I've read salon since pre-florida election/not 2000. This is one of your best if not best pieces done since I've read salon. I'm white and grew up in the mid-west during the 50's and 60's. Sixty miles from Detroit MI.. And I dated a black womon from Oakland for two years. This article tells a part of the story there. There is so much to tell. I was crying by the second page and could not go on. My girlfriend in Oakland had adopted a six-month old child of black parents that had given her up. Her grand parents had already taken one child and could not take a second. Kiaya was her name. I met Kaiya around her first birthday. And we fell in love. Kaiya was probably the best thing that had happened to me in 30 years. She is a beautiful child. Full of love and joy and pure spirit. Kaiya and her mother changed me forever. I know there is no difference in all of us. Color - race - religion. This article begins to point out the fact that we are not all yet equal in this society that we have created.

Yet. That blacks are treated differently. Being white I was slow to learn that fact. We did not grow up on the outside - different - black or less than. Black americans for the most part have.

Perhaps this article is a turning point in the last five years or two hundred years of darkness. We need not devide ourselves as people. We need not run from each other. WE need to cross the devide of all colors. White - black - yellow - red. And begin to heal. Perhaps then we can all focus on a government that reprents all the people / we the people.

Brad Edwards

We've got the same phenomenon going on here in Philly too. We're averaging, I believe, a bit over one death a day this year and practically all are young men under 25. When you hear the stories, even of those caught up in crime, they are all heartbreaking.

I spend the bulk of my personal energy from March through July coaching baseball. This year I have three teams, ages range, depending upon the team, from 9 - 14. I hope that the little I do coming in contact with all these young kids helps their lives at least in a small way; gives them strength and dignity and the ability to face off against adversity (baseball is particularly good at teaching such lessons).

In the end, I do hope that others come to understand the need to give themselves to their communities, working with youth (and their parents and grandparents). I do not believe the hardships and anguish of poverty and the history of violence and servitude is the cause of the malaise those in the inner city "ghettoes" face. It is more, in my opinion, the lack of contact and the paucity of love so many youngsters of today feel. There is anomie everywhere...only because we allow it.

Go out there and touch someone's life, be a part of your neighborhood...PLEASE!

That's what this story is really about.

The violent death of any person is a sad and terrible thing. The violent death of an innocent is tragic. I thought this story would be one of coming to grips with societal shortcomings. Instead, it appears to be one more attempt to blame others for a problem that rests squarely on the shoulders of the person who pulled the trigger. Keith Stephens was murdered. Why? According to the writer, slavery is to blame (i.e. white people).

"It happened for reasons that any one of us could name -- start with slavery, take it from there."

According to the pastor it is the government's fault (i.e...)

"We've learned the hard way that violence never solves anything," Pastor Peoples shouted. "But it's hard to teach that to our kids when our government is using violence to try and take over the world."

Keith Stephens was murdered because, according to the story, someone found out that he was looking for some money he was owed. That is all. Period. People kill other people. Is it surprising that black people kill black people? Look intently into the mirror, and you will see the reason that Keith Stephens died. A human. A human with the intellect and the drive to do things that are exceedingly bad.

The shades that separate one human from another are exceptionally subtle. People that had been neighbors for generations suddenly started killing men, women, and children when the restraining force of the Soviet Union dissolved. It is not surprising that black people kill black people. Stop blaming others and come to grips with your own societal problems, and you will begin solving these issues. Until you do this, you yourselves provide perfect cover for murderers. "Slavery made me do it". "The government made me do it".

You have my sympathies, in many respects.

-Poco

Let's take an action, right here, right now. At a minimum, let's write to the Berkeley Police department and demand they more action on Keith Stephens' case. Here is the link, police@ci.berkeley.ca.us. This article was excellent. I hope Salon follows up on this article.

- Elisabeth

Dayton, Ohio

I do not subscribe to Salon is summarized nicely at the end of this article: "Meredith Maran is a frequent contributor to Salon".

I am a university professor whose children attend public schools that are majority African-American. It is impossible for me to over-state the degree to which the kind of thinking espoused by Ms. Maran minimizes whatever opportunities are available to the fraction of our poor/minority can actually compete academically in a fashion that enables them to (1) attend a top-rated university and then (2) be admitted to a decent graduate or professional school.

I cannot in good conscience provide direct financial support to a publication that, by proxy, is ruining whatever chance many at-risk kids have...of succeeding.

To repeat, my reason for why I do not subscribe to Salon is summarized nicely at the end of this article: "Meredith Maran is a frequent contributor to Salon".