Tuesday, July 16, 2013 11:54:18 PM
Why Do Black and White Americans See the Zimmerman Verdict So Differently?
Jul 14, 2013 2:40 PM EDT
For many black Americans, the Zimmerman verdict .. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/13/jury-finds-george-zimmerman-not-guilty.html .. was an unconscionable nightmare. But for some white Americans, justice was served. Sophia Nelson on the troubling racial divide.
For many black Americans, the verdict in the Trayvon Martin case is beyond shocking, it is earth shattering. It is beyond disappointing, it is devastating. It is beyond unfair, it is unconscionable.
From left Debra Reid, Yanni Medina, 13, her mother Carol Medina, Blanca Zavala and her daughter J'Len Edmund, 6, attend a rally in the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles following the verdict. (Jason Redmond/Reuters)
To many white Americans, justice was served last night. Based on media interviews, social-media posts, and dialogue around coffee tables and in restaurants last night as posted on Facebook and Twitter, many white Americans believe that George Zimmerman was protecting his community the night he singled out Trayvon Martin .. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/14/trayvon-martin-s-death-is-like-ennis-cosby-s.html .. as “suspicious,” and ultimately defending his life from an alleged violent and vicious physical attack against his person by the 17-year-old unarmed Trayvon Martin.
The stark contrast, yet again of how black and white people simply do not view the prism of race and racism the same, is troubling. It troubles me how we can intermarry black and white, we can work in the same workplaces, we can date across racial lines, our kids can play together, sleep over, and we socialize together, and even worship together. So how can we be so far apart, time and time again when it comes to how we see race or don’t see race as a factor in our everyday decisions, in our culture, and even in our criminal justice system?
Justice as you will recall in America, is supposed to be “blind.” But the sad truth is that she is not .. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/14/zimmerman-walks-free-black-america-seethes.html .
~~~~~~~~~~
George Zimmerman Not Guilty: America Reacts (Photos)
http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleries/2013/07/14/george-zimmerman-not-guilty-america-reacts-photos.html
~~~~~~~~~~
John Raoux/AP
Last night’s nearly all-white, all-female jury's verdict to acquit George Zimmerman of not just a “murder 2 charge,” but of a lesser “manslaughter” charge, is simply devastating. It is devastating to Trayvon Martin’s family. It is devastating to the black community. And it is devastating to a nation that proclaims to be a place where a 17-year-old, unarmed black boy walking home from the grocery store does not have to fear being shot dead by an armed neighborhood “watchman” who has racially profiled him, and deems him an “asshole” who must not be allowed to get away. We as a nation really need to stop with all of the emotion and all of the race baiting and we need to actually look at the facts of what happened in this case.
~~~~~~~~~~
Racial bias is real. Racial profiling is real. Racial inequity is real. Racial injustice is real.
~~~~~~~~~~
VIDEO: From Rodney King to O.J. Simpson, see the verdict drop and the public react to racially-contentious trials.
For me as an attorney, I am deeply concerned about how this case was prosecuted from the very beginning. The fact is that George Zimmerman shot and killed an unarmed 17-year-old black boy, who was doing nothing but walking home with some candy and tea. The fact that George Zimmerman pursued this young teen, scuffled with him, and ultimately shot him, proclaiming self-defense, and was not even arrested the night of the murder by authorities should jolt all Americans as to the true racial subtext of this case. The fact that George Zimmerman’s brother Robert took to CNN’s Piers Morgan last night and called Trayvon Martin “angry,” “violent,” wanting to possess a “gun” and a user of “drugs” and as such ultimately responsible for his own death actually reduced many of us to tears. The case was riddled with race from the very beginning. To deny that is dishonest and simply not the truth.
This case reminds me of the nation’s racially split reaction when Harvard Professor Henry “Skip” Gates was arrested in his own home by a white Cambridge police officer for being a suspected intruder in July 2009. The first black president, Barack Obama, spoke up, and he was attacked. He spoke up because he had a unique prism of understanding like no other U.S. president before him about what it feels like to be black, male, and racially profiled in America.
Yet our fellow white Americans erupted in shock and outrage that the black president would speak about the issue of race. Something President Bill Clinton and many other white presidents before him were allowed to do without question. And I think that President Obama to this very day has to tread lightly on the issue of race, economic justice for blacks, and a whole host of “black” issues around race as a direct result of how he handled the Gates controversy. He has been effectively muted. As have been many black leaders in corporate America, in universities, in industry, in media and in jurisprudence in our nation. We all know the drill. We all know that to be black and speak up about racism or injustice in your environment is to put your very existence on the line financially, socially, and otherwise. That is a problem we as a culture must address and soon change if we are to solve our race problems.
The simplest way I can say this is to just say it: You can’t understand what you have not lived. You can be empathetic, you can listen, but you can never walk in another man’s shoes unless you have been or are that man.
