OPINION:
In 2023, there were more than 13,000 shooting deaths of Black people in the United States. The preceding years depressingly produced about the same. Over the past 10 years, there have been well more than 100,000 shooting deaths of Black people in America. Many of these dead, of course, were young, Black males.
Had that carnage been visited upon any other segment of our population, there would be demands from every corner of the political world to do something — anything — to stem the violence. We know, unfortunately, that the tragedy of lives cut short has become just so much background noise to many of us.
The good news is that some are working to knit together the holes in the social networks that have failed many of these young men. In Memphis, Tennessee, for example, a nonprofit organization called Memphis Allies works tirelessly to reverse the tide of gun violence in that troubled city. Its efforts are grounded in the simple but powerful idea that the chances of violence can be reduced when communities work in an intensive, personal way with those most likely to be tangled in the web of despair and spiral of violence.
The foundational emphasis of Memphis Allies is sustained and focused involvement in the lives of individuals most at risk. Participants in the program have a life coach, case manager and clinical specialist, all of whom work with participants to help them take control of their lives.
It seems to be working. Since the organization launched in 2022, more than 90% of the participants in the program have avoided new gun charges and the city’s homicide rate has steadily decreased.
The secret sauce is that Memphis Allies’ outreach and sustained involvement is done mostly by men who grew up in Memphis neighborhoods themselves, knowing fear, violence, criminality, jail and death. These men, who are the true core of the program, are credible evangelists for change in the lives of their mostly younger charges. These men, and Memphis Allies more generally, are, for many young people, the last detour off a road that leads inexorably toward either death or prison.
Perhaps more important, in many instances, the life coaches provide what many young people need: someone to talk to, someone to give them advice, help them navigate a world that, in many instances, seems unnecessarily difficult. Someone who can help them find work or stay at work or make better choices or just refocus when they wander a bit from the center line.
Maybe it’s just someone who can provide a positive example they may not have had or model a life of meaning and discipline in what seems like an endless round of danger and violence.
In short, the coaches and the other folks in the program are family for those young men who may not have much in the way of family and who, as a consequence, may be more prone to making bad decisions. Think about your own life. How many bad decisions did your parents help you avoid?
From a societal point of view, this sort of work is essential. It is a fairly well-known data point that each shooting results in four more shootings, as cycles of recrimination, revenge and retribution perpetuate. If you can prevent or avoid even one shooting, that produces a virtuous cycle in which additional violence and bloodshed and criminal behavior can be avoided.
The reality of our world is that it is not easy to be a Black man in America. The good people at Memphis Allies are doing difficult work every day to save everyone they can and to balance some part of the cosmic scales. They are trying to change the world the only way it can truly be changed: one soul at a time. For that, they deserve our praise and, whenever and however we can spare it, our help.
• Michael McKenna is a contributing editor at The Washington Times.
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