"Passing" Taken The Extra Mile

Here in L.A. there is an ongoing trial of these two teenage Mexican gang members in a poor area of the city for an awful racial crime. As part of a supposed effort by their gang to rid their small section of the city from blacks, these two, and others in the gang, initiated a plan one day to kill the next black person they saw. Any black person. The unlucky recipient of their hatred was a black teenage girl who was hanging out near her apartment building or some such location. They shot and killed her with no warning. By the way, later these two stabbed and killed an older white man who they believed was a witness to their crime. They purportedly stabbed him 80 times. So these two were not very nice people, to say the least.

But here's where the story takes a turn and becomes fodder for my blog. It turns out one of the two Mexican gang bangers is in fact half-black himself. His father is black. And according to his family, his sister and a close cousin are both dating black men. Men who he knows and is somewhat close to. In pictures of this kid that I have seen he looks 100% Hispanic, meaning there are no obvious signs of mixed blood, which happens fairly often for some Mixed individuals. My guess is that, he was "passing" as full Mexican to his gang banger friends and found himself in a spot where to prove his loyalty to them and their side he had to pretend he hated blacks as much as his buddies. Or maybe they suspected or knew his "racial" heritage and wanted him to declare his allegiance by doing this.

Either way, it is a sad story all around. For the girl who was shot and killed, and her family. For the young gang banger and his family. And for all the tension he must have felt knowing his Mixed blood and what that gang expected. And it is a sad story for all of us since it is a reminder that the world is indeed filled with violent hatred that can easily spill over into our worlds, sometimes just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time and for no reason other than the color of our skin.

When will the madness end?