For years I have always questioned the term "Black on Black Crime". Based on facts I've always felt it was a term used to degrade Blacks. The term implies that there is something inherently wrong with Blacks when it comes to violence and crime. As well it implies that whites are a non-violent, level headed bunch. This is far from the truth.
Before I continue to destroy this myth let us ask a few questions that should lead us to shake this foolish notion that we as a people bought into. Why is it that the media and so-called Black leadership and activist use the term "Black on Black Crime" and never qualify it by stating "White on White Crime" statistics? A simple contrast would reveal that is not a fair nor true assessment that Blacks kill each other far more than whites. The term gives the illusion, but is inaccurate.
Why do many of us buy into and/or self-fulfill this and many other stereo types? Why does all the evidence show us that there is clearly bias involved in law enforcement policies concerning Blacks? Despite this some of us still see their own kind as deserving to be shot by police. Let me be clear on this. When you say that it is okay for police to shoot unarmed Blacks or that we should not protest that and feel that Black on Black Crime makes it a non issue I must come to the conclusion that you are ignorant to the facts, a total fool or both.
The media has you hating your own kind and not questioning the bull jive they propagate.
Commissioner Bratton lied when he said that Blacks are turned down by the NYPD because of their criminal records. Even a fool would not go looking for a job with the NYPD when they have a felony record. Most young Black men simply do not want to join the NYPD and the some of the ones who do are turned down for other reasons so they can hire other groups in larger numbers.
Stop an Frisk is a clear violation of the Constitution, but many of you accept it and you are cowards for doing so.
Below are a few articles and some stats/data which I am sure you will find enlightening.
Edward Wycoff Williams, an author, columnist and political analyst for MSNBC, conveyed a reality that many do not seem to know is real. Williams wrote for The Root: “It seems that the media in general and white American society in particular prefer to focus on crime perpetrated by African Americans because it serves as a way to absolve them from the violence, prejudice and institutionalized discrimination engendered for generations against blacks. It offers a buffer against responsibility, a way to shift blame and deflect cause and effect. But the truth, and numbers, tell a different story. At the heart of an increasingly violent society is not a subculture among Blacks, but the violence and criminality of many Americans, and whites in particular. No one seems to speak about this. Why? Because the snake oil was duly purchased and consumed. It is time for race-based pseudo-facts to be challenged and dismantled.”
white-on-white-crime
The Raw Numbers
Statistics are cut-and-dry, and they do not lie. According to the FBI’s most recent homicide numbers available, from 2011, a staggering 83 percent of white murder victims were killed by fellow Caucasians. (Of murders committed by Blacks, only 14 percent were of whites.) And because whites are the majority in the country — there are six times as many whites as there are Blacks — that means they commit the most murders. This could be viewed as startling to many, especially whites, because hardly ever is “white-on-white” crime dissected in the media. As an example, Time magazine’s Joe Klein wrote an entire column recently on crime, focusing on the Black community and calling it a “social disaster.” But there was no mention that whites overwhelmingly are killed by whites, which was typical of media outlets.
Media Misrepresentation
Williams wrote: “The term ‘black-on-black’ crime is a destructive, racialized colloquialism that perpetuates an idea that blacks are somehow more prone to violence. This is untrue and fully verifiable by FBI, DOJ and census data. Yet the fallacy is so fixed that even African Americans have come to believe it.” Indeed, respected columnists like George Will never examine crime by whites, do not use the racialized phrase “white-on-white” crime and give the impression their lives are at risk because of Blacks. The truth, taking FBI data from 2010: Whites killed whites 3,252 times, which was 4.6 times more than the number of whites killed by Blacks.
Violent Crimes
Whites are responsible for the vast majority of violent crimes, according to the FBI. With respect to aggravated assault, whites led Blacks 2-1 in arrests; in forcible-rape cases, whites led all racial and ethnic groups by more than 2-1. And in larceny theft, whites led Blacks, again, more than 2-1. Williams asks: “Given this mathematical truth, would anyone encourage African-Americans to begin shooting suspicious white males in their neighborhoods for fear that they’ll be raped, assaulted or murdered?”
Range of Crimes
The Bureau of Justice Statistics found that compared to Blacks, whites were more likely to kill children, the elderly, family members and their significant others. They commit more sex-related crimes, gang-related crimes and are more likely to kill at their places of employment.
