I see many references to black-on-black crime from people who never before seemed to be concerned, and I see a lot of my friends and favorite writers responding to it, but I have yet to see a response that I think sufficiently educates and corrects those who want to turn the media attention over racism-motivated deaths into a problem with black people. Let me craft my own attempt here. Ta-Nehisi Coates, Brittney Cooper, Mychal Denzel Smith have all published very good pieces explaining why Black-on-Black crime is not a real thing (and there is at least one book devoted to the subject), if anyone is interested in researching themselves. For many of you, I wont hold my breath. But it has been shown over and over that intraracial violence is a statistical fact not exclusive to black people. While black people kill each other at a rate just over 90%, white people kill each other at a rate in the mid-80 percentile. Much of the rest of the difference in the numbers can be accounted for by remnants of housing discrimination--black people, on average, are far more confined to segregated communities than are white people, and therefore will find themselves being victims of violence to people of their own race at a higher clip. So, no, black-on-black crime as defined in this sense is not a real phenomenon. What people REALLY mean when they malign our so-called anemic response to black-on-black crime, is that black people are killing each other left and right, yet we do not have as strong a response to all of the criminals among us as we do the George Zimmermans. The rate of crime within black communities IS much higher than many other communities, this cannot be denied. It is a truth that has been a prominent concern, from the least political among us, to the President of the United States himself. Still, the assumption that black activists have not taken an interest in this troubling trend continues to be debunked by listing the rallies and conferences attended by Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and initiatives begun by grassroots organizations to dissuade our young people from resorting to violence. This, in my opinion, does not go far enough. For while direct, one-to-one responses to inner city crime are evidence that black leaders DO care about our intraracial crime rate, this assumes that our crime rate is a result of some cultural deficit that can be resolved by praying and holding a press conference, and properly shaming our young people. In reality, black activists have been attempting to curb black-on-black violence in a far more visible way since we first gained our freedom: legislatively. Black voters vote for politicians who claim to understand that the crime rate is a function of concentrated poverty, institutionalized racism, escalated and disproportionately applied policing measures in black neighborhoods, unemployment, and a host of other social ills that have propagated themselves since the end of slavery and the great migration of black people to the North and West. Our near monolithic support for the Democratic Party reflects our fervent belief that black quality of life will only improve if the root causes of community violence and economic depression are seriously addressed. That our once-enlightened elected officials and our consistently antagonistic conservative friends choose to resort to hand-wringing and finger wagging while white people are watching is not a function of our apathy; it is an indictment of the rest of you. We care about black-on-black violence, every day. Maybe if you started, something would get done.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 15:29:58 +0000
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