on it.
We have to ignore the angry rhetoric that we hear from crazy radio personalities who do not care about how much damage they cause society as long as they are saying something shocking enough to trend on social media and increase their ratings.
We have to ignore the ignorant alt-right movement that wants to preserve hatred, White supremacy and divisiveness.
And we have to ignore leaders who often hesitate to condemn White supremacy while wasting no time criticizing Hispanic immigrants and African-American activists.
If the murder of Jazmine Barnes has a racial motive, her killing harkens back to 1963 when four little girls in Sunday school lost their lives at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala.
That killing, and possibly the killing of Jazmine Barnes, shows that those who believe in White supremacy and sympathize with the alt-right movement represent the lowest of the low on the human totem pole.
People that murder innocent children for any reason, let alone the color of their skin, are worse than most other criminals because there is no way that a child could have done anything to deserve to be murdered.
Often, White supremacists, or just bigots in general, criticize the African-American community because of the crime rate and other stereotypes like absentee fathers, dysfunctional families, etc.
But Jazmine Barnes and her family fit none of those stereotypes.
Whatever flaws the African-American community has do not justify harming an innocent child, if the crime was indeed racially motivated.
True, the African-American community is not perfect.
Neither is the White community.
But there are some things that will never be tolerated in the African-American community and those are murdering children or murdering the elderly.
So if White supremacists feel that their way of doing things makes them better, then the African-American community should be glad that they are not on their level.
Furthermore, why hasn’t a certain leader spoken out against this heinous act in Houston?
He did not hesitate to call NFL stars S.O.B.s for protesting police brutality and systemic racism.
He did not hesitate to call the White supremacists of Charlottesville, Va. some fine people.
But he has gone radio silent when it comes to a possible hate crime committed against an innocent 7-year-old little girl.
It shows where his heart is or the fact that he probably has no heart.
When former President Barack Obama spoke out after the murder of Trayvon Martin, his critics ridiculed him for supposedly resorting to identity politics and sticking his nose in state and local issues.
But sometimes people in a certain position have to become consoler-in-chief.
And more importantly, our leaders should have a heart and the murder of any child, whether the child is 7 years old or 17 years old, should break everyone’s heart.
When the four little girls died at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., a heartbroken James Baldwin stated that four little girls were murdered in church, in Sunday school and nobody cared.
But luckily in 2018 and 2019, people of all races do care about the loss of Jazmine Barnes.
The entire country, celebrities and common folks, have all gotten together to search for Jazmine Barnes’ heartless killer.
Houston Texans standout wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins will donate his entire playoff check from Saturday’s game against the Indianapolis Colts to help the family pay for Barnes’ funeral.
But once we find the heartless killer, we have to kill the evil that lives in the hearts of some people.
Many in the Houston area like activist Derric Muhammad believe Barnes’ death was a hate crime because in 2017 a similar incident occurred in the same area.
Avonta Williams suffered gunshot wounds to both legs in 2017, the victim of a random shooting allegedly at the hands of a White man in a pickup truck.
Williams got shot on the same block as Jazmine Barnes.
That seems too much like a pattern to be a coincidence.
Therefore, if Jazmine Barnes’ death was a hate crime her death represents one of the saddest moments in recent American history.
But even if Jazmine Barnes’ death was not a racist hate crime, it still was a hate crime because a person has to have a tremendous amount of evil and hatred in his or heart to harm an innocent child.
Society has to start seeing their fellow man as their brothers and sisters and not their enemies.
But the fact that a man can see an innocent child as his enemy represents a new low in American society, even for hardened criminals.