The ‘Monster’ Effect
Amazingly, according to the FBI stats, women committed 36 percent of the murders committed by white people against white people. This number is far higher than you see with Black women. Aileen Wuornos, who was found guilty of killing six men and was later executed in a Florida prison, is widely regarded as the country’s first female serial killer and was the subject of the 2003 film Monster. Wuornos’ murderous run was glorified in the film, and Charlize Theron won an Oscar for Best Actress for the role. Listverse names 10 female serial killers — and all are white.
Historically, Politically Ignored
President Barack Obama and none of the white previous presidents have ever spoken a word about the phenomenon of white-on-white crime. Vox, under the headline, “White-on-White Crime is Out of Control,” says, “Indeed, looking back on America’s political iconography, there are disturbing trends toward the glorification of white violence. Peer inside the US Capitol building, and you’ll find a monument to Confederate Jefferson Davis — the leader of an insurgency that caused an unprecedented quantity of violent white deaths.” Around the country are white mass murderers of Blacks in particular who are memorialized.
Gang Killings
When gang-related killings are referred to on the news, they treat it as an almost exclusively Black problem. However, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, for the period of 1980 to 2008, a majority (53.3 percent) of gang homicides were committed by white offenders, and the majority of gang homicide victims (56.5 percent) were white.
Skewed Characterizations
Crimes committed by whites often are explained in the media as deviations of the individual — “He was such a quiet man; the community is shocked” — but have nothing to do with race. But crimes committed by Blacks or Latinos are somehow attributed to race, with little exception. Gang-bangers from South Chicago have somehow become a symbol that Black men are to be feared, but there is not the same characterization of fear that one could attach to the brutal murders committed by Neo-Nazi skinheads.
The Poverty Argument
Experts and analysts have consistently crafted theories on crime based on income and employment levels. The less you make, the more likely you are to commit crimes, the theory goes. But the number of murders committed by white people specifically in the United States, according to Vox, casts doubt on this. The white population in America is considerably richer than the national average — and yet there are more white murderers.
Sources:
http://callandpost.com/news/2013/aug/16/white-white-crime-more-prevalent-black-black/#.U-0eXu9qWD8.facebook
http://www.blackyouthproject.com/2014/08/report-white-on-white-crime-rate-exceeds-that-of-black-on-black-crime/
http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2012/04/whiteonwhite_crime_it_goes_against_the_false_media_narrative.2.html
http://www.vox.com/2014/8/21/6053811/white-on-white-murder/in/5495477
Click here to see FBI Crime Stats: Expanded Homicide Data Table
1 The ethnicity totals are representative of those agencies that provided ethnicity breakdowns. Not all agencies provide ethnicity data, therefore the race and ethnicity totals will not equal.
2 Includes American Indian or Alaska Native; Asian; Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.
NOTE: This table is based on incidents where some information about the offender is known by law enforcement; therefore, when the offender age, sex, and race are all reported as unknown, these data are excluded from the table.
Don't White People Kill Each Other, Too?
And yet we keep hearing about black-on-black crime because it fits the false media narrative.BY: EDWARD WYCKOFF WILLIAMS
Posted: April 10 2012 12:40 AM
hen it comes to America's racial past and present, lies and snake oil are sold in many colors.
In the wake of the Trayvon Martin tragedy, conservatives in media have sought to deflect from the racism and racial profiling that precipitated his untimely death by referencing the broader social malaise of supposed "black-on-black violence."
On last week's episode of This Week on ABC, Washington Post columnist George Will said that despite the Trayvon tragedy, "150 black men are killed every week in this country," and "about 94 percent of them by other black men."
Will parroted arguments made by many conservatives, his intended point being that black-on-black crime remains the real problem our nation should address. The half-truth he spoke went curiously unchallenged by the panel -- including former White House adviser Van Jones -- largely because the meta-narrative of black-on-black violence is widely accepted in journalistic and political circles.
Bill O'Reilly, the Fox News host and one-man propaganda machine, recently interviewed Columbia University professor Marc Lamont Hill to discuss similar claims from Wall Street Journal contributor Shelby Steele, who wrote in "The Exploitation of Trayvon Martin" that "black teenagers are afraid of other black teenagers, not whites." O'Reilly vehemently defended Steele's premise that the Trayvon Martin case is an anomaly.
"Blacks today are nine times more likely to be killed by other blacks than by whites," Steele wrote. He went on to attack the Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson for "exploiting" Trayvon's death in an effort to promote a "liberal" agenda -- a point that O'Reilly was all too happy to expound.
