A coalition of black community leaders is upset that it wasn't invited to a meeting over guns and gangs between the three levels of government; a conference it has been demanding for several months.The most shameful fact of the civil rights movement in the US is that the government was only moved to act by the deaths of three white northerners in 1964, despite the fact that literally thousands of blacks had been killed over the decades before the 1960s.
The meeting was spurred by the Boxing Day shooting of Jane Creba, a white 15-year-old girl, on crowded Yonge St. north of the Eaton Centre.
The Coalition of African Canadian Community Organizations — made up of more than 30 groups — questioned at a news conference yesterday whether politicians would have reacted as quickly if a black youth was slain. More than 40 black youths died from gun violence last year, but the coalition said it took Creba's death to move politicians to act.
We have the same problem in this country, and it makes me ashamed.
1 comment:
While I'm sure racism is a factor in the differential reaction, I have to say that the most important factor is that this shooting took place in a busy commerical area during an election campaign.
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