After the killing of an 8 year old child in Atlanta yesterday, I was inspired to write this:

THE INVISIBLE VICTIMS

We live in a nation that puts ideology ahead of reality. We live in a nation that wants to be right rather than true. We live in a nation that says gun violence is purely based on the quantity of guns rather than the mindset of the person pulling the trigger. We live in a country that ignores real victims and creates hypothetical victims. We live in a country that excuses criminal behavior and transforms victim names into victim statistics. We have a nation filled with invisible black victims.

The invisible black victim does not have any lobbyists in Washington D.C. to advocate for them. The invisible black victim is here one day and gone the next. The invisible black victim is diminished into crime statistics and leaves behind traumatized loved ones. The problem is that they are not invisible, but we pretend they are. We pretend that these black victims are invisible because it means we have to acknowledge who the perpetrators are; hint they are likely black. We pretend that they do not matter because it would require us to criticize our views on the value of a black life. We claim that black life matters, but it is only words.

The invisible black victim has flowers on the corner that they were killed on, but you will not know their name. The invisible black victim is a symbol of our willingness to ignore ourselves. The invisible black victim has no age limit as bullets do not discriminate. The invisible black victim may be involved in illegal activity or innocently sitting in their home with their family.

These victims only become invisible when the gun is fired by black hands. They become invisible when no one cares longer than a week. They become invisible when they do not match the political wants of black politicians, leaders and activists.
8-year-old Secoriea Turner of Atlanta is another invisible black victim. After the shooting of Rayshard Brooks by Atlanta Police Officers on June 12th, Black Lives Matter Activists along with young black Urban Terrorists barricaded the streets surrounding where Rayshard Brooks was killed. As a declaration to their martyr, they took control of the surrounding streets and violence ensued. July 5th, Secoriea Turner and her family drove around one of the barricades to attempt to make a U-Turn and was fired on by these urban terrorists. This senseless gunfire resulted in the death of an 8-year-old child. Secoriea Turner’s father, Secoriya Williamson, made the most poignant statement, "They say Black Lives Matter. You killed your own." Another invisible black victim added to the list.

I am tired of feeling like I am the only one who cares about the inter-genocide that is happening on a daily basis. I am tired of watching politicians use black death to their advantage. I am tired of community leaders defending urban terrorists and ignoring black victims. For every black victim that we mark as invisible, the more normal it becomes to the greater society. The larger the death number grows, the more we look elsewhere for our problems. The invisible black victim does not deserve to be invisible; they deserve to be heard. When we advocate for no-snitching policies in our neighborhoods, we are also advocating for black victims to be marked as invisible.

Marking them as invisible says that we as a community do not care about them, but rest assured if the problem persists, it will affect your family or someone you care about. You will not like how the person you love becomes invisible to everyone else. You will not like how no one will speak up on who committed the murder because of the trend of not being a snitch. You will not like how politicians will show up for a day and never call you again. You will not like how your community turns their head on the pain you are experiencing from the loss of a loved one. The habitual nature of marking black bodies as invisible will continue to destroy the black community.

We should be outraged that we only solve about 22% of homicide cases in Chicago involving black victims. Communities solve homicide cases more so than the detectives assigned to the attached cases. When we do not speak up on the victim’s behalf, we make them invisible. When we do not speak up on the victim’s behalf, the people that loved them live their life in turmoil due to the lack of justice they seek. The statistic of 22% of homicides being solved means that 78% of them did not matter enough for us to speak up. This means that the 78% of the black bodies left cold from the lack of justice is perfectly fine for our sensibilities. The 78% deserve just as much closure as the 22%. The 78% are Chicago’s invisible black victims that everyone pretends to care about.