The truth about Black homicides


I was angered and frustrated to read an article in the Tennessean this morning. The title read:

Black homicides reach ‘crisis’ in Nashville
Nashville leaders seek solutions, call for community involvement

The article itself was riddled with tear-jerking reporting and dripping with political correctness. Here’s a short sample from the (much longer) report.

In Nashville if you are African-American, you are four to five times more likely to be murdered than if you are white. While the rate of white homicides has declined over the past several years, black homicides have increased, according to the latest data.

The victims range in age from a newborn who was beaten to death to a 54-year-old man fatally shot in his car on his drive home from work. Motives vary: abuse, domestic problems, drugs, gang activity, robberies. Some were students, parents. Others were gang members and drug dealers.

“We cannot wait until some prominent person gets killed or is the victim of a crime to wake up and say let’s do something about it,” said Metro Councilman Jerry Maynard. “This is a crisis, and we have to have ownership by the entire community.”

Why are Nashville’s black residents, particularly its black youths, at such risk? Answers are hard to find. Political, religious and law enforcement leaders rattle off a collection of possible reasons: geographic isolation, economics, Nashville’s racial history, politics, the breakdown of families, a lack of father figures, not enough jobs or recreation. Some blame movies, video games or rap music.

“In our own city, we have kids that see the rest of the world on TV, they see it across the street. How do I get from where I am to graduate high school, to graduate college, to get a job?” said Metro Police Chief Steve Anderson. “The reduction in federal funding for police prevention programs, for police outreach programs, is also going to have an effect.”

Colin Loftin, professor of criminology at the University of Albany, State University of New York, said that research has conclusively linked only one major factor to high homicide rates: poverty.

“Statistically, the big factor that’s consistent over time and place is economic status. You have very, very few homicides in a middle-class population,” he said.

Nashville’s black residents are almost twice as likely to have incomes below the poverty level, 2009 census data show. The average African-American family of four with two children brought in less than $22,000 a year.

Leaders say a sense of hopelessness in the poorest areas of the black community dominates attitudes.

“Those are the ones that are dangerous,” Maynard said. “Because they feel they have no future.”

There’s more at the link.

Despite all these pious and/or politically-correct platitudes, what you won’t find, anywhere in the article, is the recognition that most of the deceased brought their deaths upon themselves through their involvement with criminal activity – gangs, drugs, street thuggery, a life of crime. As to what caused that criminal activity, poverty’s a convenient excuse, but it’s also a lie. Millions of people grow up in precisely the same conditions and do not choose a life of crime. If poverty created criminals, all poor people would be criminals – but they’re not. Therefore, those who claim that poverty is the reason or the excuse for criminal behavior are lying to you, plain and simple. It may be a contributing factor, but it’s not the cause – not by a long shot.

Furthermore, no-one interviewed for this article has admitted that the real reasons were diagnosed as long ago as 1965. In that year, the Moynihan Report “focused on the deep roots of black poverty in America and concluded that the relative absence of nuclear (that is, husband-wife) families would greatly hinder further progress toward economic and political equality”. Politically-correct and racially-motivated critics blasted the Report, but its analysis, conclusions and forecasts have proved to be prescient. In a later article, “Defining Deviancy Down“, Senator Moynihan showed that the more people deviate from societal, moral and ethical norms, the more some people will try to justify such deviance, to the point where deviance becomes the new ‘normal’.

Time and time again, sociologists, anthropologists and community workers – those, at least, who are interested in and searching for the truth, rather than trying to work to a politically-correct and -motivated agenda – have correlated such findings with conditions in the real world. However, there are too many politicians and others of their ilk who have made their fortunes – both financial and political – out of demagoguery; inciting and/or exploiting racial conflict and social unrest to gain and hold their positions of power. They’ve made sure that articles such as this morning’s never discuss the real reasons for the problems in Black inner-city communities . . . because to do so would force those involved to confront reality. They dare not allow that to happen, because to do so would risk the political power they’ve built on perpetrating a lie.

