Do Better is an op-ed column by writer Lincoln Anthony Blades that debunks fallacies regarding the politics of race, culture, and society — because if we all knew better, we'd do better.

The shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, in Parkland, Florida, which claimed 17 lives, is symptomatic of the plague of mass gun violence in the United States.

Students from Stoneman Douglas responded powerfully to the loss of life in displays of courage that exemplified what kids are capable of. These teens started a campaign online and off — #NeverAgain — after witnessing the slaughter of their friends and faculty, amid funerals, and while reckoning with their own mental, physical, and emotional wounds. In the days following the shooting, student-led, anti-gun rallies were organized and successfully carried out around the country. On February 17, Stoneman Douglas survivors held a rally in Fort Lauderdale. On February 20, over 100 teens from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School traveled to Tallahassee to rally and meet with lawmakers who — just prior to the students arriving — voted down a bill that would have banned semiautomatic guns and large-capacity magazines in the state. And on February 21, students from high schools in Broward and Miami-Dade counties walked out of their classrooms in protest to advocate for effective gun-law proposals. Some even participated in President Donald Trump's "listening session", during which survivors of the shooting told their stories and offered their ideas on policies that could prevent further tragedies. The #NeverAgain students have also planned a rally called March for Our Lives, which is scheduled for March 24 in Washington D.C., and in sister cities around the country.

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The teens from Parkland who've volunteered to speak with reporters and in front of cameras have eloquently and pointedly stated why they believe gun control laws are needed. They've repeatedly taken on the National Rifle Association (NRA) directly.

The response to these students has included an extensive outpouring of love and support from many, including celebrities.

Even Oprah Winfrey announced her support and that she would be donating $500,000 to the March for Our Lives gun control rally, saying, "These inspiring young people remind me of the Freedom Riders of the ’60s, who also said we’ve had ENOUGH and our voices will be heard." Her donation matched a donation from George and Amal Clooney.

In response to Winfrey's tweet, Charlene Carruthers, the national director at Black Youth Project 100, an activist organization focused on "creating justice and freedom for all Black people," tweeted, "Gosh. This is amazing. And I'm not being sarcastic. I have to be honest and say that I'm a bit taken aback (and a bit hurt) that those of us who were in the streets in the past five years for Black lives didn't receive this type of reception or public support."

Her point was expounded upon by others, who explained that young black people have been fighting to save lives through gun reform laws for years without the support and energy given to the Stoneman Douglas students. In fact, black youth, who've been passionately advocating for gun control measures, have been demonized, obfuscated, and overlooked. In 2015, Winfrey said in an interview with People, “I think it’s wonderful to march and to protest, and it’s wonderful to see all across the country, people doing it. What I’m looking for is some kind of leadership to come out of this to say, ‘This is what we want. This is what has to change, and these are the steps that we need to take to make these changes, and this is what we’re willing to do to get it.’ ”

But demands were clear, made by many factions within the collective movement for black lives — a group disproportionally impacted by gun violence. These organizations, largely centered around anti-violence, have been led mostly by young black women and black teens — and not only in recent years. Through different groups, across different cities, they have been organizing anti-violence rallies, have been meeting with presidential candidates, proposing policy ideas, participating in national debates, and organizing intensely to advocate for more equitable state and federal gun laws that impact black and brown people. They put forward policy strategies to curb violence, looking for reform and accountability in policing, especially concerning the lethal use of force by guns.

Black Lives Matter, perhaps the most well-known and visible of these organizations, was conceived in 2013 as a response to the acquittal of the man who fatally shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, a black teenager who lived and died in central Florida, about three hours away from Parkland. After Martin was shot, the Dream Defenders, a student-lead group fought tirelessly with a straight-forward and well-articulated goal, demanding that lawmakers repeal the state’s “stand your ground” law. They even organized a weeks-long sit-in at the Florida Capitol.

They took on the NRA, too. After a dramatic ad from the group was released last year, featuring their spokeswoman Dana Loesch (who more recently met with the Parkland teens in a live town hall hosted by CNN, the Black Lives Matter chapter in Los Angeles released a direct response: "We will continue to produce media, teach students, march, and protest to not only protect the First Amendment as fiercely as the NRA protects the Second, but to protect our lives from gun-toting racists," their video said.

Black activists have been on the front lines for years in the fight for gun control reform as it relates to crime in their own neighborhoods. As crime rose in black urban communities from the 1960s to the 1990s — largely tied in the 1980s and 1990s to the crack epidemic and rampant increase in gang violence that came with it — anti-violence black activist groups were formed, including the Newark Anti-Violence Coalition, the Crown Heights Community Mediation Center, and the Wear Orange campaign, which was started by black teens in Chicago, who were close friends with Hadiya Pendleton, a 15-year-old, who was shot and killed on January 29, 2013, shortly after performing in President Barack Obama's inauguration parade. Black activists are unduly burdened by the task of balancing the urgent desire for reform with resisting calls for over-policing, too, as demonstrated and explained by Amber Goodwin, who created the Community Justice Reform Coalition, a national advocacy coalition that "promotes and invests in evidence-based policies and programs to prevent gun violence and uplift criminal justice reforms in urban communities of color."

Young black activists have been in the streets advocating for gun reform for decades without much attention or mass appeal, but that doesn't mean they don't exist, or that they work without leadership, or that their demands are unclear. While we celebrate the success of the Stoneman Douglas teens, it's crucial to examine which progressive movements are embraced and legitimized — considered worthy of a passionate public response and united steely resolve — and which are received with skepticism, restraint, and apprehension. And why that might be.

Related: Call the Florida Shooting What It Is: Terrorism

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