To be black in America is loaded. It is “loaded” with history, with race, with deprivation, with rejection, with dehumanization, with disrespect, with stereotypes, with poverty, with abuse, with lack, with aggression, and with sordid imagery. For anyone to suggest that we as a society have moved past our perceptions about people of color and even women is just wrong. Have we made progress? Sure we have. We have made enormous progress; but many people had to agitate, engage, and even die for the most basic of human rights at the most basic levels of our society to be granted. Perhaps, it is time we have to do this again. We have rested on the laurels of struggles past, versus stepping up to deal with struggles present.
Racial bias is real. Racial profiling is real. Racial inequity is real. Racial injustice is real. Don’t take my word for it read the science on racial “profiling.” Read the science around the study of “unconscious bias” at Harvard University. Study history and how black men have been treated by the courts. Study history and see how juries have treated black victims, and black defendants. Study modern day sentencing guidelines and how black men (and women) are disproportionately and more harshly convicted for the same or lesser crimes as their white counterparts. The proof is all right there. If you dare to look for it, and admit that there is a race problem still in America.
For my fellow Americans who are Caucasian, I do not fault you for not knowing what it is like to be a black man or woman in America. How can you? What I fault is a system of institutional and generational white privilege and white-run jurisprudence in America that contends that a black boy’s life is so “valueless” that his admitted assailant is not even arrested the night he lay on the grass dead. I fault an attitude that supports the use of racial profiling against black males and others who are perceived as “different” or as would be thieves, murderers, or thugs. I fault a judicial system in Florida that sentences a black woman, Marissa Alexander, to 20 years for shooting her gun “off” at an abusive boyfriend who beat her, and yet allows a Hispanic male, George Zimmerman, to walk free for the murder of an unarmed black teenager. I fault unwillingness on our part as Americans to actually talk about race. Not point fingers. Not lay blame but to actually talk to people who don’t look like us, and to actually believe them when they tell you how hard it can be to be black in this nation still, despite having a black U.S. president, and having made many strides since the civil-rights era of the 1960s.
In the final analysis, we are all human. We are all Americas. E Pluribus Unum: Out of many we are one. The time has long since come for us to talk about race and racism for real in America. We are a great people. We have fought great battles since our founding as a nation. We have defeated kings, tyrants, foes, great depressions, and divisions. Yet, on this issue of race, we continue to hide, to deny, and to destroy one another. Let us find the courage to talk to one another. To listen to one another; and to build a better future for our children, one with another.
Like The Daily Beast on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for updates all day long.
Sophia A. Nelson is author of the award-winning book Black Woman Redefined: Dispelling Myths and Discovering Fulfillment in the Age of Michelle Obama.
For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/14/why-do-black-and-white-americans-see-the-zimmerman-verdict-so-differently.html
======
The Trayvon Martin Killing and the Myth of Black-on-Black Crime
by Jamelle Bouie Jul 15, 2013 4:45 AM EDT
Crime is driven by proximity and opportunity, writes Jamelle Bouie—
which is why 86 percent of white victims were killed by white offenders.
Last week, in Chicago, 16-year-old Darryl Green was found dead in the yard of an abandoned home. He was killed, relatives reported, because he refused to join a gang. Unlike most tragedies, however—which remain local news—this one caught the attention of conservative activist Ben Shapiro, an editor for Breitbart News. Using the hashtag “#justicefordarryl .. http://twitter.com/i/#!/search/realtime/%23justicefordarryl ,” Shaprio tweeted and publicized .. http://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/356452576079785986 .. the details of Green’s murder. But this wasn’t a call for help and assistance for Green’s family, rather, it was his response to wide outrage over Saturday’s decision in the case of George Zimmerman, where a Florida jury judged him “not guilty” of second-degree murder or manslaughter in the killing of Trayvon Martin.
Demonstrators James Alvarez, 34, and Yesenia Mena, 29, hold signs in front of the Freedom Tower in downtown Miami on July 14, 2013, a day after the verdict in the George Zimmerman murder trail. (Angel Valentin/Getty)
Shapiro, echoing many other conservatives, is angry over the perceived politicization of the Zimmerman trial, and believes that activists have ”injected .. http://www.mediaite.com/tv/the-five-hosts-put-media-on-trial-for-injecting-race-into-zimmerman-case-should-pay-for-crap-they-put-out/ ” race into the discussion, as if there’s nothing racial already within the criminal-justice system. Indeed, he echoes many conservatives when he complains that media attention had everything to do with Zimmerman’s race. If he were black, the argument goes, no one would care. And so, Shapiro found the sad story of Darryl Green, and promoted it as an example of the “black-on-black” crime that, he believes, goes ignored. Or, as he tweets, “49% of murder victims are black men. 93% of those are killed by other blacks. Media don’t care. Obama doesn’t care. #JusticeForDarryl .. http://twitter.com/i/#!/search/realtime/%23JusticeForDarryl .”
