Summary Of Tom Dents Ritual Murder

“NOPD: Fatal shooting in New Orleans East,” “One wanted, one sought in New Orleans East double murder” , “Brazen daylight double shooting in French Quarter rattles residents.” Headlines such as these appear daily on the news and media outlets in the New Orleans area. Constantly, people talk about how New Orleans is one of the most dangerous cities in the United States of America, with a “murder rate 20% higher than Detroit and nine times higher than cities like New York and San Francisco.” But why is it that so many, if not the majority, of the news stories involve members of they city’s African-American poor? In Tom Dents’ play, Ritual Murder, he tries to uncover the reasoning behind why so many of New Orleans poor African-American citizens

At first it is confusing to think why a person would commit such an act towards a person who is not even a part of the oppressor group. It is the concept that the African-American poor of the area have no way to release this built up anger on the oppressor group, so instead it results in the freeing of anger on each other in the form of violent crimes. This is the idea that Dr.Brayboy states in the play when he says, “when a people who have no method of letting off steam against the source of their oppression exploit against each other, homicide, under these conditions, is a form of group suicide.” The idea that because there is no other outlet, these violent crimes are committed upon people who are not a part of the oppressor group and many have actually experienced the same type of oppression themselves, is what helps explains why there are so many instances of these acts of an African-American poor committing a crime against other African-American poor. Not only are these African-American poor victims of oppression, they are victims of the violent crimes that result as a release of anger from that

killing his friend James Roberts. This play is a stark example of how when built up anger and rage cannot be released upon the group or thing causing that anger, many times the explosion is released upon individuals that are not necessarily connected to the situation. The history of the United States of America has countless examples of the oppression of African-Americans, and even though advancements have been made concerning this, there is still not equality between the people of this country. These violent crimes of African-American poor against other African-American poor are a direct result of these people not being able to efficiently and effectively release pent up anger associated with this oppression. It results in the members of the African-American poor being both perpetrators and victims, without any real consequences for the oppressor group. In order to begin to solve this problem we must look at the real root of the cause, not simply the “little sparks” that cause these violent crimes, but the reason for the built up anger that causes the