In My City

While the rest of the country mourns the death of Flower the Meerkat, Memphis wakes up to the news this morning that one of the U of M Tiger football players was shot and killed on campus last night.

While the news is tragic, some say it's not surprising, given that last week the FBI ranked Memphis #1 in the nation in violent crime. Still, to read the comments on the web stories about last night's shooting, both on our daily paper's site as well as on USA Today, one gets the sense of both the extreme racial tension that persists in our city as well as the impression of black crime as a whole.

My husband and I have debated leaving Memphis for years, mostly because it bothers us to raise a child in a place where racism is so rampant. I'm sure there are multiple reasons why the hatred continues to be so vicious here. Was the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr a cause or a symptom of the problem? I don't know, but the emotions from that time remain alive and passionate. The possible re-election next week of a four-term mayor (the city's first African-American leader) has been extremely divisive. As have several ethical scandals in local politics that have apparently involved only African-American elected officials.

Is it a Memphis phenomenon that when a football player is shot and killed, people start bemoaning the "thug life" and asking such helpful questions as "Why do black people keep killing each other?"

I admit, we've been part of the flight out of the city limits. We moved to the county five or six years ago for many reasons - cheaper taxes, better schools, more affordable housing, and yes - less crime. But we certainly didn't move to escape black people, or any other race. Some internet commenters would be quick to correlate the two - that the crime in Memphis is perpetrated by the black population but I don't know enough of the facts to make that statement myself. It certainly would seem that way if you believe local media coverage. But does the media report a disproportionate number of the black crime - maybe because it's simply more sensational and if it bleeds, it leads and all that? Or maybe a disproportionate number of blacks are arrested in this city?

I read once that the reason violent crime exists is because people feel that their own life has no value, so they ultimately have no respect for any human life. This is a theory I can get behind, but where then lies the solution? My city is like that really difficult person in your life that you want to love, but they make it so damn hard.