Why is Violence the "Norm" in Our Society???

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog post are not those of City Year or any of its affiliates. These views are simply mine and I am just using my blog to express MY opinion...

Hey everyone,

Today I feel compelled to comment (vent) about the current epidemic of violence in our society. As you all know, I am a corps member in City Year Detroit for the 2011 FY. I work in one of the roughest public high schools in the city. This week has been a rather challenging week for myself as well as my team. Just this week alone, I witnessed fights as well as heard about fights in the vicinity of the school. I witnessed one of my students get escorted out of the school in handcuffs and lastly, there was a shooting outside of my school today. While talking to some of the students, most of them seemed unfazed by the escalating violence in their school. Even after the shooting, I didn't get a sense of panic and fear from the students, I got a vibe of indifference and apathy. This brings me to my main question: Why is it that our society is so apathetic to the growing violence in our neighborhoods?

The shooting that occurred outside of my school was the result of a fight that escalated to someting more serious. From my observations, students tend to "play-fight" with their friends and slam one another on the floor and horse around until someone actually gets hurt. Once this injury happens, all joking ceases and the students actually begin fighting... Students in the surrounding areas rush towards the location of the fight, often harming one another to get a good view of the fight. The worst part of the entire ordeal is that the "beef" never ends! Once someone is beaten in a one-on-one fight, they call their friends to go back and attack the other person again, sometimes even wielding a weapon! These rivalries are long-lasting and often end up in multiple injuries.

Why we allowing this to happen in our community?! Why can't we as a society, come together and prevent this nonsense from occurring? We tend to care more about the negative influences in the media rather than the positive ones...we have students that can quote entire rap stanzas but struggle to spell words with a difficulty wayy below their grade level. When will this madness end?!

Feel free to respond to my post below, on my twitter (make sure to mention @natNaijabeauty) or on my Facebook (Michelle Nkechi Udeli)