“black on black crime” is THE reactionary response to anti-police brutality

from The lie of black-on-black crime: https://www.ianfelton.com/2020/06/07/The-Lie-of-Black-on-black-crime/

The overall pattern of poor persons having the highest rates of violent victimization was consistent for both whites and blacks.

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Why We Never Talk About Black-on-Black Crime: An Answer to White America’s Most Pressing Question

https://www.theroot.com/why-we-never-talk-about-black-on-black-crime-an-answer-1819092337

You’ve heard it before. It is the most frequent response to any accusation of police brutality. It is the repeated sleight of hand used to distract and drown out the voices of Black Lives Matter. It is an oft-used “alt-right” refrain and a sincere query from curious white questioners. It is the weapon of choice for the black practitioners of respectability politics and the favorite follow-up for people who frame their arguments with the preamble, “Not all white people … ”

Why don’t black people ever talk about black-on-black crime?

Instead of rejecting the entire notion as a method of deflection and privilege, we will attempt to formally dismiss the conversation forever by laying out the facts about why white America never hears us talk about black-on-black crime.

It’s not a thing.

According to the FBI’s uniform crime-reporting data for 2016, 90.1 percent of black victims of homicide were killed by other blacks, while 83.5 percent of whites were killed by other whites. While no life is inconsequential, the statistical evidence shows that—just as for blacks when it comes to black-on-black crime—whites are mostly victimized by other whites, with the vast majority of white murders committed by whites. This is because most victims of crime personally know their assailants. And while this is a truth across racial boundaries, no one ever talks about “white-on-white crime.”

Furthermore, the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ arrest data analysis tool shows that less than 1 percent of blacks overall (about 2 percent of black men) commit a violent crime in any given year. This means, factoring in interracial violent offenses, 99 percent of black men do not commit black-on-black crime.

It has nothing to do with what we are talking about.

Imagine the head of Homeland Security walking up to the microphone to hold a press conference after a horrific terrorist attack, but when reporters start asking him about stopping terrorism and catching the culprits, he begins talking about texting and driving.

Sounds stupid, right?

But distracted driving kills more Americans each year than terrorism (and black-on-black crime), according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, so, according to the advocates of conversations about black-on-black crime, we should be discussing this first.

It is true that the vast majority of black murders are committed by black men, and we should do something to combat that statistic (we will get to that later, I promise), but that fact has nothing to do with state violence. When anyone interrupts a discussion about Black Lives Matter by bringing up black-on-black crime, it sounds as stupid as if a doctor addressed a cancerous brain tumor by asking about domestic violence, or if America’s highest-ranking government official addressed white supremacist Nazi-palooza by talking about the so-called alt-left and the “very fine” tiki-torch carriers.

No one would ever be that stupid.

We actually do talk about it … all the time.

It is perfectly understandable why white America assumes that black people don’t talk about black-on-black crime. However, the reason they make this assumption dates to a quote found in recently uncovered papers from an unnamed woman archaeological and historical researchers refer to as “Grandmama”:

“It ain’t none of their damn business.”

The reality is, in neighborhoods and cities across America, there are countless organizations, activists and movements dedicated to curbing violence in black communities. The number of “Stop the Violence” marches dwarfs the demonstrations against police brutality. Unity rallies and peace picnics happen every day. Scared Straight programs for at-risk youths, gang counseling, neighborhood watches, intervention specialists, youth counselors, and too many other people and groups to name all lead the charge against crime and violence.

But those efforts don’t make the evening news because they aren’t as salacious as people blocking traffic and protesting; nor do they serve the preconceived white confirmation bias. Besides, there’s no way white people would know about this unless they stopped deflecting with trite questions and instead actually went into a minority neighborhood to selflessly join the effort to address the problems plaguing …

OK, let’s talk about black-on-black crime.

