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Confusing fear with
respect Lack of opportunities for gaining "proper" respect is the cause of "black gun culture" SIR - I write to respond to Stuart Devereaux’s remarks about the rise in “gun culture”, actually being a rise in “black gun culture” [Feedback, 9 January 2003].His remarks reminded me of a - admittedly somewhat racist – joke I heard many years ago, when virtually all Brits were fair-skinned and the term “political correctness” was unknown: Question: What do you call a black man with a sub-machine gun? Answer: Sir! As human beings, we all need - and crave for, if we do not have it - a sense of belonging to a community in which we feel valued and respected. While a mature person only wants to be respected for the “right” reasons, an immature person just wants to be respected, period; in extreme cases even if he has to carry a gun to get it. A gun – and the readiness to use it – is a very effective way of getting people’s respect is it not? However, that’s confusing “respect” with “fear”, which is exactly what an immature person does. The solution to the problem – in fact, to most of our problems – is to create a society in which there are far more opportunities for people to earn the respect they need for the “right” reasons. Mr Devereaux’s concluding remark that a mother who can tolerate membership of her son in “this type of gang” is worthy of little sympathy for any subsequent loss, I found very heartless. What mother has any choice but to tolerate what her sons and daughters get up to?
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