I'm gonna take a minute to get serious with y'all.

If you haven't read the article or caught it on the news, a 14-year old girl in Richmond was raped by no fewer than 4 attackers while over a dozen people observed and/or eventually participated. This not only took place outside a high school dance, but was initiated by classmates, and occurred just outside the school building. This disgusts me through & through. This is not just Richmond, CA (though this is one of the gnarliest cities around) - sure, this is everywhere. Per capita though, Richmond doesn't set a very good example.

But it's almost more troubling the way people react and suggest the most prepostorous things or make outrageous statements. Just reading the back and forth Facebook arguments today, and then reading comments on the various news sites, it's amazing to me how people process the world around them. My view is perhaps reflected by or even stuck in my educational background in Public Discourse (Rhetoric), Social Theory, Legal Theory and Cultural Anthropology. Speaking about these types of situations is always precarious particulary from my standpoint of being white middle class, addressing varied audiences with or without knowledge about topics in theory. Understand I am aware of my own context and that I will have detractors.

When it comes to all this "oh, society..." shit, there is the Oscar Wilde outlook, "Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals." And there is the "Fuck it, we're all in this together" outlook.

I am generally an individualist, and urge self reliance and taking responsibility for what we do for, and to, ourselves. But am not blind to the fact that individuals do not exist in a vacuum. Humans are widely agreed to be social animals, which has been reinforced throughout history with the development of the "Institution" and Process. So when it comes to large groups of individuals, or social/familial passage of personal traits, I believe that we both need, and have come to rely on, external structure. When that external structure fails us, some of us only have inner deficits to look to - that may be violent urges, lack of respect for women or society in general (antisocial PD), etc. The result is not pretty.

We're a little late to the game in many, MANY underserved communities throughout the US. I do believe Schools are a HUGE part of "fixing" some of society's ills, but Education is long term and must be carried from generation to generation to see tangible results. The belief that education is even important, and moreover the belief that an individual has worth and must be of good character, must be carried from generation to generation.

Suggesting that we burn a whole city down, that people should be killed because this act is "not human" - we all have every right to be angry. This suggests serious implications for our daughters the world over. The sad thing, is this act was very much human. And if "wiping out the problem" was a viable option, we'd be back at square 1 with religious extremists, Nazis, etc. When someone quips, "all bad people should die!!" -  sorry, but most of us are on that list. In that framework, we should all be burnt down, and so who then would police it? I'm sure we all would be happy with that solution until the line came to our front doorstep.

This also feeds into another precarious argument, the so-old-it's-almost-cliche-yet-no-one-still-understands-it-fully argument. The people involved in these types of acts, were not born "scum" or "disgusting animals." They were born into a specific context which allowed them to develop a different compass than what the general populus would consider "civil humanity." And for better or worse, some people escape their context or move outside it if it does not suit them (in which case the movement relies on whatever learnings make up that individual). Just be careful when and where you pull those cards, you know? There is a fine line between the nature/nurture discussion and ignorance/racism, and moreover merely by being human we are often hypocritical and implicated in our own accusations.

Long story short on this one: You cannot just "rebuild" on top of a community that does not value itself first and foremost, indivuidually and thus collectively, Richmond or anywhere else. The infrastructure can only support what is already socioeconomically & psychologically in place. This is a process that requires yes time and money, but also dedication and acute awareness of the underlying issues at hand. One article pointed to a Cal' professor's comment on the "bystander indifference," which is a fascinating discussion revolving around an individual's ties to another individual being the key motivator in protection impulses. So I definitely suggest that we can't care about or relate to eachother in a community where we don't also care about ourselves and view ourselves as relatable. Unfortunately garnering a complete understanding takes too long for most planners, economists, politicians, human services agencies, etc. It's not about killing people or burning a city down to "start over" (sorry you missed that boat a few centuries ago when shit like that was ok!) - fuck, it's not even about revenge & punishment, which only perpetuates the very isolating us/them - civil/barbaric construct.

SO, how do we "fix this now?" Yeah right!!! There is no "now." That's why we keep failing. There. Is. No. "NOW." How do we "fix the society that allowed this to happen?" We ARE the society that allowed this to happen! The solutions are there, yes, but you have to pass those crossings and keep going to fully realize anything. I don't think people really get just how vast an undertaking it is. It is a process, not a result. Just saying "we need to fix society!" is part of the goddamn problem.

You're looking at NO LESS than an entire emotional and mental overhaul within communities so heavily marginalized that concepts of conscience, responsibility and compassion are not "missing," they are irrelevant. Moreover, we would also have to accept the possible need for emotional and mental overhaul within ourselves as members of these structures and just as responsible for its success or failure as anyone else. So yeah, try telling our 6.793 Billion people on Earth that an assault like this can be blamed on all of us, and perhaps you will better understand why disgusting shit -rape, drugs/sex/goods trafficking-related crimes, slavery, assault, starvation- continues to happen in the world, every day. No one has "time" for that, man.