Both sociologists and criminologists agree that violent crime is a complex socioeconomic phenomenon. Generally speaking, research shows that poor people commit the most crime: According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, during the period from 2008 through 2012, “persons in poor households at or below the federal poverty level (FPL) (39.8 per 1,000) had more than double the rate of violent victimization as persons in high-income households (16.9 per 1,000) … The overall pattern of poor persons having the highest rates of violent victimization was consistent for both whites and blacks.”

Knowing this, the small difference in crime rates can easily be explained by income disparity. Maybe the question should be why are such a large percentage of black people poor?

As a matter of fact, if we are going to derail a conversation about black lives to talk about black-on-black crime, there are a few other questions we should answer first:

Why is the rate of violence actually higher among poor, urban whites? Why don’t we ever discuss the economic impact of redlining and segregation on rates of violence?

If we are going to discuss the number of black people killed by blacks, should we discuss the number of white people murdered, raped and assaulted by fellow whites? Will this conversation include a debate about how blacks are arrested, incarcerated and sentenced for longer periods than whites for committing the same crimes?

Are you willing to detour into a brief explanation of why schools with large percentages of blacks are underfunded even though they have the same tax base and incomes? Do you have time to talk about the wage gap? Unemployment disparities?

All of these factors contribute to crime rates. So if you want to have a conversation about black-on-black crime, you should be careful, because, like most conversations about race, it will end up back in the same place:

White supremacy.

Ignoring the Intersectionality of Gun Violence

link https://harvardcrcl.org/ignoring-the-intersectionality-of-gun-violence/

It should come as no surprise that America has a gun violence problem. The number of deaths in the United States caused by guns has been steadily rising for the last five years, and in 2019 there have been more mass shootings than there are days in the year. Gun violence and gun control are divisive issues that are increasingly partisan and are a hot topic in this year’s Democratic primary debates.

With all the attention that gun violence has in American politics (and, unfortunately, in American households), conversations about the intersectionality of gun violence are not nearly as prevalent as they should be. Conversations of mass shootings frequently dismiss the motivations of the shooter as something related to a mental health issue. Black men who are shot accidentally by police officers are treated as victims of a random tragedy. These conversations overlook the fact that, more often than not, gun violence is the result of a deeply rooted hatred of particular groups of people, particularly racial, ethnic, and religious minorities, the LGBTQ+ community, and women.

Intersectionality and Disproportionate Impacts

Gun violence in the United States is statistically linked to violence against women, particularly domestic violence. Women who are victims of domestic violence in the United States are 21 times more likely to be killed with a firearm than women in other similarly developed countries. Approximately 57% of domestic violence that led to the death of a female romantic partner involved use of a firearm, and women whose male partners own firearms are five times more likely to be killed.

There is also evidence that many mass shooters share a common hatred of women. Many mass shooters cite their rage toward women (usually stemming from rejection) as a motivating factor for their murderous rampages or have targeted specific women who rejected them. Many mass shooters also have a history of domestic violence, stalking, and other threatening and violent acts toward women. There have also been a number of mass shootings in locales frequented or solely attended by women, including a yoga studio in Florida and a Planned Parenthood. The history of guns being used to further violence against women, both on an intimate level and on a massive scale, indicates that gun violence is not indiscriminate.

A similar trend presents itself in the context of gun violence against the LGBTQ+ community. According to the FBI, sexual orientation is one of the three most common characteristics that sparks hate crimes, alongside race and religion. Members of the LGBTQ+ community have been targets of some of the largest mass shootings in the history of the United States, from the Upstairs Lounge shooting in the 1970s to the Pulse Nightclub shooting just a few years ago which resulted in almost 50 people being killed. LGBTQ+ people are frequently victims of intimate partner violence, which further increases their chances of a gun-related death. Gun violence also includes suicide, and the rates of suicide are higher within the LGBTQ+ community than they are within the general population.