Bill Cosby has done a remarkable job in challenging his own community to confront the problems endemic in their society. Here’s his world-famous ‘pound cake’ speech from 2004. It’s short, pithy, and absolutely to the point.

I respect and applaud Dr. Cosby’s work . . . but there are too few like him. Unless and until more Black leaders start to recognize, and speak out about, the truth, there will be no improvement in the conditions that give rise to such an appalling death rate.

That’s the truth – no matter how politically incorrect it may be.

Peter

6 comments

  1. There term 'poverty' is one of the most abused terms in the English language. The vast majority of poor are NOT. If you have a big screen tv, an account with Dish Network, Direct TV, or a cable company, a smart phone, and a vehicle that runs you are not poor.

    I've spent a lot of time in the so called poor neighborhoods of Birmingham, AL. What I see isn't the result of not having enough income or any options but to be poor. It's a result of sitting on your butt and waiting for someone else to bring you prosperity.

    Poor is living in a box with only the possession you can fit in a backpack. It's not living in subsidized housing so you can afford a used Escalade, a 50" Samsung TV, and Dish Network's most expensive channel package.

  2. A long time ago, a guy on the radio back in Pittsburgh had a (facetious) list of things he'd do if he wanted to keep the black people down. The list included such things as:

    Encourage a separate non-English language (such as ebonics, or modern day Jive). Ths will separate them from society, and keep them from jobs.

    Encourage so-called leaders like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton to rally the black people against white people, rather than demanding that black people step up and take responsibility for their lives. This will create animosity and racial strife, and has the net effect of "looking for someone to blame" rather than fixing things for themselves.

    Encourage sports (rather than education) as the way to escape "the 'hood." Sports figures who are successful make plenty of money, but less than 1% of all high school athletes make it to their respective professional league.

    Encourage the use of welfare, food stamps and other government assistance, rather than self-reliance, education, etc. By taking gov't assistance, they learn to rely on the gov't rather than themselves, and every election cycle, they can be relied upon to vote in favor of the freebies headed their way, rather than in favor of fiscal independence.

    There were more, but I recall those ones most vividly.

  3. More proof that rewarding failure breeds more failure.

    Rewarding success breeds more success.

    We keep punishing successful people ( job holding taxpayers), and rewarding failures (non-job holding welfare & foodstamp leeches).

    Follow the foodstamp user out of the store sometime. See how new the car is that they climb into.

    90% of the time it's a lot nicer than my ride.

    New topic: what's the percentage of black-on-black killing? The Sharpton / Jackson / Lee/ Mckinney race baiters conveniently leave out that whitey ain't doing the killing.

    Kinda like Muslim on Muslim kill stats that get left out of the "religion of peace".

  4. In light that the fed and Jesse and Al and BHO and his entourage want me to be racist, I'm going to make this comment as a racist would.
    "Personally, I don't give a shit. If they want to kill each other off, fine by me. They can continue living like the animals they are, keep aborting their babies and killing each other with drugs and guns and street wars- all they end up doing is eliminating one more welfare momma and drug user and, most importantly, one less liberal communist baby killing democrat to vote."
    I am so damned sick and tired of hearing ghetto talk and seeing third grade dropouts being idolized by our youth and listening to the 'kill whitey' and 'whitey is our problem' and 'rape white women' rap 'music'. I'm sick and tired of listening to my government leaders tell me these too stupid and lazy to work people deserve reparations for something none of them has ever experienced and most likely can't honestly point to anyone in their family that was (a slave). Most of all, I'm sick and tired of being told by my government I'm not as good as they because my skin is white.
    So, to end this rant, all I can say is 'good riddance to bad rubbish.' Phuck 'em all.

  5. Poverty is not a lack of possessions. It is a state of mind. I'm out of work, and I owe a lot of money. But, I'm in school learning a new set of skills that will get me a job. I'm poor, but I am not in poverty, as I see this as a temporary, abnormal state.

    The welfare families with the big screen TVs and nice cars are not poor in any normal sense of the word, but they are more impoverished than most in the Third World, for they see no change in sight for themselves and cannot imagine improving their lot through their own efforts.

    Antibubba

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