In an article that appeared on the Useless Knowledge website August 11th, titled “Correlating Blackness And Criminality In American Cities” the author insinuates that high black crime rates are because of blacks’ predisposition to such behavior. He bases this premise on the correlation between cities having large black populations also having high crime rates. In fact, in his own words he says, “This is absolute proof that there is an infallible correlation between how black a city is and how great its crime rate, at least in the USA.” I found his theory to be simplistic and superficial, but then I wondered, “What if this same level of pseudo-scientific analysis was applied inversely–to whites?”
First let me say that if his theory held true, such numbers would be reflected worldwide. Blacks in America descend from African blacks, so wouldn’t African countries have ridiculously high crime rates?
High inner city crime rates can be blamed on a lot of things, but not a cultural predisposition. Still, this misguided assumption has been bandied about for decades and isn’t necessarily racist. The idea that blacks are more likely to have violent and criminal tendencies, “is one of the most readily invoked contemporary stereotypes about blacks…and unlike racial attitudes toward the principle of equal treatment, there is evidence that the association of blackness and criminality…is deeply embedded in the collective consciousness of Americans, irrespective of the level of prejudice or personal beliefs.” (1)
Using population figures one can assume that the victims of this “black crime wave” be black. FBI data shows that so-called “black on black crime” is no more prevalent than white on white crime. Crimes committed by whites (in the suburbs, rural area or otherwise) tend to have white victims. Why? Because most crimes are committed near the home of the offending party, meaning that those in black communities are more likely to prey on their black neighbors.
So taking the author’s assumptions about race and criminality and applying them inversely, I can conclude that white people are predisposed not only to random acts of violence, but crimes that impact upon large numbers of people and cut across racial lines. For instance, the overwhelming majority of white collar criminals are WHITE. The Enron, Tyco and Dynergy scandals, which not only hoodwinked shareholders, but in some cases looted the pension funds of their employees, were not masterminded by blacks. None of the Keating 7 were black. But these crimes have a much larger impact than that of a black man who holds up a liquor store.
Worse, the Government Accountability Office reports that these white-collar thieves avoid paying hundreds of millions of dollars in restitution. They transfer assets to relatives, give businesses to their minor children and then hire on as a salaried employee, transferring hundreds of thousands of dollars to a trust funds for their minor children, or deeding a home to a relative, then renting it back (all of which constitute fraudanother crime). “The GAO studied five unidentified federal cases in which executives and business owners found guilty of fraud were ordered to pay a total of $568 million to investors and shareholders. Only about $40 million, or 7% of what was owed, was ever collected.” (2) Moreover, 43% of those charged with fraud are never prosecuted(3), so not only do whites commit these crimes, but they get away with them!
Still, some critics argue that white-collar crime sentencing goes overboard because the punishment is stiffer than for some drug crimes and murders. But while the latter are no doubt heinous, white collar crimes can involve hundreds of millions, even billions of dollars. This impacts upon the victims’ present living situationand in the case of Enron, where pensions were losttheir futures.
I know what you’re thinking, such far-reaching cases are rareand on that point I agree. But the majority of financial crimes of a lesser and more common nature (involving banking, computers and identity-theft) are also perpetrated by whites (4).
Now let’s deal with a more common crime-murder: The estimated homicide rate in this country, excluding all those committed by blacks, is over three times higher than the homicide rate for the other six major industrial nations. (5) Therefore, whatever compels white Americans to kill other people, causes blacks to kill at a much higher rate. (6) But on an extreme level, whites make up vast majority of serial and baby killers. Gacy, Bundy, Dennis Rader (The BTK killer), The Green River Killer, et al. Were not black. And in the latter group who can forget Charles Stuart and Susan Smithboth who blamed the deaths of their children on black attackers. And what about Andrea Yates, the Houston woman who drowned her five children? As for other crimes against children, look at the internet pornmeisters and booty bandit, boy rapists in the Catholic church. How many of their faces are black?
And who are these right-wing zealots (terrorists) bombing abortion clinics and murdering doctors for performing a legal act? And wasn’t mad bomber/baby killer Timothy McVeigh white? Weren’t the inventors of the drive-by and other organized crime kingpins white? Who was behind the lynchings of the 19th and 20th centuries? Who commits the majority of hate crimes?
Here’s another crime that is the domain of whitesTREASON. These FBI, CIA and military agents who sell secrets to the Russian and Chinese governments are not black? What about “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh? These are men who will compromise the security of the country for a few dollars.
See how dangerous it is to play with facts?
The author of “Correlating” probably doesn’t, for he wrote, “What I don’t like, however, is being lied to. For decades, I’ve heard people denying, minimizing, justifying and extenuating black criminality.” He then says that poverty is no excuse.
For starters, I have never heard anyone justify criminality on any level. But whether you want to admit it or not, high crime rates can be correlated to high poverty rates. This is not the sole reason for such behavior. You state quite emphatically that “…there is very little real poverty in the United States. Anyone who thinks there is should visit the slums of Cairo, Rio de Janeiro or Bangkok. Then he’ll see what poverty really is.” Compared to what? While poor people in this country may not sleep in mud huts, go days on end without food or potable water, it does not make their poverty less “real”, especially when contrasted with immense American wealth.
White bias of police officers, prosecutors and the courts also play a role in black crime rates, as do character weaknesses (caused by the lack of strong social organization, such as a church), single-parent households and residual effects of slavery (Wilson). Other factors include “the ecological concentration of ghetto poverty, racial segregation, population turnover, and joblessness… the profound changes in the urban structure of minority communities in the 1970s may hold the key to understanding recent increases in violence.” (7)
This article was written for two reasons: (1) To offer some reasons for crime concentration in particular areas, not just the black community. In reality, both the author of “Correlating” and my own argument concerning racial predisposition to criminal behavior can be dismissed. (2) To paraphrase an old saying, sometimes numbers are used in the same way a drunk uses a lamppost: For support rather than illumination. My point being, anyone can crunch numbers to fit their own needs and “validate” a stereotype. This is what I believe the author was guilty of. I wanted to show him that such a knife can cut both ways and is therefore, a very dangerous implement.
Sources:
(1) Devine, P. G., and A. J. Elliot. 1995. “Are Racial Stereotypes Really Fading? The Princeton Trilogy Revisited.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 21 (11): 1139-50
(2) Richard Willing, “Study: White-collar criminals dodging fines,” Richard Willing, USA TODAY, March 3, 2005
(3) Howard Gleckman, BusinessWeek, “Where White-Collar Criminals Belong: Jail Careers”, January 2, 2002
(4) Randall Kennedy, “Race, Crime and the Law”, (New York: Pantheon), 1997, p. 145
(5) James Q. Wilson, The Hoover Institute, “Crime”, (Hoover Press), p. 115
(6) Neil Weinberg Mary Ellen Egan, “White-collar crime sentencing goes overboard?” Fornes.com and MSNBC.com, April 21, 2004
(7) Robert J. Sampson and William J. Wilson. 1995. “Toward a Theory in Race, Crime, and Urban Inequality” in Crime and Inequality, J. Hagan and R. Peterson (eds.), (Palo Alto. CA: Stanford University Press), Pp. 37-54.
Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Report, 2003
Lincoln Quillian and Devan pager, “Black Neighborhoods, Higher Crime? The Role of Racial Stereotypes In Evaluations of Neighborhood Crime”, American Journal of Sociology, November 2001, p. 717
Timothy N. Stelly, Sr. is the author of “Tempest In The Stone” and the recently released, “The Malice of Cain”. He is also a frequent contributor to various online magazines and his local newspaper. He reisdes in Pittsburg, California.
