2005: Year of the Gun

So where's the above scene from: Detroit? Sao Paulo? Johannesburg? No – Toronto!

By now, people across Canada have heard about the chilling Boxing Day massacre. An innocent 15-year old girl was shot – and 6 other bystanders injured – caught in the crossfire of stray bullets as two rival groups of youths shot at each other in broad daylight amidst hundreds of shoppers downtown. This news, understandably, was greeted by equal parts horror, anger and outrage. During a press conference, an officer announced that Toronto had “Lost Its Innocence.” In fact, this story has gained international attention – the BBC has reported it, as has CNN and even media outlets in China.

2005 has been a particularly lethal year. Some have labeled it “The Year of the Gun”. A city that typically averages 60 murders, Toronto this year has had 78 homicides, a record 52 of which have been fatal shootings. Last year we had 26 fatalities by gun. If this isn’t cause for alarm, I’m not sure what is. Of course this total is paltry relative to New York, Detroit or DC where murders are measured not in scores but in the thousands. But extrapolate and we’re getting to Newark levels. All the more harrowing is the brazen nature of many of these shootings – in broad daylight, outside schools and daycare centers, at churches and funerals – innocent bystanders shot, caught in the crossfire.

So how have Torontonians, denizens of a besmirched city once monikered “Toronto the Good”, reacted? “Ban handguns!” some cry. “Stiffer penalties!” cry others. “More after-school programs, more basketball courts, more daycare!” cry those interested in a more proactive approach.

But here's the question that people silently ponder but nobody dares utter publicly: Toronto is a diverse, multicultural city host to numerous ethnic groups. Yet why is it that the gun violence today appears to be perpetrated overwhelmingly by young black males? And I contend that the answer is not poverty (though it certainly plays a role) or racism (almost invisible) or lack of opportunity (opportunity is abound in this city) but that gun violence is symptomatic of a profound cultural pathology that afflicts the black underclass: absentee fathers.

In the Afro-Caribbean social structure, it is not uncommon for families to be headed to be headed solely by the mother, often with the support of a grandmother. In fact this is the norm rather than the exception. I believe this is an outcrop of (1) Caribbean slavery (where the male's role was no more than to supply the seed) and (2) traditional sub-Saharan African kinship structure where the father doesn't play much of a role in child-rearing.

However, this mode of parental rearing does not bode well in urban, post-industrial Toronto. How many of the shooters grew up with single mothers? No father means less parental supervision, less financial support, and no father figure role model for sons to look up to. If the father is not present, if the father is almost entirely absent from the child's development, who is there to discipline the child? Who is there to provide the financial support to move out of the ghetto? Without a strong father and mother figure in the household, many kids will stray on the wrong path of life, abetted by the lure and appeal of gangster rap culture. And the cycle of poverty continues.

So this cultural deficit is not a problem that the Toronto police, Mayor David Miller, or the Liberal government can solve. The state can promote monetary pro-family initiatives but beyond that I cannot see where the government could play a role short of social engineering. I do believe though that the Church and faith-based initiatives can play a huge role with black folk, who tend to be a spiritual people.

Ultimately absentee fatherism is a profound social pathology that afflicts the black underclass and that must be acknowledged and addressed by the black community. The men must be responsible for their progeny and the women must hold their men accountable and behave responsibly themselves (not spreading their legs and bearing yet another kid that'll grow up in a disadvantaged environment and pose a burden on the state.) But the fact that it's problematic to ask questions about black crime has the same effect as racism - because the problem will never be solved.

What I see then is a failure on two parts: (1) A failure on the part of the black underclass to hold their youth accountable for their behaviour rather than blaming racism, racial profiling, poverty etc., and (2) A failure on the part of the Toronto WASP establishment - too cowed by meek political correctness - to ask the black underclass to address the issue of fathers abandoning their kids within their community.

So until we wake up, remove our PC blinders, and genuinely address this cultural deficit, nothing will change. The shootings will continue and more innocent victims like the 15 year old girl will be killed in the crossfire.