No doubt you've heard of the murder of Rashawn Brazell, the 19-year-old Brooklyn resident whose body was grotesquely hacked apart and found in several pieces across Brooklyn around mid-February. I didn't hear word about it until early this month through one of Donald's entries, and then later through Larry and Steven's posts.

A gruesome homicide. An innocent kid. Police are baffled, and the killer is still on the lam. Normally, the media would eat this up like jackals to carrion, but there hasn't been a major television news network which has talked about the murder. There haven't been any PrimeTime specials, CBS investigations or 20/20 exclusives. In short, there has been more talk and awareness of this through the blogosphere than through local or national media outlets.

Hello? Is this thing on?

I feel like I shouldn't be surprised. Have you seen any TV reports about Sakia Gunn? Or Jakhema Princess Hansen? Should African-Americans still be surprised that in 2005, mainstream media still doesn't give a shit about talking about these kinds of incidents when a person of color is the topic? (Not so) surprisingly enough, even Gay.com turns up nothing when a search is done for Mr. Brazell (similar for Southern Voice and Queer Day, but the New York Blade does have a blurb about it.) But you'd better believe they'll drag Mathew Shepard's corpse out one more time and circle jerk around it in the name of "equal representation".

More than anything though, it's scary. It's rumored that Brazell was going to meet a man the day he was killed:

After interviewing the victim’s friends and relatives, it became clear that the handsome, ambitious young man, well liked by his neighbors and friends, had left home on the morning of Valentine’s Day, ostensibly to file his taxes. Apparently, Brazell had made arrangements to also meet a man, but had not disclosed that appointment to his mother, Desire Brazell, with whom he lived. Police said that the victim’s friends have told investigators that the two men were planning to go away for a few days. “We’re not certain if [Brazell] ever made it to their meeting,” said a police official. “But, if he did, then this guy is important.”

There's no telling how Brazell met or knew this alleged man; some articles speculate that it was from a telephone chat line or Internet chat room, which adds fuel to the already huge fire of the discovery of Mr. Brazell's body parts. And while gay dating through those venues are hardly ever safe (I know from personal experience), just throwing that notion out sparks another growing fear which needs to be addressed, but probably won't.

I honestly don't know what to do. But talking about it is the first step to understanding, and hopefully, coming together as a community.