A Man Killed Over Beer and Other Observations on the Sanctity of Life in the Black Community

Foreign beer is frowned upon in the Black community. We learned this truism from Rep. Alvin Holmes, when he famously stated:

"What's the matter with the beer we got? I mean, the beer we got drink pretty good, don't it? I ain't never heard nobody complain about the, uh, beer we have. It drink pretty good, don't it? Budweiser. What's the names of some of them other beers?..."

It is unknown at this juncture what type of beer was involved in the heist of a 12-pack, but it has been established that the motivation behind the murder of an Atlanta resident was his refusal to part with his inebriates:

Family and friends mourn a man shot dead after police said he refused to give up a 12-pack of beer.

                            
They were planning a vigil on Sunday.

The shooting happened between two apartment complexes on Defoors Ferry Road in northwest Atlanta on Saturday.

Lawrence Williams, 48, was walking down the road when a man approached him and demanded for his beer, Atlanta police Maj. Keith Meadows said.

The fragility of life is exposed with startling regularity in areas inhabited by certain population groups. Perhaps the indifference toward life would be a more promising word, with the repercussions of murder a mere triviality when a procuring of 12 beers is the resultant and immediate action. 

The short term benefits of quenching ones thirst with a refreshing (and, Rep. Holmes hopes, non-foreign) beer illegally procured far out-weigh the long-term consequences associated with obtaining those beverages. 

Though a person no longer lives and struggles for daily existence in the harsh reality known as ‘ghetto dwelling’, the assailant absconded with a 12-pack. One has to wonder how smooth those beers tasted to that individual…

A story that will resonate with readers familiar with the depravity that chicken induces among those desiring the fowl delicacy further illustrates the realization that life is woefully undervalued and considered insignificant in a similar population group on the other side of the country:

At least four people were wounded in a drive-by shooting Sunday morning outside a Jack London Square restaurant, police said.

None of the wounds was life-threatening.

The shooting happened about 2:40 a.m. in the 400 block of Embarcadero West outside the Home of Chicken N Waffles, police said.

About 20 to 30 people were standing outside the restaurant waiting to get in when someone inside a passing vehicle began shooting at the group, police said.

A 19-year-old man, a 22-year-old man, and two 25-year-old women were wounded. Their names and places of residence were not released.

Three of the victims were hit in the legs, and the fourth had a graze wound to an undisclosed part of the body. They were all in stable condition at a hospital.

One victim was found by police in front of the restaurant, one inside the restaurant and a third in a nearby hotel garage. The fourth victim walked up to police who had responded.

Derreck Johnson, who owns the restaurant, said nobody in the restaurant was hurt. He wasn't there at the time of the shooting but said he was trying to find out who the victims were so he could send them something to show his concern.

"We had a line down the street," he said, "and some guys just drove down Broadway and just opened up." As far as anyone at the restaurant could tell, he said, the shooting was random

Will the day arise when commercials that play upon the altruistic heart-strings of evangelicals and the perpetually apologetic class of Disingenuous White Liberals, begin airing, showcasing life in the inner-cities of America and how for 20 cents a day, you can put an end to the hopelessness and staggeringly conditions that fellow citizens endure? 

A callous disregard for life is found in communities that Robert Putnam bemoans in his studies, buttressed by facts and depressing statistics. 

We at SBPDL ask this question in hopes of ascertaining the truth: What drives this ambivalence toward life in the Black community, where the long-term consequences of a criminal act cannot overcome the lure of momentary short-term sensual gratification? 

Thinking about a few past entries caused us to reflect upon “classical music” and how it pertains to this story from The Wall Street Journal:

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra is staring into the abyss. In order to survive a fix-it-or-else financial crisis—the DSO is expected to run up a $9 million operating deficit by the end of 2010—the management wants to slash the pay of its musicians by nearly 30%. The musicians have responded by voting to authorize a strike, and it is widely feared that this may lead to the orchestra's demise.

Does anybody care? Yes—but probably not enough to do anything about it.
The numbers tell the tale: Nearly two million people lived in Detroit in 1950. The current population is 800,000. Forty of the city's 140 square miles are vacant.

Downsizing is the name of the save-Detroit game, and Mayor Dave Bing, who is looking at an $85 million budget deficit, wants to slash civic services drastically and encourage Detroit's remaining residents to cluster in the healthiest of its surviving neighborhoods.

Can a once-great city that is now the size of Austin, Texas, afford a top-rank symphony orchestra with a 52-week season? Does it even want one? The DSO

Brian Dickerson, the deputy editorial-page editor of the Detroit Free Press, reacted angrily in a column published last month to what he called the "elegiac resignation" of this editorial: "Some sneer that Detroit's unwashed masses can no longer discern the difference between a great orchestra and a mediocre one. . . .

What's incredible, and ineffably sad, is the complacency with which Detroiters are shrugging off the disintegration of a cultural infrastructure our predecessors spent the entire 20th century putting in place." But it isn't complacent to admit that Detroit may no longer be able to afford the DSO—or that the city's "unwashed masses" won't lose any sleep if the orchestra is forced to close its doors.

As I reported in this column in June, regional orchestras all over America are struggling to stay afloat. Some have disbanded, while others are seeking out new audiences. The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, for example, faced up to the long-term decline of Newark, its home, by reconfiguring itself as a state-wide group that gives concerts in seven different cities. That's one of the reasons why the orchestra has clawed its way back from near-bankruptcy and has accumulated nearly 80% of the $32 million in capital that is its current capital fund-raising goal.

Detroit is a Black city. Newark, another city alluded to in the article as a place incapable of sustaining an orchestra, is also a Black city. Classical music is anathema to Black people, and the Pedantic White Journalist (PWJ) who wrote this article follows the doctrine of Black Run America (BRA) to a T, never questioning the actual reasons that the orchestra might be failing.  White flight meant that those who appreciate white culture left, so the institutions it created will eventually go extinct when  left to the stewardship of a different people.   

Even middle-class Black people flee Detroit without reservation, realizing the city is awash with people indifferent to life. 

What have we learned in this post? Well, we learned why liquor store employees always put beer and liquor products in paper bags upon purchase, so that persons without alcoholic beverages won’t become engorged with rage, jealousy and anger, stopping to kill over a meaningless 12-pack; that it isn’t smart to stand outside a restaurant that peddles chicken, regardless of how delectable it might taste; and that if you like classical music, Detroit isn’t the city for you.

fw