Steele's perspective, though myopic and misguided, remains pervasive and embedded in the broader social consciousness. This red-herring approach is not new, but in the face of Trayvon's death -- for which there remains no arrest, no charges and no arraignment -- these obstructive tactics require an equal and opposite response.
What Will, Steele and O'Reilly failed to mention is the exacting truth that white Americans are just as likely to be killed by other whites. According to Justice Department statistics (pdf), 84 percent of white people killed every year are killed by other whites.
In fact, all races share similar ratios. Yet there's no outrage or racialized debate about "white on white" violence. Instead, the myth and associated fear of "black on black" crime is sold as a legitimate, mainstream descriptive and becomes American status quo.
The truth? As the largest racial group, whites commit the majority of crimes in America. In particular, whites are responsible for the vast majority of violent crimes. With respect to aggravated assault, whites led blacks 2-1 in arrests; in forcible-rape cases, whites led all racial and ethnic groups by more than 2-1. And in larceny theft, whites led blacks, again, more than 2-1.
Given this mathematical truth, would anyone encourage African Americans to begin shooting suspicious white males in their neighborhoods for fear that they'll be raped, assaulted or murdered? Perhaps George Zimmerman's defenders should answer that question. If African Americans were to act as irrationally as Zimmerman did, would any rationale suffice to avoid arrest?
And why is no consideration given to the fact that Trayvon Martin, and millions of black boys and girls like him, harbor a reasonably founded fear of whites but are hardly ever provided the deference and dignity that victimhood affords?
The term "black on black" crime is a destructive, racialized colloquialism that perpetuates an idea that blacks are somehow more prone to violence. This is untrue and fully verifiable by FBI, DOJ and census (pdf) data. Yet the fallacy is so fixed that even African Americans have come to believe it.
In Michelle Alexander's book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, she explains that the term was coined in the 1980s as American cities underwent transformation as a result of riots, white flight and the onslaught of the drug trade. David Wilson, a professor at the University of Illinois, documents the phenomena in Inventing Black-on-Black Violence. Wilson says that instead of attributing increased crime activity to poverty, inequality and disenfranchisement, the media chose to blame "a supposedly defective, aberrant black culture."
In a 2010 piece published by The Root, "The Myth of Black-on-Black Violence," Natalie Hopkinson opines that journalists should follow the direction of the United Kingdom, where the Guardian newspaper banned the use of the phrase. A Guardian stylebook asked authors to ''imagine the police saying they were investigating an incident of white-on-white violence ... " Hopkinson concludes, "The term 'black-on-black violence' is a slander against the majority of law-abiding black Americans, rich and poor, who get painted by this broad and crude brush."
Trayvon Martin's tragic death reveals the worst ills at play within America's criminal-justice system. Not only was he murdered in large part because of dangerous, persistent stereotypes, but the failure of police to judiciously respond to the crime underscores the inequities that characterize institutionalized racism.
Those who respond to the tragedy by retreating to narratives of black-on-black crime seek to promote it as a defense against an innocent child's violent homicide. This reveals how entrenched the lies have become and how eager too many people are to absolve both Zimmerman's guilt and their own tacit consent.
African-American media and policymakers have been equally complicit in promoting a "black-on-black crime" anecdote, thinking that it could help address some of the community's problems; but what it has actually done is provide support for racial profiling and promote the disproportionate policing of black criminality as "legitimate" and "acceptable." This over-policing has led to disproportionately higher rates of arrests in black communities, reinforcing the idea that blacks commit more crimes.
If we were to talk about "white-on-white crime," then at least we'd be addressing issues like gun violence in a racially neutral way. That doesn't happen because too many Americans remain convinced that black or brown people are the problem. Respected journalists like George Will further perpetuate lies as fact when they make blanket statements that support an ill-conceived narrative.
It seems that the media in general and white American society in particular prefer to focus on crime perpetrated by African Americans because it serves as a way to absolve them from the violence, prejudice and institutionalized discrimination engendered for generations against blacks. It offers a buffer against responsibility, a way to shift blame and deflect cause and effect. But the truth, and numbers, tell a different story.
The myth of black-on-black violence has become a stain on the sociopolitical consciousness and indelibly imbues mindsets as well as public policy. At the heart of an increasingly violent society is not a subculture among blacks but the violence and criminality of many Americans, and whites in particular. No one seems to speak about this. Why? Because the snake oil was duly purchased and consumed. It is time for race-based pseudo-facts to be challenged and dismantled.
Edward Wyckoff Williams is an author, columnist and political analyst for MSNBC and a former investment banker. Follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.
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