wandering stars

DESPITE THE media focus on the numbers of people killed, there is little in the way of serious discussions on how to address the violence that is shattering some Chicago neighborhoods. Perhaps if the violence were taking the lives of white children, there would be much more of an urgency to end the carnage. Instead, it is young African American and Latino bodies that are fueling Chicago growing murder rate.

More than half of the murders in the city happen in a handful of neighborhoods that are Black or Latino—and it is the kids in those communities that are paying the price with their lives. Since 2008, more than 530 young African Americans and Latinos have been killed, more than any other city in the country. Nearly 80 percent of youth homicides occurred in 22 Black or Latino communities on the city’s South, Southwest and West sides.