Here’s My Answer To ‘But What About Black On Black Violence?’

violence
Image from the1stog.blogspot.com


When it comes to #blacklivesmatter, there have been a lot of people from different races and political persuasions asking the same question. They ask “What about black-on-black violence?”

Many people who understand how complicated black Socioeconomic American history is also know that this is an incredibly complicated issue wrapped in a question that’s insufficiently simple. The black-on-black violence we see in America today is a confluence of so many factors it’s hard to even begin to count them. Many, if not most of the factors that result in what we see today in black American culture were things done by whites.

I can hear the conservatives moaning:“Here we go again…It’s all the white man’s fault! You people need to stop listening to Al Sharpton and Obama!”

Well….actually whites did create a lot of the problems we see in the black community. So let’s take slavery off of the table, although slavery does play a huge role in the self image issues many black people face in America.

After slavery, lawmakers passed laws which were designed to sabotage the growth and wealth of black communities. Lets take a quick look at post-slavery policies that set the stage for long-term generational poverty and higher crime within black communities.

Black Codes, Pig Codes, and Vagrancy Laws

Black codes were codes that gave blacks a few rights after the Civil War, like the right to marry and own land, while denying them other rights like the right to vote, serve on a jury for a white defendant, and hold political office. These laws were repealed during Reconstruction in 1866 but revised in the south by 1877. Pig codes made it illegal for blacks to quit jobs unless their “debt” had been “paid off” to their former employer. Many times, these former employers would accuse blacks of stealing in order to gain forced labor under this law. Vagrancy Laws passed post-slavery that made it illegal for black men not to have jobs. Vagrancy laws were aimed at incarcerating former slaves and putting to them to work in prison labor camps doing pretty much the same things they did as slaves. This was the birth of the “Prison Industrial Complex” in America.

Jim Crow Laws

These laws were marketed as “separate but equal,” however that was far from the case. Black communities often saw fewer resources as well as being refused services by whites. When blacks were served, they often had separate substandard areas where they were given poorer service than white customers received.

Redlining

This is a practice that mainly impacts black communities economically. Traditionally, blacks were denied loans to start businesses, or given loans with unreasonable terms. Certain businesses also used redlining to target black and minority neighborhoods with higher prices for goods and services. This practice still continues today, although not as openly as it once did.

Integration

I know some people will scratch their heads at this, but the DE-segregation of public schools led to the busing of black students to white schools that simply did not want them there. Most of the teachers either did not want to teach or simply could not relate to the black students. This disconnect and distrust continued for generations and is prevalent in today’s classrooms, which helps explain why black students over the past few generations have had poorer grades and higher drop-out rates than whites.

Prior to DE-segregation black students mainly learned from black teachers in underfunded black schools. Instead of equal funding coupled with slow and careful integration, black students were just thrown into white schools. Very few benefited from the hostile experience. Of course, integration led to many opportunities for blacks who were limited by where they could live, work, and go to school. This is still a very heated debate.

FBI’s “COINTELPRO” Program

This was a program designed in 1956 to disrupt communist organizations, but was later expanded to groups classified as disruptive or hate groups. These groups included many pro-black organizations like the Black Panthers. While the FBI did go after groups like the KKK as well, they were not as focused on dismantling white supremacist organizations as they were the minority groups. After the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, the black community moved to a more “Pro-Black” mindset, giving rise to groups like the Black Panthers as well as other organizations.

The Black Panthers started community programs like the free breakfast program in Chicago during the 1960’s. These groups preached about self-reliance and determination of one’s own future, and yes, they did not care for white people. But many pro-black groups also worked with many other races including whites and Asians during the civil rights struggle.

In many ways, these were conservative minded groups within the black community. However, the government still saw them as a dangerous threat. The FBI greatly exaggerated the criminal elements within pro-black organizations to justify a witch hunt which led to the deaths and imprisonment of many leaders within those movements.

Stanley Tookie Williams, III started the street gang known as the “Crips.” Williams originally wanted to start something positive that would protect his neighborhood, however he, like many black youths, was left without guidance and leadership. This lack of guidance sent many disenfranchised and angry black youths down a dark path. Williams wound up forming one of the biggest and most violent black street gangs in U.S history. One can only wonder what that gang could have been had the government not destroyed the positive black influences during his time.

Today, white hate groups like the KKK are still around and growing in number, while pro-black groups like the Black Panthers are all but extinct. Is this just a coincidence?

War on Drugs

The “War on Drugs” started around the same time the government was dismantling positive pro-black organizations. They began to hand down harsher sentences for drug possession and distribution. However this mostly affected black and minority neighborhoods, as even to this day the sentencing disparities between white and black drug offenders exist. Even though both groups use illegal drugs at about the same rate, blacks are more likely to be arrested and given harsher sentences than whites.

The war also contributes to the “school to prison pipeline” that feeds the state, federal, and private industrial prison complex in America. Police are now required to make more arrests and generate revenue, like salesmen. So they go to the neighborhoods that will offer the highest conviction rates and with the least amount of legal protection. Black neighborhoods are low-hanging fruit, according to former Baltimore police officer Michael A. Wood, Jr.

It also doesn’t help that the C.I.A admitted to helping drug lords sell crack cocaine in the 1980s in order to fund a secret war in South America.

Production of Racist Media

Hip hop was once a very positive form of musical expression within the black community. It’s believed to have started in the 1970’s as sub-genre of disco in the streets of New York. It combined music with street poetry. The messages were positive and uplifting, while detailing the struggle many blacks faced living in poor urban neighborhoods. In the 90’s an new genre rose from hip hop in order to appeal to the white consumer. It was called “Gangsta Rap.”

violence
Image from reason4rhymes.com

Gangsta rap combined imagery, music, and lyrics designed to glorify the worst elements within the black community and help continue the long tradition in white media of stereotyping blacks as lazy, untrustworthy, dangerous, criminal-minded, sex-addicted sub-humans. This tradition goes all the way back even before literature like “Tom Sawyer,” as well as other “classics” which depict black people as inferior to whites.

Racism is also continued in the form of music, movies, and TV shows, even cartoons produced by and starring whites. The programming of black self-hate started during slavery as a way to keep blacks under the illusion of white supremacy, and it continues to this day.

Conclusion

These are just a few of the insidious polices and practices which led to the disenfranchisement and mental brainwashing of millions of blacks over the course of the last 150 years. When you combine these things with other policies and practices done in the same spirit, you have a toxic result. That result is evident today in black culture in the form of “black-on-black” violence as well as other destructive behaviors.

Many people believe that blacks just cannot create and sustain peaceful and economically successful communities. This is a very pervasive and sad falsehood that has plagued black Americans since the days of slavery. It is of course not true, as evidenced by places like Black Wall Street and other successful black communities ultimately destroyed by whites through violence and terror. Every time a black community was destroyed because of its success, it sent a clear message to the survivors: “Keep your head down and know your place.”

Let me be clear; only black people can fix the problems facing our communities today. Ultimately it’s up to us. Many people are going say that I am just “making excuses.” This is a common conclusion by those who are selective when deciding what history has real value. Many of those people are quick to say things like “It’s Heritage, Not Hate,” for example. However, it takes a special type of ignorance and arrogance to sit back and armchair quarterback the problems of a community that many of your ancestors helped create in the first place.