The Forgotten Children

Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, Amber’s Law, The Adam Walsh Act are all federal laws in attempts to protect the children. What do all these things have in common? These laws were established due to a horrendous act against a Caucasian child. There are no laws enacted due to any action taken against a child of color.

ALL children are supposed to be special; however, society has shown that that’s not true. If a Caucasian female, of certain ages, go missing anywhere in this nation , the local and national news media plasters it across the TV screens and bombards us with every detail until the victim is found and/or a perpetrator is captured; just look at the Chandra Levy case. However, if the female’s ethnicity is different, sometimes you may hear a blurb but that’s it. Heinous crimes committed against children is more than reprehensible but it happens to non-Caucasian children as well and if these laws actually protected those not in the spotlight, then bravo, otherwise, lawmakers and laypeople need to do some serious soul searching to protect the children who don’t look like their own. I doubt, however, that there’ll be much hand wringing and I am reminded of a case a few years ago when three African-American children were killed by a vehicle driven by an intoxicated Caucasian elementary school teacher, she got an insignificant punishment, a slap on the wrist. “She is a contributing member of society”, were the words of the judge who gave no thought about the possibilities of those children or the agony of their mother because they were poor African-Americans. Had those children come from a middle class setting, the decision may have been a little different, maybe the driver would’ve gotten probation but the reality is if those children had been Caucasian from a middle class, and up, suburban family, oh yes, the penalty may have been a little different.

Why are Caucasian children more important? Is it the sense of entitlement that has permeated through the ages? I’m sure there are many teenagers, despite socio-economics and ethnicity, who dabble in sex, alcohol and drugs but it’s only a matter of dire urgency when these issues affect Caucasian teenagers. Is it because they don’t make wise decisions and their parents feel that they have to coddle these kids? Do minority children make wiser choices or is it their parents have taught them about responsibility? How many times have we heard on the news of a Caucasian teen drinking themselves to death on college campuses? Then we hear the parents’ state that so and so was a good kid and they don’t know how this could have happened. What happened is that home training wasn’t good enough to teach these kids how to have backbone and to resist peer pressure. I’m not saying that they deserved to die, what I’m saying is that there’s something to think about when a child who had everything given to them, not have enough sense to say “NO”. When minority children get involved with illegal activities to make money, society’s response is to lock them away, no one wants to take the time to discover the root of this problem or to solve it but monies will pour into programs to address issues that affect Caucasian children. It is interesting to note that African-American children raised in a middle class environment still don’t face the same issues as their Caucasian counterparts such as drunk driving, alcoholic intoxication, etc. Again, is this due to the parenting or something else?

I will close this argument by pointing out that African-American youths who involve themselves in illicit affairs have the intelligence to set up, organize and control an organization that again, though it is illegal, is run better than some established commercial entities. They have control of their employees and the loyalties; have control of parts of the community and the streets. Imagine, if you will, these fine minds running a Fortune 500 company. Come to think about it, maybe that’s exactly why society doesn’t put more into these forgotten children.