Leonard Pitts Jr: Let’s talk about black-on-black violence...

stringer bell
stringer bell Members Posts: 26,212 ✭✭✭✭✭
miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/leonard-pitts-jr/article4187602.html
OK, fine. Let’s talk about “black on black” crime.

That, after all, is where the conversation seems to inevitably turn whenever one seeks to engage a conservative on the American habit of shooting unarmed African-American boys and men. So it was exasperating, but nowhere near surprising, to see former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani go there last week on Meet The Press.

Asked by host Chuck Todd, during a discussion of the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Mo., about the fact that African-American communities like that one are often served by snow white police departments, he offered some perfunctory words about the effort to produce more representative cop shops. But then Giuliani took a sharp turn off topic and into the brambles. “I find it very disappointing,” he told Todd, “that you’re not discussing the fact that 93 percent of blacks in America are killed by other blacks....I would like to see the attention paid to that that you are paying to this.”

There followed a sharp exchange with another panelist, author and professor Michael Eric Dyson, which produced this parting shot from the mayor: “The white police officers wouldn’t be there if you weren’t killing each other.”

Somehow, he managed not to call Dyson “you people.” In nearly every other respect, Giuliani’s words reeked of a paternalistic white supremacy unworthy of a former mayor of America’s largest city — or even a sewer worker in its remotest Podunk. But again, this has become the go-to “reasoning” for those on the right — Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs, Rush Limbaugh — when asked to give a damn about the killings of unarmed black boys and men.

That formulation is false for multiple reasons.

In the first place, being concerned over the shooting of unarmed black men hardly precludes being concerned over violence within the African-American community. Giuliani and others suggest a dichotomy where none exists.

In the second place, they ignore the obvious: When black people commit crimes against black people, they face prosecution, but when police officers (or certain neighborhood watchmen) commit crimes against black people, they face getting off with little if any punishment.

In the third place, what exactly is “black on black” crime?

Do black people ? one another? Sure they do. Ninety percent of black murder victims are killed by black assailants.

But guess what? White people ? one another, too. Eighty-three percent of white victims are killed by white assailants. See, the vast majority of violent crime is committed within — not between — racial groups. Crime is a matter of proximity and opportunity. People victimize their own rather than drive across town to victimize somebody else.

So another term for “black on black” crime is, crime.

But there is crime and there is crime.

Redlining, loan discrimination and predatory mortgages have stripped generations of wealth from the African-American community. What is that if not robbery?

The Republican Party practices policies of voter suppression. That’s the assault and battery of African-American political rights.

Mass incarceration criminalizes the very existence of black men and boys. That’s the ? of equal justice.

Unarmed people are killed by those who are purportedly there to protect and serve them and the “just us” system looks the other way. That’s the murder of basic human rights.

It is touching that Giuliani and others are so concerned about black on black crime. But African Americans have also been long oppressed by what might be called “America on black” crime.

When do you suppose they’ll be ready to talk about that?

Comments

  • kzzl
    kzzl Members Posts: 7,548 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Article has the same points I'd make.

    Another thing to mention is how the police exploit black on black crime. Only two people get away with crime in the black community. The ones that don't get caught and the ones working with the police.
  • leftcoastkev
    leftcoastkev Members Posts: 6,232 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited December 2014
    Stiff wrote: »
    The very existence of the term "Black on Black crime" is in itself evidence of a racial bias.

    Labeling something is very effective.

    Once you label something, people feed into it and give it power and validity, even if it's not real.

    Us black folk need to start stepping our propaganda and dis/Mis-information game up.

    It's a war going on now and as in the Art of War the last resort is physical combat.

    All warfare is based on Deception. It's part of the science.
  • Stiff
    Stiff Members Posts: 7,723 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Stiff wrote: »
    The very existence of the term "Black on Black crime" is in itself evidence of a racial bias.

    Labeling something is very effective.

    Once you label something, people feed into it and give it power and validity, even if it's not real.

    Us black folk need to start stepping our propaganda and dis/Mis-information game up.

    It's a war going on now and as in the Art of War the last resort is physical combat.

    All warfare is based on Deception. It's part of the science.

    YES. There's a reason why the Isreali government pays college students to post pro-israel stances on message boards and in the comment sections of news stories. They want to have complete control of the narrative at ALL TIMES on every level, from the ground up.
  • kzzl
    kzzl Members Posts: 7,548 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited December 2014
    Another thing is that all races commit crimes against each other, as mentioned before. Latinos, Whites, Etc. So why are we not seeing other races affected in the same way? Why are only black people shot on sight for committing crimes?

    We're not even the highest percentage of the population, but we're the ones quintupling the prisons while other races commit crimes at the same rates?

