I recent read a blog titled "Our Little Sister Died" by a young lady on the Xanga Blog Community. This post was in response to the death of Music legend Michael Jackson. I had read that a lot of black people might get upset at reading the post so I felt obligated as a black woman to take a look. I was surprised to not find anything remotely shocking in her post. It is no surprise that everyday hundreds of thousands of people are murdered, raped, and exploited. The only surprise is how desensitized we have become to such atrocities. Once upon a time the news of a child getting murdered would have sparked national outrage. After so many years of this being commonplace it now falls in with all other crimes; unfortunate but its our reality.
In this country there is a flood of information about everything. We even get flooded with some of the most horrific images. Somethings I would rather not see. Even though one could find an assortment of people that feel the same way, we still get bombarded with these images. I can think back to Sept. 11. My school had let us out early. From the moment I got home that day until way into a couple of weeks later I watched the buildings fall again and again. I saw people jumping from the buildings and fleeing for their lives. I wasn't watching because I liked what I saw but because I was grasping for some kind of understanding for all the pain and torture that day. They eventually stopped showing the footage because of the anxiety that it caused to Americans.
Im going to take a guess that anxiety is what we are being protected against. If the networks showed every murder or crime it would be proof that this place that we live in is near hell. It would also force us to have to look at our society for what it is. The truth of the matter is that many people are aware of what goes on, but they simply do not care. In the African American community there have been many unsolved crimes. These crimes never even make it to the local news. I have always found this troubling. I have personally seen the faces of mothers that know they will never see their children again; even worse the perpetrators will never be brought to justice. It is perhaps still one of the most shameful aspects of American society. Some peoples lives are worth more than others.
I was moved by the aforementioned post because I understood where the poster was coming from. I don't feel that MJ's death took away from the recognition of the worlds atrocities. After all he passed away one day this year, but these things happen year round.