The Normalization of the Unacceptable: A Moderate’s Query into Why We Let Black People Die in Such Large Numbers and as an Example…Chicago’s Urban Violence

As a lifelong Californian, a political moderate, and a child of the 1970s, my worldview was shaped early on by powerful anti-prejudice lessons teaching that all people are created equal. This secular civic foundation was reinforced by my study of the Bible, which instilled in me the deeply held moral conviction to "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Over the past fifty years, as I have grown into adulthood, I have watched the United States progress dramatically, becoming a significantly less racist nation where people of all backgrounds have found the freedom to build better lives. Indeed, I believe America has evolved to become the least racist country on the planet, where the preservation of civil rights is not merely a legal framework, but a living, breathing moral contract. Yet, as I look across our contemporary political landscape, I am struck by a profound, painful, and deeply troubling paradox. Why, in this land of unprecedented progress, do we continuously allow Black Americans to be killed by other Black Americans at such an astonishingly high rate? Why do predominantly Democrat-run cities, like Chicago, allow this tragedy to unfold week after week, year after year, without intervention that actually works? How did we arrive at a place where this constant loss of life is treated as a routine policy variable rather than a national emergency? The violence is not an abstract policy failure; it is a human catastrophe occurring in real time. Through the first six months of 2026, Chicago recorded 210 homicides—representing a 5% increase compared to the same period in 2025—and a staggering number of shooting victims across hundreds of separate incidents. The vast majority of these victims are Black. When we examine the raw data of these lives cut short, we are forced to ask uncomfortable questions that our current political lexicon seems designed to avoid. Why is this slaughter accepted as "normal"? And why do the political, economic, and socially failing zip codes where this occurs continue to vote for the same politicians who oversee this devastation? The Microcosm of a Single Weekend: The Anatomy of Normalization To understand the systemic nature of this crisis, we must look at the granular details of a typical weekend in Chicago. A single police blotter from the first weekend of July 2026 serves as a chilling microcosm of the violence that has become background noise in the American consciousness: Sunday, 1:30 a.m. (3800 block of W. Maypole Ave., West Side): A mass shooting leaves six young people, ages 17 to 20, wounded. Just ten minutes prior in the exact same area, a 17-year-old girl is shot and critically injured. Sunday, 12:15 a.m. (1600 block of W. 108th Pl.): A 19-year-old man is shot and rushed to Christ Hospital in critical condition. Sunday, 1:48 a.m. (4300 block of W. Van Buren St.): A 33-year-old man is shot and killed. Saturday, 3:30 a.m. (5000 block of W. Sunnyside Ave.): A verbal dispute ends when a 47-year-old woman takes a gun from a male companion and shoots herself in the head. Police classify it as a homicide. Saturday, 6:00 a.m. (7900 block of S. Ashland Ave.): An argument leads to a gunman retrieving a weapon from an SUV and shooting a 54-year-old man in the hip and thighs. Saturday, 6:59 p.m. (5800 block of S. May St., Englewood): A 25-year-old woman sitting in a car is struck in the leg by a stray bullet. Friday, 5:00 p.m. (2000 block of E. 79th Street): A routine traffic stop turns into a shootout. Two Chicago police officers are shot, and the suspect is critically wounded. This is not a war zone in a foreign land. This is a collection of neighborhoods in one of America’s premier cultural and economic hubs. If six young white teenagers were shot on a single street corner in Malibu, or if a routine traffic stop in Palo Alto dissolved into a shootout, it would dominate national news cycles for weeks. There would be federal task forces, urgent gubernatorial addresses, and bipartisan demands for immediate reform. Instead, because this occurred on Chicago’s West and South Sides—historically Black and economically depressed areas—the response is a collective, nationwide shrug. It is filed away under the domestic ledger of "urban crime," a euphemism that masks a grim, unspoken consensus: we expect these neighborhoods to be violent. This is the definition of normalization. The Ideological Blind Spot: Why Do Democrats and Socialists Look Away? As a moderate, I find the silence and deflection from the progressive left and self-described political socialists to be deeply hypocritical. These political factions have built their brand on the rhetoric of "equity," "systemic racism," and "human rights." Yet, their policy prescriptions consistently ignore the immediate, physical threat to Black lives in these neighborhoods. Progressive dogma often attributes all urban violence to historical grievances and root causes—poverty, redlining, and lack of investment. While these historical factors are real and have contributed to the isolation of these communities, treating them as the only variables removes individual agency and ignores the immediate need for law and order. Progressive prosecutors and local politicians have championed "de-carceration," bail reform, and the dismantling of proactive policing units, arguing that traditional law enforcement is inherently biased. However, the consequences of these policies are borne almost entirely by the law-abiding Black residents