    And hasn't black on black crime dropped by like 50% over these recent years anyway?

    And even if we're talking about people committing crimes, the protesting is for blacks who were murdered while committing no crime.

    And since when is cops carrying out the death penalty in the streets considered justifiable for non-violent offenses? Apparently, it's only when blacks are killed according to Amerikkka.

    Paid leave, donations, celebrity status, and no reprimands. The obvious disregard for black life and political stance mirrors the Casual Killings Act of the antebellum. We're suppose to be better than that, yet instead they've upped it into a ? -A-? Lottery. All because blacks are killing each other? What, their mad we're cutting in on they action?

    Oh, we can definitely talk about black on black crime.
  • Copper
    Copper Members Posts: 49,532 ✭✭✭✭✭
    the next time a black person murders a white I want a troll to come on some show like CNN or FOX and say "lets talk more about school shootings, ? labs or Identity theft"
  • BelovedAfeni
    BelovedAfeni Members Posts: 8,647 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Jordin Sparks newmixtape is pretty good
    Should have been an album

    Im stuck between Keyshia Cole or K. Michelle for my next purchase
  • Darth Sidious
    Darth Sidious Members Posts: 2,507 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I keep hearing this whenever this topic comes up..

    'Do black people ? one another? Sure they do. Ninety percent of black murder victims are killed by black assailants. But guess what? White people ? one another, too. Eighty-three percent of white victims are killed by white assailants'


    I am not sure if people are being willfully dumb on this topic or just dumb so I am going to keep posting this.

    Leading Causes of Death For Males ( CDC 2010 )

    http://www.cdc.gov/men/lcod/2010/LCODrace_ethnicityMen2010.pdf


    Table E. Deaths and percentage of total deaths for the 10 leading causes of death,

    http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr62/nvsr62_06.pdf

    Leading Causes of Death ( Ranked )(US) Page 12 of 977

    Whites - Homicide - 22nd Most Frequent Causes of Death
    Hispanic - Homicide - 11th Most Frequent Causes of Death
    Black - Homicide - 8th Most Frequent Causes of Death


    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dominic-carter/giuliani-was-correct-blac_b_6213270.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592

    008_dominic_carter-300x300.jpg

    But I must return to my overall point that Giuliani is correct about the problem of black-on-black crime. I have to admit that my major eye-opening experience regarding this serious problem came only just recently. I sat down to do a TV interview with former New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who was defending the NYPD's controversial crime-fighting tactic of "stop and frisk." That's when Kelly told me that over 90 percent of murder victims in New York City are African-American, and the person who pulled the trigger is almost always African-American.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7MAO7McNKE




  • 2stepz_ahead
    2stepz_ahead Guests, Members, Writer, Content Producer Posts: 32,324 ✭✭✭✭✭
    youkill those you are most likely around the most
  • playmaker88
    playmaker88 Members Posts: 67,905 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Id sure love these Cacs to come up with some comprehensive appproach to better black lives since they are so well intentioned and care so much..


    I hope all the idiots whk subscribe to that ? fall in a volcano
  • The Lonious Monk
    The Lonious Monk Members Posts: 26,258 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I keep hearing this whenever this topic comes up..

    'Do black people ? one another? Sure they do. Ninety percent of black murder victims are killed by black assailants. But guess what? White people ? one another, too. Eighty-three percent of white victims are killed by white assailants'


    I am not sure if people are being willfully dumb on this topic or just dumb so I am going to keep posting this.

    Leading Causes of Death For Males ( CDC 2010 )

    http://www.cdc.gov/men/lcod/2010/LCODrace_ethnicityMen2010.pdf


    Table E. Deaths and percentage of total deaths for the 10 leading causes of death,

    http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr62/nvsr62_06.pdf

    Leading Causes of Death ( Ranked )(US) Page 12 of 977

    Whites - Homicide - 22nd Most Frequent Causes of Death
    Hispanic - Homicide - 11th Most Frequent Causes of Death
    Black - Homicide - 8th Most Frequent Causes of Death


    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dominic-carter/giuliani-was-correct-blac_b_6213270.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592

    008_dominic_carter-300x300.jpg

    But I must return to my overall point that Giuliani is correct about the problem of black-on-black crime. I have to admit that my major eye-opening experience regarding this serious problem came only just recently. I sat down to do a TV interview with former New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who was defending the NYPD's controversial crime-fighting tactic of "stop and frisk." That's when Kelly told me that over 90 percent of murder victims in New York City are African-American, and the person who pulled the trigger is almost always African-American.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7MAO7McNKE





    I think you're missing the point. It's not that "Black on Black" violence isn't a major problem within the black community. It is, and it absolutely should be addressed. The point is that it should not be used as a way to derail the discussion about other problems facing the black community such as police brutality.