The Unspoken Reality.

Black Americans are disproportionately impacted by gun violence. They experience 10 times the gun murders, 18 times the gun assault injuries, and nearly 3 times the fatal police shootings of white Americans.

While statistics like these are startling, they cannot thoroughly be explored without attention to elements like racial discrimination in housing, personal accountability, problematic policing, and trans-generational trauma.

Social Justice initiatives in mass have a blindspot here. Few conversations about racial equality include this aspect of societal accountability. The truth is that gun violence, gang crime, and incarceration are areas to focus our “racial justice” lens on.

One place we can start at with certainty is acknowledging that prison isn’t a significant deterrent to murder in some communities. It further encourages gang activity and makes everyone inside at risk for being victimized.

Our curriculum provides for peer mentorship so people don’t have to go through “getting out” alone or unsafely. They can explore how they came to need gang acceptance with former members who have shed that same world view.