OPINION: Homecoming should not mean homegoing

By Rita Brent

JA Guest Writer

If you were to check my group chat right now, you’ll see that I said that I had a heavy feeling in my spirit that I did not think I needed to be out and about homecoming weekend. Call it discernment; call it God speaking to me through my gut. I ain’t need to be out homecoming weekend. 

I went out with my line sisters and while I’m out with them, the reports started coming in. There’s a shooting at Alcorn. One person is dead, and others are injured. The day before, there was a shooting in Heidelberg, Mississippi – two are dead [make that three as of Tuesday]. Then a shooting in Leland, Mississippi. Six dead. A shooting in the tailgate area of Jackson State – an 11-year-old was shot in the abdomen. I just read that there was a shooting at LSU – two injured. Additionally, there was a shooting the same weekend at South Delta High School in Rolling Fork, where one person was shot.

Homecoming should not mean homegoing. 

If you are angry; if you don’t have self-control; if your temperament is poor; if you can’t hold your liquor; if you are combative; if you are argumentative; stay at home. Leave innocent people out of your mess. People are getting killed, injured through crossfire. That means I have nothing to do with what you have going on. But now my life that had value; people’s lives that had value; children who have not even had the privilege of growing up yet, they are now dead. Because you’re drunk. Because you don’t understand conflict resolution. You have no tactics, no techniques to self-soothe when you get angry because you think violence is the answer to everything. It is ridiculous what we are seeing right now. And is it new? No, but it has another face and another name. 

What comes to me is all throughout history, we have fought against abuse and violence by oppressors. Now in the present, we are doing the work of oppressors. They don’t have to do anything. They are still doing what they do. But now we are just assisting them. This is preposterous. And what’s even more sickening is folks’ recording. I’m looking through the reports of the Leland shootings, and there’s video of dead people on the ground, videos of fights. And instead of people breaking them up, they are instigating. Where is the moral compass? Where is the ethical compass? Where is the integrity? Where is the self-respect? Where is the self-awareness? Where is the give a d***. Stay your mad self at the house.

Stop taking out your issues, your trauma, on people who have done nothing to you. And this is not up for debate. I don’t wanna hear excuses. I don’t wanna hear that. I’m open to solutions, but I don’t want to hear excuses. People are dying; children are dying. Mothers and fathers are dying. Grandmothers and uncles, everybody’s dying. Everybody’s getting killed. And for what? They are dying in vain.

We need solutions, not excuses. Homecoming shouldn’t mean homegoing. 

Y’all be safe in these streets. And one more point. Do y’all still think gun laws don’t matter? Do you still think gun control doesn’t matter? I put up a status recently about being in basic training and we had a whole month full of training on our weapons. It was an M16, I think. We had a whole month full of training on our weapons, just in case we went to war. Now I was an Army Bands person, so there was literally zero chance that I was going to war. But I was taught in basic training just in case. I was taught how to work a gun, how to load it, how to unload it, how to clean it, what to do if it jams, how to aim it, how to shoot it, how to program it to where it works to my eyesight. But you got folks out here with no training, and absolutely no business with a weapon, who have access to all the weapons and all variations of them too. You know nothing about mental acuity or mental state of mind. You know nothing about that. Don’t even care. A background check is too much. Huh? All the information we give and all the contracts we sign to download an app or get a phone. But you don’t wanna give background information before distributing a deadly weapon? Make it make sense. 

We are in very, very problematic times. It is concerning. It is sickening. My heart hurts; my stomach hurts. I don’t know what the way forward is. If y’all have solutions, not excuses in the comments, I’m open to ‘em. Other than that, we ain’t got nothing to talk about. Rest in peace to all the people who have lost their lives. Just trying to be out in the world, having a good time among friends and loved ones. Now instead of planning an after party or planning going to church or planning going back to school, folks are planning funerals. Make it make sense. 

Editor’s Note: Rita Brent is a veteran, social media influencer, and hosts “Late Night with Rita Brent” on WDBD Fox 40.