I realized a few years ago and even more clearly as of late, that I have such a skewed view of black men and crime. One of the first times I realized this was at Union Market in DC a few years ago. There was a mural of head shots of black men and boys smiling. It was beautiful. These smiling men were humanized. I realized, looking at the mural, that the majority of images I had seen up to this point had been mugshots. Photos of black men who had just been arrested. I had and still have this screwed view of crime and people of color from the media I take in. I have associated crime and violence with the black man’s identity.
As I reflect on this now, my aim is take the time needed to break these things down in my head and think about them. Isn’t it easy to avoid challenging what we believe or why we believe it? Doing so takes time. It can cause confrontation. It can reveal things we may not like about ourselves.
The reflections that follow have been initiated by a book club discussion, some reading, and my reflections on the past.
Over the summer months, I often heard the phrase, “black on black crime.” And when people brought it up in conversations, I was often at a loss. Remember, I have a skewed/racist view of crime and people of color. (I am not afraid to say that. Confessing sin doesn’t make your sin more real, but keeping it secret allows sin to fester and grow and remain untouched by the healing balm of grace and mercy.) So I often didn’t know how to respond to people who emphasized about “black on black crime” except to say, “yes, it is a problem.” Here are a few insights that I will now have at hand when that phrase comes up in conversations again:
In this article, abcNews interviewed Khalil Gibran Muhammad, a professor from Harvard Kennedy School. He provided a lot of insight on the history and intention behind the the phrase, “black on black crime.” He also cites a statistic from a Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) report, “The offender was of the same race or ethnicity as the victim in 70% of violent incidents involving black victims, 62% of those involving white victims, 45% of those involving Hispanic victims, and 24% of those involving Asian victims.” So, it appears that a majority of violent incidents among white people are done to other white people. He also talks about how the European immigrants who arrived in the US in the late 1800’s and 1900’s received a lot of the same indignation as Latino immigrants face today, but policies were changed and opportunities granted that made the “American Dream” more attainable for these white immigrants.
I also read this article that pointed me to another publication from the BJS which shows a correlation between crime and poverty. This is also really helpful and opens up a whole range of things to research–racism in housing, employment, criminalization, etc. If you’re a graph person, this article has 26 graphs illustrating the effects of systemic racism, some of which relate directly to what we are talking about here. Side note: We have to fight the belief that we (white middle class people) tend to hold, that people of color living in poverty just didn’t pick themselves up by their bootstraps. We must challenge this idea that everyone has a fair shot. If you don’t believe that systemic racism is a problem, research it. Find out why people think it is, look at the stats, just don’t settle with what your parents might have told you or what you see in the news. We tend to get offended and move on, rather than engaging these claims seriously. This leads to these ideas becoming more ingrained in our heads. Racism often works like this.
There are white men and women who do awful things. Murder, bury children alive, molest, steal, rape… and there are black men and women who do the same things. Through our work places, media, and entertainment, we are constantly reminded that not all white men and women are like that. There are some that are deeply scarred, traumatized, unwell, hateful, sick…but we don’t get that same reminder from media and entertainment about people of color. We just don’t.
And because I have felt so burden by this lately, I will share another reflection–as Christians, why aren’t we asking more of these questions? Why are we so afraid to confess these sins of the heart? Why can’t we confess and battle racism without feeling like we are giving into some kind of false gospel? People who claim the good news of the Bible, trust that people are made in God’s image, and have received grace and mercy: why can’t we truly love others and confess our own errors? Why do we feel instead that the moment someone one mentions the word racism that somehow the conversations is becoming too “social justicey.”
This research is only the start. I hope to unpack this a little more. I also plan to read this paper from the Harvard Kennedy School next and welcome any other resources.
-k
Sources:
https://abcnews.go.com/US/black-black-crime-loaded-controversial-phrase-heard-amid/story?id=72051613
betweenthemagnolias.org 