Don't ignore gun violence ravaging Black community

In 2023, 844 Black people were killed in Illinois — nearly three a day. A national report named Illinois the second-highest state in the nation for Black homicide victimization. And yet, it was largely ignored by the news.

What does it say when 91 children are murdered in a year and only one Chicago newsroom covers it? When 728 people — most of them young and Black — are gunned down and their names barely warrant a mention? When the deaths of Black people are statistically predictable yet publicly invisible?

It says what too many of us already know: Our lives are not valued, not by the systems that fail to protect us and not by the media that choose what is worth our attention.

Illinois’ Black homicide victimization rate was 46.5 per 100,000 — nearly seven times the white victimization rate nationwide. These aren’t just statistics. They represent hundreds of families grieving, communities traumatized and lives erased.

Nationally, more than 12,000 Black people were killed in 2023 — 85% were men, and guns were used in nearly 90% of these murders. This is a public health crisis, a war on people of color. If other groups were dying at these rates, there would be calls for national mobilization.

Instead, our communities receive silence.

At One Aim Illinois, we work to reduce gun violence and save lives. But we can’t do it alone. We need help. We need the media to show up — not just when crime statistics fuel a narrative of fear, but when Black people are being lost in ways and at a frequency that should shock everyone.

Too often, coverage of violence in Black communities is sensationalized, decontextualized or ignored. Rarely are systemic failures highlighted. Rarely are victims seen as human.

This isn’t just about coverage. It’s about accountability. If the public isn’t aware, there’s no pressure on policymakers, no investment in proven solutions, no reckoning with root causes.

Silence protects the status quo. And the status quo is killing us.

We don’t need studies to tell us what we already know: Black communities are bleeding. What we need is for the rest of the world to care enough to act.

This starts with seeing us, hearing us and telling our stories. Black lives matter. Not just in moments of protest or slogans, but in every newsroom, policy and community investment.

Until our lives matter in the headlines, we will continue to be buried in silence.

Yolanda Androzzo, executive director, One Aim Illinois

College queries

WBEZ's Noah Jennings’ recent article on taking out school loans to go to the "best college" as opposed to going to a cheaper school with no loans was interesting and insightful. As Jennings writes, there are many things to consider.

Yet, a primary consideration that Jennings did not fully address is projected income of a college graduate. While maybe an oversimplification, among other things, college is supposed to be used as a tool to achieve a respectable future income.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, a college graduate usually enjoys a higher income and also has less chance of suffering unemployment compared to someone without a college degree. There are, of course, exceptions, as some occupations that do not require a degree pay very well and offer strong benefits.

After graduating from high school, I enrolled with several friends at what was then the most inexpensive state college in Illinois. We all earned a degree, and some 40 years later, we are all doing well and enjoyed incomes that afforded us families and homes, as well as a comfortable retirement.

Undoubtedly, even with a college degree, a lot depends on other factors, such as work ethic, the job market and luck. In the end, given the uncontrollable circumstances that can influence the value of a college degree these days, taking on a lot of debt for a higher education seems ill-advised.

Terry Takash, Western Springs

America is falling apart

I guess if Tom Smothers, George Carlin and other comedians were alive today, they might be facing jail or at least silencing. I will never watch anything on ABC again after it suspended Jimmy Kimmel, and I suggest if you value your right to free speech, you will do the same.

My family came to this country from communist Hungary to escape the kind of political silencing rampant in this country today. In less than a year, this administration has politicized the judiciary, silenced academic institutions and fomented violence.

The health of children is in jeopardy thanks to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. People are pulled off the street by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement because of the color of their skin.

What has this country come to?

Regina Gomory, Crystal Lake

Trump, right-wing minority are biggest threat

A Minnesota state legislator and her husband were killed. Another state legislator and his wife were shot. All four were Democrats. Their assassin was a man who selected his victims out of a list of dozens of Democrats. These were political assassinations.

Democrats responded with grief, but I read of no leading person on the country’s left calling for reprisals against the right. Appropriately, they said political assassinations must stop.

Charlie Kirk is assassinated, and the president blames left-wing "radicals" for the murder, as does his vice president. They promise to take action against "liberal" groups. Others are also calling for violent reprisals against people who criticized Kirk.

It looks to me that the real threat to our country and its citizens are a violent right-wing minority.

Roger Flaherty, Andersonville

No excuse for murder

Only one thing should ever come after the words "murder is bad" or "murder is wrong." A period. Not the word "but."

William Choslovsky, Sheffield Neighbors