America’s unholy alliance with violence is nothing new. Unless you learned your history from cowboys and Indians movies, you know that our country was founded on the systematic genocide of its natives. Another fairy tale is that the Pilgrims came to our shores to worship and exist freely, detached from an oppressive English King. They wanted much more than Thanksgiving dinner.

In the 1960’s H. Rap Brown said violence is as American as cherry pie. What’s changed in the past 50 years is the belief that this generation of African Americans is becoming desensitized to the horrors of police brutality. While that seems ludicrous, it is also right.

Violence is not only an American problem, it is a plague on the entire world. Mankind’s appetite for depravity has been with us since Adam bit into the apple. We give lip service to the pursuit of peaceful societies but is that really the goal of our leaders?

African Americans are split into two classes that have always clashed: the haves and the have-nots. Stars like LeBron James and John Legend have used their celebrity to convey the plight of African Americans. But a large segment of the American public would rather just see a jump shot or hear a new song and not be bothered. Grass roots organizations led by African Americans and other ethnic groups who support them recognize the problem. In “God Bless the Child,” Billie Holliday sang about this schism in society: “Them that’s got shall have / Them that’s not shall lose.” That reality gives cover to the well-off to dismiss the cries of the oppressed altogether.

Each time a new Terence Crutcher or Sandra Bland case makes the news, pundits explain that black-on-black crime is the real killer of African Americans – not trigger-happy police officers. There are real-life consequences when this explanation is swallowed whole: Private citizens go to jail and cops get away with murder. People have lost faith in the system because those in authority–paid by your tax dollars – escape the justice that people without badges would get if they committed crimes.

People are smothered by a sense of hopelessness. They are exhausted. It is not that they aren’t horrified by or accepting of such murderous behavior. African Americans are just trying to change the equation and end this violent and turbulent cycle. That some Americans refuse to acknowledge the problem makes it that much harder to solve.

Andrew Patton, Guest Contributor, Reel Urban News writes about politics and people from Nashville Tennessee.
Andrew Patton, Guest Contributor, Reel Urban News writes about politics and people from Nashville Tennessee.