of neighborhoods like Englewood, Austin, and Garfield Park. When police presence is scaled back, gang-affiliated criminals fill the vacuum. Since 2019, Chicago has eliminated more than 2,000 police officer positions, while its police overtime budget has doubled to compensate for understaffing. The result? Homicide arrest rates have plummeted to a dismal 29%. When political socialists argue that safety can only be achieved by completely defunding police and waiting for the structural collapse of capitalism, they are selling a utopian fantasy while people are dying in the streets today. They fail to recognize that the most fundamental civil right is the right to walk down one's street without being struck by a stray bullet. By prioritizing ideological purity over basic public safety, the far-left has effectively abandoned the immediate protection of Black lives. The Tragedy of the Ballot Box: Why Do Failing Zip Codes Keep Voting the Same? Perhaps the most puzzling aspect of this crisis for an outside observer is the electoral inertia of these neighborhoods. The zip codes that suffer from the highest rates of violence, double-digit unemployment, and failing public schools have voted overwhelmingly for the same political party for generations. How do we explain this feedback loop of political and social failure? First, we must acknowledge the power of political machine dominance and the lack of viable alternatives. In many of Chicago’s highly segregated neighborhoods, the Democratic Party is not just a political choice; it is the civic infrastructure itself. Local block clubs, religious institutions, community non-profits, and municipal employment are all deeply intertwined with the ruling political apparatus. For a resident in these areas, voting against the established political machine can feel like voting against the only fragile networks of support they have. Second, the opposition party has largely failed to present a credible, compassionate alternative. The conservative platform is often presented in a way that feels punitive, culturally alien, or actively hostile to Black voters. When Republicans speak about Chicago, they frequently use it as a rhetorical punching bag to scare suburban voters, rather than presenting a nuanced, invested plan for urban revitalization. Confronted with a choice between a Democratic establishment that offers empty promises of equity and a Republican platform that offers perceived hostility, voters choose the familiar, even if it has failed them. Third, there is a learned helplessness engineered by dependency. Decades of top-down government programs have created a system where survival is tethered to state assistance, which is managed and distributed by the very politicians overseeing the decline. This dependency stifles the organic, grassroots economic development that could otherwise break the cycle of poverty and violence. Moving Beyond the Left-Right Dichotomy: A Moderate Path Forward To break this cycle, we must reject the false choice presented by the political extremes. The progressive left’s refusal to enforce the law is just as destructive as the hard-right’s desire to simply lock up entire communities without addressing economic isolation. A moderate, common-sense approach to saving Black lives in Chicago must be built on three pillars: Constitutional, Proactive Policing: We must rebuild the Chicago Police Department’s ranks and restore proactive, community-oriented policing. We cannot allow arrest rates for homicides to sit at 29%. Victims' families deserve justice, and criminals must face certain, swift consequences. This is not "mass incarceration"; it is the basic execution of the social contract. Targeted Economic Liberalization: We need to turn these failing zip codes into economic opportunity zones by slashing bureaucratic red tape, lowering local tax burdens for small businesses, and incentivizing private capital to invest in the South and West Sides. True civil rights must include the right to economic self-determination, entrepreneurship, and wealth generation. Educational Freedom: The public school system in these neighborhoods is a primary driver of social failure. We must implement robust school choice programs, including vouchers and charter schools, to allow parents in these zip codes to rescue their children from failing, unsafe schools. Education is the ultimate escape route from poverty. Conclusion As a moderate, my commitment to civil rights compels me to speak out against this tragedy. We cannot continue to watch the news from Chicago with a sense of detached resignation. The 210 homicides in the first half of 2026 are not mere statistics; they are parents, children, siblings, and neighbors whose potential was extinguished on the asphalt of Maypole Avenue, Ashland Avenue, and Chicago's West Side. It is time to end the political hypocrisy that treats these lives as expendable casualties of an ongoing ideological war. Until we demand accountability from the politicians who govern these failing zip codes, and until we recognize that the right to physical safety is the first and most vital civil right of all, the blood of Chicago’s children will continue to cry out from its streets—ignored, normalized, and forgotten. Hello, and thanks for listening to my podcast For years, my mission has been to foster a community around engagement, unique takes on interesting stories, and conversation. If you value what I do, please consider supporting me. I've started a GoFundMe to cover my production and operational costs, including those pesky social media fees. 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