Did you hear about the 16-year-old boy who was murdered in broad daylight in front of dozens of eye-witnesses? Better yet, did you even care?

On Thursday, Sept. 24th in Chicago, Illinois, Derrion Albert was brutally murdered. Albert was amongst a crowd of many students that were caught in a street brawl a few feet from Christian Fenger Academy High School. 

The people involved in the fight were students attending the school and other people from the nearby neighborhood. A portion of the fight was captured on camera.

The video shows the streets full of chaotic squeals, running and many young people angrily fighting each other. The saddest part of the video shows the murder of Albert.

He was walking by and a person holding a wooden board hit him in the head causing him to collapse. 

When he tried to get up, he was knocked down again and then a mob of other teenagers start beating him and hitting him with a wooden board until he stopped moving.  His assailants then ran away, leaving him to die.

Although this is sad and discomforting to many people, the worst part about it is that no one seems to pay the severity of this situation much attention. So again I will ask you, did you even care?

Too many of our African American men and women hear stories such as these and still sit around and do nothing. As if to say, “that’s their problem, not mine.”The images we see usually leave behind feelings of disgust and sadness; however it never seems to spark feelings of a call to action.

We complain and complain about things we want to see done, or things we want to see brought to attention, yet we never get up and do anything about the things we so “passionately” cried about.

Previous generations understood that the apathy would not stop until someone spoke up about it. And as a result, many young college students began working and put their race on their backs and molding the America we see today.

Even still, 54 years after the death of Emmett Till, no one stops to see how young Albert’s death should be just as relevant as Till’s death. He was a young, honor student who was beaten to death in broad daylight, on camera, in his own neighborhood by a group of gang members. 

And after this, there is no march on Washington. There are no special events going on around campus to bring more attention to the problem, like there were for Jena six.

There aren’t enough students asking the university about student safety and what can be done to make it better. Events such as this happen every day and the educated African Americans of this country sit back and do absolutely nothing.

For example, a recent student survey showed that 86 percent those surveyed knows someone who has been robbed, attacked, raped or murdered on this campus. Yet, very few from that 86 percent even cared enough to stand up and fight against this.

So in the end, we are just as much to blame for this as everyone else. We are too busy sitting around complaining and are opposed to standing up and working.We only speak out about it amongst our friends and family and not to the people who are in control. Today the current generation has the use of the Internet, text messaging, radio, newspaper and do not put it to use.

We make it seem as though it is impossible to talk to someone about things that affect us all. The senseless violence that caused Albert to lose his life has to stop.  The question is who is willing to stop it? The college students of America have to realize that we have a voice and we have power. We have to realize that college is not all about studying, going to class, pledging and partying. 

One of our main focuses should be finding our voice and speaking out.

Our Senate can speak out against our SGA president for mistakes he made, but they failed to address what we need to do for the community’s safety. That is a problem. 

We can speak out on why we feel Gucci Mane should be allowed to perform, but we were nowhere to be found when 9-year-old Sherdavia Jenkins was shot and killed by an AK-47.

We stand up for freedom of speech when asked how do you feel about your cafeteria, but seem to lose our voice when Whitney Mangum, the 21-year-old female who was killed a little bit over a week ago, is brought up in a conversation.

We all cried after Michael Jackson died, but didn’t shed a tear when 22-year-old Torie Carpenter was found shot to death in her home with her two children standing nearby. These people were all killed on senseless acts of violence but we never speak out for them. Why is this?

Have college students become so complacent to the point that we feel that public safety is no longer our responsibility? We judge our campus security/police officers so much for their lack of work, yet we don’t feel it’s our job to take care of ourselves either.

We complain and want everything given to us but we refuse to fight for it. Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” 

Everyone seems to forget that all it takes is one person to help and make a change. But since many of us have become followers, the only leader we might as well look up to are people like Batman and Superman- imaginary superheroes.

We all need a hero, but no one wants to be that hero. Nobody said you have to hold a certain status in order to change the world.

So will we continue to hear stories about Derrion Albert and wait for a happy ending, or will we finally stand up and go out and create our own happy ending? The choice is yours! “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” 

• Martamique Ajoku and Trumaine McCaskill