Violence against transgender individuals is particularly high, and transgender women of color represent perhaps the most shocking and clear depiction of how gun violence is intersectional. Transgender women of color are disproportionately impacted by hate crimes; in May of this past year, three trans women of color were the victims of gun violence in one week. In the past, victims were often thought of as individual tragedies; only now is society starting to view their deaths as part of a larger systemic problem regarding hatred and gun violence in America.

This systemic problem has been a cause of death for racial and ethnic minorities in America for decades, but recently the violence seems to be ramping up. A recent mass shooting in Texas was committed by a white man who wanted to halt an “invasion” of Mexican immigrants into the United States. In the United States, African Americans are 10 times more likely to die from gun violence than white people. Black men are increasingly the victims of gun violence at the hands of police officers, who frequently receive very little punishment. Gun violence is also much more concentrated in poor urban areas in America, which (due to a number of troubling societal forces) are commonly racially segregated; this has a huge role to play in the fact that African Americans make up more than 50% of the number of people murdered with guns each year.

The discourse surrounding gun violence against racial and ethnic minorities is also troubling. Sometimes, the discourse involves blatant racist hypocrisy. When a shooting occurs in a predominantly white area, activists are praised; when people support the Black Lives Matter movement and fight to protect black Americans from gun violence, they are viewed as “extremists.” Other times, the discourse that should be occurring simply doesn’t happen. For example, Native Americans face similar violence at the hands of police officers, who have a 12% greater chance of being shot by law enforcement than African Americans do, but who do not receive the same media coverage.

Gun violence against religious minorities has also increased in recent years; most troublingly, this increase seems to be manifesting itself in the form of mass shootings. Perhaps most famously, a shooting occurred in a historic black church in Charleston; the killer was a white man. Similar shootings have occurred in synagogues in San Diego and in Pittsbugh, both the products of anti-Semitism. Gun violence against Muslims in the United States has been on the rise since 9/11 and since the election of Donald Trump, both of which added fuel to a hatred of Islam; the violence has ranged from holding families at gunpoint in a grocery store to firing shots into a mosque.

The Hard Conversation Lawmakers Don’t Want to Have

The most important thing to note about trends in gun violence is that gun violence is intersectional. The statistics do not lie. Gun violence negatively impacts individuals with one or more marginalized identities, and mass shootings are most often committed by those whose identities are in the majority; statistically, straight white Christian men.

This is the very reason why gun violence will continue to grow in the United States. Although conversations are finally being had on a national level regarding the intersectionality of gun violence, the only individuals who are in a position to do anything to make positive systemic change are members of the federal government, who are (you guessed it) predominantly straight white Christian men.

I’m not going to argue that members of the federal government are intentionally allowing the continuation of gun violence against minorities, although one could make that argument and indeed some people have. What I will say is this: more often than not, those who are the strongest advocates against gun control are the very individuals who are the least likely to be victims of gun violence. This statistic evidences a severe disconnect in the political system, one that is actually killing thousands of marginalized people. Yet the majority, those who are safe from gun violence, are not ready to hear that they need to take a back seat on the topic and make room for the voices of people who are most likely to die as a result of gun violence.

It’s easier to say that a young black man who was shot by a police officer is the victim of a tragic mistake than it is to recognize systemic racism that runs rampant among American police. It’s easier to say that a woman who was shot by her domestic partner is in a better place now that she is out of an abusive relationship, and that nobody could have known it would happen to her, than it is to acknowledge the link between a domestic violence and gun violence. It’s easier to categorize a mass shooter as a mentally ill person suffering some sort of psychotic break than it is to recognize that said mass shooter likely had a deeply rooted hatred of certain classes of marginalized people.

It’s easier to write off each bout of gun violence as a one-time tragedy, and forget about it until then next one, than it is to address the ways that gun violence disproportionately kills women, racial, ethnic and religious minorities, and members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Until members of government begin to have a personal stake in the game and are willing to have brutally honest conversations about the intersectionality of gun violence, gun violence will continue to kill the very Americans who do not have a voice in most discussions about gun control.