It was little over a year ago in the wake of ongoing media histrionics when I wrote "The Silent Tragedy Behind Trayvon Martin." I suggested that President Obama was that "silent tragedy" for not using his office and pulpit to speak out against the violence that was plaguing the Black community and challenging its leaders to take action. Little did I suspect that there would be a Part II.

With the July 13 acquittal of George Zimmerman by a Florida jury in the shooting of Trayvon Martin, Al Sharpton and his ilk are once again taking center stage, as they continue to stoke racial animus by selectively describing events and outcomes. No mention is made of the injuries suffered by Zimmerman at the hands of Martin, which prompted the fatal shooting. Instead, the picture painted is one of vigilante justice by angry white men against young, innocent black children. Makes great theater, but factually flawed.

Using my hometown of Chicago again as a microcosm, the carnage has been ongoing for years. The Chicago Police Department's Murder Analysis Report for 2011, the most current on file, shows that of the 433 murders that year, 75.3% of the victims were Black; the most frequent ages of the offenders were 17 and 18 years old; and that 70.5% of the offenders were Black. In 2012, there were 532 murders, 2670 shootings. Thus far in 2013, there have been 209 reported homicides as of July 4 and 1073 shootings as of June 23. This doesn't include the 9 killed, 55 injured over the 4th of July holiday weekend.

Yet despite these statistics, the Black community continues its culture of denial, repeatedly fed this meme by its leaders, celebrities, sports figures, and most especially by its Leaders-in-Chief in the Oval Office and Department of Justice. The communal hypocrisy would be sport in itself were it not a major factor in the ongoing mindset and lives of the Black community. Beyoncé held a moment of silence for Trayvon at her recent concert. Yet, if she were to hold similar moments for all her racial brethren killed in Chicago in the last 2-1/2 years, she'd have to cancel three or four concerts.

President Obama, who lent his political heft in stirring the cauldron for a must-have Zimmerman prosecution and trial, broke his silence with a call to honor Trayvon Martin's memory. Using Rahm Emanuel's favorite expression of not letting a good crisis go to waste, the president weighed in to suggest collective gun control. "We should ask ourselves if we're doing all we can to stem the tide of gun violence that claims too many lives across this country on a daily basis." Really?

A significant portion of the crime problem in the Black community couldn't possibly have its root causes in high unemployment (13.7% vs. 7.6% nationally, with black youth at 42%) due to the Obama administration's economic and social policies; lack of educational choices that voucher programs could abate, were it not for the powerful teachers' union dissent; liberal enablers who continue to gut welfare reform work requirements; or the entertainment industry that glorifies "gangsta" coolness through its rap subculture, but whose entertainers can only be found in the 'hood' when it comes to big-ticket concerts.

The silent tragedy behind Trayvon Martin has gone beyond Barack Obama. The silent tragedy has become the hypocrisy, denial, and self-victimization of the Black community nationwide, aided and abetted only too willingly by politicians hungry for votes, Black leaders hungry for power and the limelight, and Black celebrities hungry for money. For every Dr. Benjamin Carson, there are 10 Al Sharptons. For every Condoleeza Rice, there are 10 Rachel Jeantels, who at 17 years of age can't read. This "victims" meme that began with Reconstruction and should have died with the Civil Rights Act, instead flourishes with the help of a liberal media so invested with political correctness that any honest discourse on the subject is tempered with the fear of being labeled racist or bigot.

The children can't read. The men can't find jobs. The women become mothers too many times with too many fathers. The drug and gang culture explodes. And the silence continues.

Melanie Kowalski blogs under the pen name of PoliticalWoman at her website http://www.political-woman.com/ She can be reached at mailto:politicalwoman@comcast.net