Black people are not "ignoring" Black on Black Crime.

I'm slowly catching up on my reading on the week's events in Ferguson and trying to get my head around what exactly happened. In the meantime, one idea creeping into the discourse—that black people are unmoved by intra-community violence—deserves to be immediately dismissed. Eugene Robinson, reacting to the tragic murder of Knijah Bibb, offers an incarnation here:


We’ve been through this so many times. Brown, from all reports, was a good kid who had just graduated from high school and was about to enroll in college. But young black men are automatically assumed to be dangerous thugs—and are not given the benefit of the doubt that young white men are accorded. This is racist and wrong, and it must change.

But we should be just as outraged over Knijah’s death—and just as determined that this kind of killing should never happen again.

The entire Prince George’s County police force—not just the homicide division—has been working long hours to try to find Wallace and is motivated by what a police spokesman called a “sense of moral outrage.”

That feeling should be universal. The near-constant background noise of black-on-black violence is too often ignored. Yet it continues to claim victims at a rate that our society should consider outrageous and unacceptable.

There are a number of things wrong here. To the extent that killings by the police generate more outrage, it is completely understandable. Police in America are granted wide range of powers by the state including lethal force. With that power comes a special place of honor. When cops are killed the outrage is always different than when citizens are killed. Likewise when cops kill under questionable terms, more scrutiny follows directly from the logic of citizenship. Great power. Great responsibility.

More importantly Robinson's claim is demonstrably false. The notion that violence within the black community is "background noise" is not supported by the historical record—or by Google. I have said this before. It's almost as if Stop The Violence never happened, or The Interruptors never happened, or Kendrick Lamar never happened. The call issued by Erica Ford at the end of this Do The Right Thing retrospective is so common as to be ritual. It is not "black on black crime" that is background noise in America, but the pleas of black people.

There is a pattern here, but it isn't the one Eugene Robinson (for whom I have a great respect) thinks. The pattern is the transmutation of black protest into moral hectoring of black people. Don Imus profanely insults a group of black women. But the real problem is gangsta rap. Trayvon Martin is killed. This becomes a conversation about how black men are bad fathers. Jonathan Martin is bullied mercilessly. This proves that black people have an unfortunate sense of irony.

The politics of respectability are, at their root, the politics of changing the subject—the last resort for those who can not bear the agony of looking their country in the eye. The policy of America has been, for most of its history, white supremacy. The high rates of violence in black neighborhoods do not exist outside of these facts—they evidence them.

This history presents us with a suite of hard choices. We do not like hard choices. Here's a better idea: Let's all get together and talk about how Mike Brown would still be alive if Beyoncé would make more wholesome music, followed by a national forum on how the charge of "acting white" contributes to mass incarceration. We can conclude with a keynote lecture on "Kids Today" and a shrug.

The politics of changing the subject


Ta-Nehisi Coates
http://www.theatlantic.com/national...are-not-ignoring-black-on-black-crime/378629/

This is definitely a fine article on this subject. How could people ignore the killing of their sons, nephews, cousins, etc.

 

Another one? How is Micheal Brown "a good kid" when he within minutes robbed a store and attacked a police officer? Perhaps Coates should get off the soap box and actually look at what is going on.

 

Yeah...Michael Brown was a "great kid".





I noticed all the marches everywhere today, protesting "black on black violence".

>>>MOD EDIT Flamebait Removed<<<

 

another one getting shot dead kicking in homeowners doors
http://www.theindychannel.com/news/local-news/impd-homeowner-shot-at-robbers-in-break-in

 

Of course we've all heard President Obama decry black on black crime and Al Sharpton, adviser to the King is in the forefront of fighting black on black crime. And, of course, AG Eric Holder is fighting black on black crime tooth and nail.

I don't know how anyone could miss all the attention being given to black on black crime.

 

he never attacked a police officer, he tried to get away from one that grabbed him... a mistake that cost him his life

that said, I agree, he was not a "good" kid, he was a problem child for sure

.

 

Madeup bull(*)(*)(*)(*). Just ignore what the autopsy said.

 

Wait a minute my friend.. Why did he steal the cigarillos and manhandle the clerk if he was a good kid?

 

I don't think he was such a "good kid" either, I don't think he should have died that die and the jest of what I am pointing to is the flim flam bull(*)(*)(*)(*) about black folks ignoring black on black crime.

 

He shouldn't have assaulted a police officer.

 

From what I've heard of the release of the grand jury testimony, 14 black witnesses said he did attack the police officer. But some people would rather believe the kid who robbed the store with Brown because they like that story better.

