The killing of Derrion Albert

On September 24, a 16 year-old Chicago youth by the name of Derrion Albert was beaten to death in a large street fight at the end of a school day. The brutal death was caught on video by another student. Most of the teenagers involved, about 50 students, attended Christian Fenger Academy High School. According to those who were interviewed, Derrion was drawn into the fight as he walked to his city bus stop and he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. There were no grudges against him by his attackers. Four teenagers are now being held without bond with first degree murder charges for this killing.
According to the Chicago Tribune, there have been repeated fights on the streets involving Fenger students. The students are specifically from two neighborhoods. One is close to the school, called Roseland or the “ville” and the other is located five miles away, separated by a complex of railroad and industrial complexes. This development is called Altgeld Gardens, and it is the largest public housing project in Chicago. The reason the Altgeld Gardens teenagers are students at this particular school that is so far away is because their local school was transformed into a selective-enrollment military academy by the Chicago Public School board. Little attention was paid to integrating the two groups of students. This is not surprising since the students are from poor African-American communities that no one cares about outside of these neighborhoods until the violence explodes onto the national scene via television or the internet.
Most commentary on the graphic video of Darrion’s murder has focused on the “senselessness” of this brutal act which allowed most people to avoid facing the brutality, violence and horrific poverty that has led to the social collapse of many neighborhoods in the city, all factors in this "senseless death". This particular situation is also intimately connected to governmental policies related to education that have been implemented over many years. Dozens of schools have been closed with a forced displacement of thousands of students into huge consolidated schools, which is the cause of the underlying violence between Altgeld Gardens and Roseland students. At least 5 Chicago teenagers have died and 7 others have been wounded in similar violence since the beginning of the school year a few months ago. It is also important to know that Fenger is one of the worst performing schools in the city with a graduation rate of “33% and only 38% of those that do graduate go on to college” (Fangmann & Spencer, 2009).
The larger crisis confronting Chicago youth involves the social and economic destruction of the working class neighborhoods in the city. The Roseland neighborhood where this murder occurred has an unemployment rate of “19.7%” even before the latest economic crisis. “98.8% of Fenger High School students come from low income families” (Fangmann et al., 2009). There have also been decades of factory closures, decaying public housing with little access to shopping or transportation, and heavy pollution by nearby landfills and toxic facilities in these neighborhoods.

“According to the latest Forbes richest Americans list, there are 18 billionaires with a combined net worth of 35 billion dollars in the Chicago area” (Fangmann et al., 2009).

In a democracy, many people believe that we all receive an equal start in our lives. The truth is that the actual worth of a child depends on what their family status is that includes the wealth of the family, color and ethnic and cultural factors. Those with economic and political power and status in a community or society are the individuals that make the decisions and define who and what is important, who has worth, and who gets labeled or blamed.
As social workers, problem solvers or social movement participants, we should draw on community strengths, engage others to become involved in projects or actions, build relationships to affect change, formulate goals and action plans and include those that are often ignored and oppressed. Community building is essential in creating healthy changes which is a process built on “principles of reciprocity, respect, inclusiveness and accountability” (Hardcastle & Powers, 2004). Asset building is an important theme in revitalization of communities which focuses on strengths and resiliency in the areas of housing, financial resources, and living wages. Community building also includes identifying individual leadership assets, cultural assets and existing community assets in order to affect healing and positive change.