Black on Black Crime Isn’t Real

Whenever there’s public outrage over police brutality against someone Black, there’s a knee jerk reaction by the public to invalidate the claim. More than one thing can be true at once and yet, it never fails that when highlighting some of the egregious acts of those who are hired, trained and paid to serve, here comes the “but what about..” people. Making remarks on everything and proving themselves to be either overtly racist, willfully ignorant, deaf, dumb, blind and everything in between. It seems as if these days it’s acceptable to prefer opinion over fact, perception over reality and the desire to obtain capitalistic profit over exhibiting human decency.  When it comes to the matter of referencing black on black crime, we should all ensure we know the following:

Black On Black Crime: MYTH

You really can’t believe everything you hear, folks. There’s honestly no such thing as Black on Black crime. According to a 28 year Homicide Trends study performed by the U.S Justice Department, the leading causes of homicides were categorized as; Victim/Offender Relationship, Circumstance, Weapons, and lastly, Multiple Victims/Offenders. The only true takeaway from the data presented in the study would imply that proximity to other people within your demographic region plays a huge factor to an increased threat of violence. Therefore, if your entire demographic consists of predominantly one racial group, you would most likely see occurrences performed by the people within that particular race.

Black People Commit More Violent Crimes: MYTH 

The reality is, each category listed above also contains a particular subset where homicide rates were measured. In a nutshell, it’s true that Blacks are committing crimes at a higher rate specific to drugs, felony murder, arguments and gun homicides. It is also true that White people lead the charts as it pertains to family related homicides, workplace homicides, sex crimes, homicide by means of poison and homicides including multiple victims.

It’s a false and dangerous practice to oversimplify such complex issues. Various factors that should also be considered include the over-policing of Black communities, societal and psychological effects of poverty and overpopulation in impoverished areas. The promotion of Black on Black crime as a catch phrase, implies that it is occurring at faster and more alarming rates than other races which is proven false when you look at the picture as a whole. Statistically speaking, the disparity between homicides committed by Whites versus Blacks is figuratively low with Whites accounting for 45.3% and Blacks at 52.5%. The rate in If reported and addressed correctly, the audience would be more informed that either race leads in specific homicide rates depending on the motivation behind the act.