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REMEMBERING -
Two National Tragedies—One Remembered, One Ignored
On September 11, 2001, the world stopped as America mourned nearly 3,000 lives lost in a single day of terror. It became our nation’s defining tragedy, immortalized with monuments, memorials, and military campaigns. Yet another 9/11 has unfolded in silence, year after year: the epidemic of violence claiming the lives of young Black males in America, ages 1 to 44. Statistically, they are 50 times more likely to die violently at home than a U.S. soldier is in ‘Afghanistan.’ This reality—dubbed “Blackghanistan”—represents a Ground Zero of its own, where Black male homicides consistently outpace combat deaths, but without the national response, the flags at half-staff, or the promises of “never again.” It is a trauma equally urgent, yet too often ignored.
A Day America Never Forgot
September 11, 2001, was my generation’s Pearl Harbor. As a graduate student at Louisiana Tech University that Tuesday morning, I sat watching in disbelief as the Twin Towers collapsed on live television. Nearly 3,000 Americans were murdered. That day, our nation promised we would “Never Forget.” In the weeks and years that followed, America spent trillions of dollars and deployed hundreds of thousands of troops to Afghanistan and Iraq. We built a security infrastructure that has, remarkably, prevented another large-scale foreign terrorist attack on U.S. soil for more than two decades. Our government mobilized. Our citizens united. The American military and intelligence communities did their job.
But while we remembered 9/11, another domestic terror was already raging—one that has yet to receive the same urgency, funding, or legislative response.
Blackghanistan: A War Zone at Home
African American males have been killed in greater numbers domestically than American troops were in Afghanistan from 2001–2021. In 2001, the very year foreign terrorists struck America, over 6,446 Black people—5,350 of them Black males—were murdered in the United States by domestic terrorists according to FBI unified crime reports. That was more than double the death toll of 9/11. Yet there were no nationally televised vigils, no monuments in Washington, D.C., and no “Never Forget” pledge.
Since that year, over 153,000 Black males have been homicide victims in the U.S.—the murder equivalent of 51 combined 9/11 attacks. While serving as Director of the Derek Olivier Research Institute (DORI) for the Prevention of Violence at Arkansas Baptist College, I compared Black male homicide rates with U.S. military deaths overseas. The results were staggering. From 2001 to 2021, about 2,459 American soldiers were killed in Afghanistan. In that same 20-year span, 128,000 Black males were murdered on U.S. soil. Statistically, a Black male in America was 51 times more likely to be killed here than a soldier deployed in Afghanistan.
Think about that: Afghanistan—long considered a war zone—was safer for our troops than America’s own neighborhoods are for Black males ages 1 to 44. That’s why the phrase “Blackghanistan” has been used to denote the comparisons in deaths of black males in the U.S. vs. American servicemembers in Afghanistan.
This is not abstract data. In 2012, a promising Arkansas Baptist College freshman named Derek Olivier was shot and killed while changing a tire near campus, days before his 20th birthday. His murder gave birth to DORI, the first institute in the nation at any HBCU dedicated solely to studying and solving Black male homicides. We do not dishonor our soldiers by making this comparison. Both the U.S. Armed Forces and America’s Black communities are filled with brave men and women. But the reality is unavoidable: America will mobilize to fight terror abroad while neglecting terror at home. The cost comparison alone tells the story. The U.S. spent $300 million per day for 20 years in Afghanistan, totaling $2.3 trillion according to Brown University’s Costs of War project. Meanwhile, Black communities received only scraps for prevention, reentry, or mentorship. While an average of three U.S. soldiers were killed per week in Afghanistan, 18 to 24 Black males are killed per day in America. DORI calculated that one black male is murdered every 50 minutes to 1 hour and 20 seconds.
This is not just a crime problem. It is a national security problem. It is also a moral failure. As Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan once wrote in 1970, America’s approach to Black suffering has too often been one of “benign neglect.” But there is nothing benign about 153,000 deaths in the 24 years since September 11, 2001.
A Biblical Mandate for Justice
According to Scripture, America must first repent for the unjust systems that have long cultivated violence in Black communities. “Woe to those who make unjust laws… to deprive the poor of their rights” (Isaiah 10:1–2). Redlining, underfunded schools, polluted neighborhoods, discriminatory policing, and economic exclusion are not accidents but deliberate policies rooted in white supremacy. A faithful response requires dismantling those structures and restoring equity in housing, education, health, and employment. As Proverbs 29:7 reminds us, “The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern.”
At the same time, Scripture demands personal accountability. Black males must reject the modern Cain-and-Abel tragedy of fratricide, for “your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground” (Genesis 4:10). Yet the path forward is not punishment alone—it is justice, mercy, and restoration. “Act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). That means investing in real solutions: job opportunities, apprenticeships, entrepreneurship, education, STEAM, politics, farming, banking, and law enforcement pipelines. Just as America spent trillions to secure itself from foreign terror after 9/11, a righteous nation would invest with the same urgency to secure Black life from domestic terror at home.
Solutions: America Mobilized After 9/11—We Must Mobilize Now
After 9/11, the U.S. created the Department of Homeland Security, revamped aviation security, built coalitions, and spent trillions to prevent another attack. The question today is: can we show that same commitment to saving Black lives?
Here’s how:
- Job Opportunities & Career Pathways – Large-scale federal and state investments in workforce pipelines, internships, and trade programs. Just as the military provided a career ladder for thousands, government and business must do the same in urban and rural America.
- Entrepreneurship & Small Business Support – Microloans, grants, and accelerators in Black communities that match what America spent rebuilding foreign economies. If we could invest billions in Afghanistan’s banking system, we can invest millions in Little Rock, Chicago, or Memphis.
- Apprenticeships & Assistanceships – Modeled after ROTC and GI Bill benefits, create tracks in law enforcement, construction, health care, and STEAM fields that actively recruit young Black males.
- Education & College Access – Expand scholarships, graduate fellowships, and tuition assistance programs. We must make higher education as accessible as military service.
- Farming & Land Development – Restore agriculture as a path to ownership and stability in communities often denied generational wealth.
- Politics & Leadership Training – Encourage civic engagement, training young Black men as leaders who can influence policy from city councils to Congress.
If $300 million a day was justified to fight terror abroad, surely a fraction of that—say, $1 million per day, $365 million annually—could be invested to stop the epidemic of homicides at home. This is not charity. It is prevention. It is national security. It is the difference between neglect and national responsibility.
Finally
As we remember the 3,000 who perished on 9/11, let us not ignore the over 5,000 Black males murdered that same year in 2001, or the average of 6,000 Black fratricides (males) annually, totaling roughly 153,000 murders since 9/11/2001. We honored our soldiers. Now we must honor our American sons, dads, and brothers at home. America found the will and the wallet to keep foreign terrorists from striking again. The same resolve is needed to confront domestic terror—Black fratricides—that continues to claim American lives every single day. The war overseas has ended in Afghanistan. The war in Blackghanistan, USA, rages on. You have the statistics—now let’s seek solutions.
And I’m not talking about building more prisons.
(Edmond W. Davis is a Social Historian, Speaker, Collegiate Professor, International Journalist, and former Director of the Derek Olivier Research Institute. He is an expert on various historical and emotional intelligence topics. He’s globally known for his work as a researcher of the Tuskegee Airmen and Airwomen. He’s the Founder and Executive Director of America’s first & only National HBCU Black Wall Street Career Fest. Justice Hampton is a native of Mississippi and a former research assistant at the Derek Olivier Research Institute (DORI) at Arkansas Baptist College.)