 

The autopsy and other facts, like Brown's blood was found in the squad car, etc...... little tidbits that the libs ignore.

And this 'problem "child" was 18 yrs old, around 6'3"... old enuf to join the service. Well, mentally, he was a child...

 

You forgot to mention the hundreds of thousands of people protesting and shutting down cities to protest 'black on black' crime.......LMAO at the hypocrisy......

 

Yeah, one million man march.. today in Washington DC for "black on black" violence.. hahahahah.. yeah, right!!!!

 

Black people will never protest black on black crime. It doesn't pay well enough.

 

Hahaha good troll bro good troll.

Oh wait what?

You're serious?

How about you go get some fresh air, because you've been inhaling liberal race pimp bull(*)(*)(*)(*) for too long.

 

Did his music talk about being a thug?

 

Look for Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. It won't take long to find the hood from there.

 

It would confuse their masses. Heavens, they wouldn't know who to blame. They wouldn't know what to protest.

 

I'm afraid you won't get much insight from Ta-Nehisi Coates, although I do read him on occasion because he is a good example of the African-American elite zeitgeist. Although I think it's usually fruitless to bring up the issue black on black crime, and lord knows based on your previous posts, you hate it when during a Trayvon Martin or Michael Brown situation comes up, someone posts, what about black on black crime?

The problem is it's relevant in this sense: That's where the crime is and that's where the police are going to be. On my local news, day in and day out, week after week, month after month, and year after year, shootings, robberies, home invasions ect...all will be reported on local news accompanied with a surveillance tape, booking photo, or artist rendering of a young black male. Not exclusively, by no means, but far more than their percentage population in the area. And that's where the cops are, in our poorest communities, most of which are black. Now there are poor white communities, and the cops spend a fair amount of time there, as a casual viewing of "COPS" will demonstrate, but white crime just isn't out of proportion to their population.

Also, the civil rights community does a terrible job of picking the cases they want to make examples. Trayvon Martin attacked a guy and was delivering a beatdown to a guy when he got shot. Did he deserve to die? No, but that wasn't the issue, he attacked a guy, crazily, who turned out to have a gun. Michael Brown, could have just gotten out of the street, he didn't need to attack a cop, who he knew was armed. Did he deserve to die? No, but he sure did cause his own death. There are troubling cases that deserve scrutinize, like the Eric Gardner or Tamir Rice. But Michael Brown? Come on! It makes it difficult to take black rage seriously when it's tied up in support of criminals.

You could do a better job of picking your battles, but as long as you let an Al Sharpton tell you what you're supposed to be outraged about you are going to end up looking like an idiot more often than not when you post in support of criminals.

 

There's some problems with this post. Okay, there's a LOT of problems with this post.

Which it would if we were seeing marches about it. Die-in's about black-on-black crime. News stories about it. We're not.

I'll give you the often-quoted Jesse Jackson line: “There is nothing more painful to me … than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery, then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved.”

Is Jesse racist for saying this? More to the point, what is it about black kids that has Jesse relieved when he finds that whites are behind him? Answer that question and you've also answered why there is no outrage in the larger black community when black-on-black crime happens. It goes without saying that this is a question many can not bear to even read, much less answer.

As indeed everyone should. But Knijah's death don't bring the money - or the ratings. And thus, not the attention.

Wait a second here. You just said "that black people are unmoved by intra-community violence—deserves to be immediately dismissed." and now you say it's ignored in the same post. So which is it? It can't be both.

I don't even know where to begin here. Blacks protesting against their situation is a good thing, and it is, but pointing out problems within same is bad? Again, you can't have one without the other unless black culture exists in a vacuum. It doesn't. And even when said problems are pointed out by another black, they get called Uncle Toms and Oreos. With that kind of lack of self-reflection, black culture as a whole will (sadly) never get anywhere.

This whole argument appears to boil down to: Naming problems that exist within current black culture is racist and therefore, not to be considered. It's a feel-good statement, but ultimately isn't going to accomplish anything.

 

I had to stop reading at the first paragraph. "By all accounts Michael Brown was a good kid." Sorry, until people are truthful I will not continue in this debate.

 

I know what's happening in the hood, so what of it? What's your point?

 

That talking point was debunked months ago although i am not shocked you are still sticking by it.

 

Blacks aren't ignoring it, they just aren't doing anything meaningful about it.

They already have free food and free health care, so their supposed solution of trying to get more welfare spending money is a pretty absurd solution to the problem of killing each other over sneakers and (*)(*)(*)(*).