There’s a War Going On Outside That the Media Won’t Talk About

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Abstract

he truth is that my city is struggling, and, in all honesty, this is nothing new. One by one, companies have packed their bags and left Rochester, New York, and this loss is something that, as a city, we have never recovered from.We rank nationally for all the wrong things. We are not proud of the significant levels of socioeconomic segregation in our school districts or the high rates of child poverty. In 2021, we lost eighty-one people to homicides. A mother was shot seventeen times in front of her children. Our first murder of the year was a fourteen-year-old boy who had gone to the store to buy noodles. Just a few weeks ago, a seventeen-year-old was shot to death after getting off of the school bus.Redlining makes it easy for entire suburbs to turn a blind eye to the events taking place in city neighborhoods. The problem is that many of the individuals respons

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ible for what is taking place in Rochester don’t care: because they don’t have to. I have learned that it is far too easy to normalize shootings and homicides. A zip code should never be a death sentence.Boston; Chicago; Detroit; LA: in more ways than one, the stories of our cities are the same.I understand that not all victims are angels: but no one is conducting character analyses of the victims in Ukraine. No news agency is looking into their records or suggesting that they deserved to be shot or killed because they smoked marijuana or violated their parole. We genuinely forget that many of the victims in our cities are children.Iraq; Afghanistan; Syria; Ukraine: the tide of international conflict rises and falls, but our cities continue to struggle. I want to ask why but I know why. The desire to care was never colorblind.</article></body>

There’s a War Going On Outside That the Media Won’t Talk About

Don’t get me wrong: of course, I care about the war in Ukraine. There’s also a war going on outside that’s much, much closer to home…and it’s highly possible to care about two things at once. We do it all the time.

I can turn the news off but that doesn’t turn off the sound of sirens and gunshots. I could turn my phone off and still know what was going on: the news is in the caution tape, the candles, and the balloons.

The truth is that my city is struggling, and, in all honesty, this is nothing new. One by one, companies have packed their bags and left Rochester, New York, and this loss is something that, as a city, we have never recovered from.

We rank nationally for all the wrong things. We are not proud of the significant levels of socioeconomic segregation in our school districts or the high rates of child poverty. In 2021, we lost eighty-one people to homicides. A mother was shot seventeen times in front of her children. Our first murder of the year was a fourteen-year-old boy who had gone to the store to buy noodles. Just a few weeks ago, a seventeen-year-old was shot to death after getting off of the school bus.

Redlining makes it easy for entire suburbs to turn a blind eye to the events taking place in city neighborhoods. The problem is that many of the individuals responsible for what is taking place in Rochester don’t care: because they don’t have to. I have learned that it is far too easy to normalize shootings and homicides. A zip code should never be a death sentence.

Boston; Chicago; Detroit; LA: in more ways than one, the stories of our cities are the same.

I understand that not all victims are angels: but no one is conducting character analyses of the victims in Ukraine. No news agency is looking into their records or suggesting that they deserved to be shot or killed because they smoked marijuana or violated their parole. We genuinely forget that many of the victims in our cities are children.

Iraq; Afghanistan; Syria; Ukraine: the tide of international conflict rises and falls, but our cities continue to struggle. I want to ask why but I know why. The desire to care was never colorblind.