Filed under: News, Politics, Race and Civil Rights
DJ Megatron (aka Corey McGriff), known for his roles on Hot 97 and BET's '106 and Park,' was killed on Sunday, after police say he was shot in the chest in Stapleton, Staten Island.
There have been no arrests made in the murder.
According to those who knew him, McGriff didn't have any enemies, and the shooting appears to have been a random homicide. McGriff regularly conducted "Man on the Street" interviews for BET and was considered to be a rising star in his industry. He was also engaged and had two children.
The death of Corey McGriff is a sad reality of urban America. While we don't know what circumstances led to McGriff's shooting, death has become an abundantly consistent reality for many young black men.
According to the FBI, the black male homicide rate rose by 52 percent between 2002 and 2006 and continues to remain a major conundrum. If you are one of the black males lucky enough to escape a trip to the morgue, you likely have friends who've been killed and associates who have committed homicide themselves. Unfortunately, for many young black men across America, early death is simply a part of life.
As we watch our sons, brothers, fathers and siblings die in the streets every single day, we must ask ourselves: Where do these guns come from?
Do black people manufacture guns and sell them in their own neighborhoods? Why are there not nearly as many guns in the suburbs as we find in the hood? Asking these difficult questions and forcing the gun industry to give us answers may be the action that starts saving lives.
To date, gun manufacturers are protected by both the Second Amendment and a powerful National Rifle Association lobby. Seeing black men die in the street is not only of little interest to the rest of America, it also has the incentive of sending another black man to prison -- giving the system two for the price of one.
The devastation of our communities leads to the profitability of both gun manufacturers and the prison industrial complex, which has learned to enjoy the use of cheap prison labor, and until our politicians get serious about stopping the flow of guns into urban communities, we will continue to put funerals on our calendars.
The death of Corey McGriff didn't have to happen, but the same can be said about thousands of black male homicides every single year. Our society is what killed Mr. McGriff, and the death won't stop coming until we change how we do business.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your e-mail, please click here. To follow Dr. Boyce on Facebook, please click here.
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