“From 1994 to 2015, white-on-white violence (down 79%) and black-on-black violence (down 78%) declined at a similar rate.”
This bit of information comes from a report issued in October of 2017 by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics. The title is,
“Race and Hispanic Origin of Victims and Offenders, 2012-15.” This report shows that for a 21 year period of time black on black crime was being reduced. It also shows that most crimes are intra-racial and that whites were victimized by other whites primarily and at approximately the same percentage.
“During 2012-15, there were no differences among white, black, and Hispanic intraracial victimizations reported to police.”
These facts show the utter silliness and nonsense "conservative" whites share relative to the issue of black on black crime. This information shows that black on black crime had been actually reduced over a 2-decade span and that was due to the very hard work of unknown, not so famous blacks toiling in obscurity in cities/towns all over this country. These are the stories that rarely get told by the media.
On August 15, 2013, The Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice published a paper by Mike Males entitled,
“Why the Gigantic, Decades-Long Drop in Black Youth Crime Threatens Major Interests.” The data was basically ignored, even by President Obama. But the implications of this study were so important that it was a dereliction of duty to not make this information widely known to the American public.
Americans tend to create nostalgia about the past. The fact is that the good old days never were. I say that as a black citizen of this country, but the good old days never existed for anyone. Males points this out in his report.
“For nearly all serious and minor offenses, including homicide, rates among black teenagers nationally were lower in 2011 than when racial statistics were first collected nationally in 1964. Black youths’ murder arrest rates are considerably lower today than back when Bill Cosby was funny (long, long ago).
We don’t associate Jim and Margaret Anderson’s 1950s cherubs with juvenile crime—but that’s based on nostalgia and cultural biases, not fact. Back then, nearly 1 in 10 youth were arrested every year; today, around 3 in 100. Limited statistics of the 1950s show juvenile crime wasn’t just pranks and joyriding; “younger and younger children” are committing “the most wanton and senseless of murders… and mass rape,” the chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency warned in 1956.” Whoa! Hold up! Stop! Does this mean that “super predators” existed in the 1950’s? I guess this explains Eddie Haskell.
Definition of fact: 1 a : something that has actual existence. b : an actual occurrence. 2 : a piece of information presented as having objective reality. 3: the quality of being actual. 4: a thing done. b archaic : action. c obsolete: feat
I presented that bit of information in order to display just how members of this society have chosen to accept a fictional account of the country we live in. It has been accepted to such an extent that our police departments have become militarized despite a national decrease in crime. It is a lie so tough that innocent blacks posing no threat to anyone end up in funeral homes. Mike Males article provides evidence of how a racist society builds a strawman then tries turning that straw into skin and bones.
“Since the sainted Fifties, America has seen rapid teenage population growth and dramatic shifts toward more single parenting, more lethal drugs and weapons, increased middle-aged (that is, parent-age) drug abuse and imprisonment, decreased incarceration of youth, decreased youthful religious affiliation, and more violent and explicit media available to younger ages. Horrifying, as the culture critics far Right to far Left—including Obama, who spends many pages and speeches berating popular culture as some major driver of bad youth behavior—repeatedly insist.
And after 50 years of all these terrible changes in American culture? Today’s young African Americans display the lowest rates of crime and serious risk of any generation that can be reliably assessed.
In the last 20 years in particular, the FBI reports, rates of crime among African American youth have plummeted: All offenses (down 47%), drug offenses (down 50%), property offenses (down 51%), serious Part I offenses (down 53%), assault (down 59%), robbery (down 60%), all violent offenses (down 60%), rape (down 66%), and murder (down 82%).”
Mike Males, “Why the Gigantic, Decades-Long Drop in Black Youth Crime Threatens Major Interests”
What the article Males wrote did was expose an American pathology concerning race. Specifically, a white racist pathology that needs for there to be an “other” That “other” must always look different from what the so-called white “mainstream” deems to be normal. This applies to more areas than race, but since this post is about racism in 21st century America, I will apply what I am writing about to race.
There has consistently existed a space in white culture where people have believed in the inherent superiority and human perfection of the white race. Included in this space has been a belief in a natural propensity for violence in blacks. Where that belief came from can’t be based in reality. I am assuming since slaves tended to resist their enslavement that white slaveowners decided that since blacks actually enjoyed their enslavement, those who fought were just naturally prone to violence. Such an assumption sounds crazy, right?
It is crazy but that is what scientific racism taught. Today the remants of such madness continues in books such as
“The Bell Curve”, studies such as,
“The Color of Crime”, or in the belief that all black men are violent and dangerous. This belief has been maintained for so long that information such as what Males discovered remained outside of mainstream information. For example, when Males published his findings in 2013, he wrote:
“FBI clearance and arrest tabulations now indicate black youths under age 18 account for just 2% of the nation’s homicides.” “How did America miss this?” You would think this would be cause for celebration.
I find it laughable what so called “conservatives,” claim the media does not cover. So while people like Limbaugh and most right wing were letting sounds flow from their mouths that reflected long held racist opinions, young blacks were described by Males in this manner:
“Today’s young African Americans display the lowest rates of crime and serious risk of any generation that can be reliably assessed.”
Our country chose to ignore facts. Because that was done, we have seen needless deaths in the black community. A punk like George Zimmerman was able to get away with murder because he believed he could push a tale of the young, violent black thug who endangered his life so he had to stand his ground. It allowed a 6’4, 220 pound, 25 year old cop named Darren Wilson, to claim he felt like a child compared to the strength of a teenage boy. The sorry reality is that in both instances a particular portion of white America fell for these sad tales, including one jury and one grand jury.
