It's not significant news to hear of yet another black male being gunned down in a drug related shooting. After all, stuff like this happens everyday. But what if you heard that the victim of such a crime was brilliant young man with an Ivy League education?
Such is the story of Robert Peace. Robert was born to a single mother in the ghettos of Newark, New Jersey. His father dealt drugs and was incarcerated after being convicted of murder when Robert was three. Determined not to see her son allured by the trappings of street life, Jackie Peace worked tirelessly to see to it that her son grew up to be a better than his father was. She worked long hours in cafeterias and kitchens while making time to take her son to the library. Even at an early age, Robert's brilliance emerged earning him the nick-name "the Professor" at the local library.
Aware of the troubled public school system in the area, Jackie scrounged up every bit of finances she could to send her son to a Jesuit high school. Robert excelled academically and in sports as a water polo star, which awed all of his classmates. The charisma and leadership abilities Robert displayed easily made him a magnetic personality, this kid was going places and everyone knew it.
After delivering the keynote address at his high school graduation, he was approached by a wealthy banker with the promise of financial support to whatever school Robert desired.
And so Yale was the destination. All those years of sacrifice, determination, and perseverance on both Robert's and his mother's part had finally paid off. Robert's intellect and charisma shone no less brighter among the Ivy League elite. Jeff Hobbs, author of The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace which chronicles Peace's life, remembered how he looked to Peace to help him navigate through college life.
But Robert sold marijuana. A lot of it. He was the biggest dealer at Yale all the while making straight A's in his classes. It's believed that he made $100,000 by the time he received his degree in biochemistry and molecular biophysics. Upon graduating, Robert traveled to Brazil, leaving most of the money with a family member. When he returned, he found that most of the money had been spent on insignificant items. He returned to the neighborhood he grew in, taking odd jobs. Soon, time began to pass without living up to the promise that so many thought he'd live up to. He returned to dealing to raise money for graduate school, a decision that would cost him his life. He was thirty when he was murdered.
It's really awful that this begins like an inspirational movie and quickly devolves into violence and drug dealing. First, it's awful that I would be inspired by the story to begin with because it implies that you can't expect greatness from people with these problems. It's a subconscious stereotyping that needs to be stopped for truly equal opportunity. Second, it's awful that despite this man's potential and all the hard-work his mother put in, he still got involved in drug dealing. The positive influences he might have had on the world and to level the playing field will never happen. On a side note, I really love your blog and the issues that you write about. Thanks for drawing attention to the issue
ReplyDeleteThere are those who will try to trivialize impact of Peace's death by saying things like, "He was a drug dealer," and "He came from the ghettos". Its kind of appalling. I saw a compilation of headlines once describing various murders of black men, and the headlines always underline some sort of delinquency in their past or a criminal record. Its kind of shocking that even from some seemingly reputable news sources, the portrayal of black victims is very dehumanizing.
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