The idea that “black-on-black” crime is the real story in Martin’s killing isn’t a novel one.
~~~~
[ SEE .. dropdeadfriend's on another board ..
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=90002172 ]
~~~~
In addition to Shapiro, you’ll hear the argument .. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/11/george-zimmerman-trial-black-crime .. from conservative African-American activists like Crystal White, as well as people outside the media, like Zimmerman defense attorney Mark O’Mara, who said .. http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-omara-george-zimmerman-not-guilty-verdict-black-never-charged%E2%80%942013%E2%80%947 .. that his client “never would have been charged with a crime” if he were black.
(It’s worth noting, here, that Zimmerman wasn’t charged with a crime. At least, not at first. It took six weeks of protest and pressure for Sanford police to revisit the killing and bring charges against him. Indeed, in the beginning, Martin’s cause had less to do with the identity of the shooter and everything to do with the appalling disinterest of the local police department.)
But there’s a huge problem with attempt to shift the conversation: There’s no such thing as “black-on-black” crime. Yes, from 1976 to 2005, 94 percent of black victims were killed by black offenders, but that racial exclusivity was also true .. http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/04/crime_myths.html .. for white victims of violent crime—86 percent were killed by white offenders. Indeed, for the large majority of crimes, you’ll find that victims and offenders share a racial identity, or have some prior relationship to each other.
What Shapiro and others miss about crime, in general, is that it’s driven by opportunism and proximity; If African-Americans are more likely to be robbed, or injured, or killed by other African-Americans, it’s because they tend to live in the same neighborhoods as each other. Residential statistics bear this out (PDF); blacks are still more likely to live near each other or other minority groups than they are to whites. And of course, the reverse holds as well—whites are much more likely to live near other whites than they are to minorities and African-Americans in particular.
Nor are African-Americans especially criminal. If they were, you would still see high rates of crime among blacks, even as the nation sees a historic decline in criminal offenses. Instead, crime rates among African-Americans, and black youth in particular, have taken a sharp drop .. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304066504576345553135009870.htm . In Washington, D.C., for example, fewer than 10 percent of black youth are in a gang, have sold drugs, have carried a gun, or have stolen more than $100 in goods.
VIDEO: George Zimmerman’s attorney said his client ‘would have never been charged’ if he were black.
There’s no such thing as ‘black-on-black’ crime.
Overall, figures from a variety of institutions—including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Justice Statistics—show that among black youth, rates of robbery and serious property offenses are at their lowest rates in 40 years .. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0312/74546_Page2.html , as are rates of violent crime and victimization. And while it’s true that young black men are a disproportionate share of the nation’s murder victims, it’s hard to disentangle this from the stew of hyper-segregation (often a result of deliberate policies), entrenched poverty, and nonexistent economic opportunities that characterizes a substantial number of black communities. Hence the countless inner-city anti-violence groups .. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/us/anti-violence-groups-hire-mentors-with-criminal-records.html .. that focus on creating opportunity for young, disadvantaged African-Americans, through education, mentoring, and community programs. Blacks care intensely about the violence that happens in their communities. After all, they have to live with it.
“Black-on-black crime” has been part of the American lexicon for decades, but as a specific phenomenon, it’s no more real than “white-on-white crime.” Unlike the latter, however, the idea of “black-on-black crime” taps into specific fears around black masculinity and black criminality—the same fears that, in Florida, led George Zimmerman to focus his attention on Trayvon Martin, and in New York, continue to justify Michael Bloomberg’s campaign of police harassment against young black men in New York City.
Indeed, these fears are the reason that—in predominantly African-American neighborhoods across the country—police gathered and waited. There might be riots, observers said, and we have to be prepared. Why? The protests in support of Martin have been peaceful, and no one has called for violence or retribution. But that doesn’t matter.
America is afraid of black people, and that’s especially true—it seems—when it thinks they might be angry.
From Rodney King to O.J. Simpson, see the verdict drop and the public react to racially-contentious trials.
Like The Daily Beast on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for updates all day long.
Jamelle Bouie is a staff writer at The American Prospect and a Knobler Fellow at The Nation Institute. In addition to The American Prospect, his reporting and analysis has appeared in The Nation, The Atlantic, CNN.com, and The Washington Post. He covers campaigns and elections, as well as policy and public opinion. He is based in Washington, D.C. You can follow Jamelle on Twitter at @jbouie, at The American Prospect, or at his website.
For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/15/the-trayvon-martin-killing-and-the-myth-of-black-on-black-crime.html
======
Yeah and about that "Black on Black" Crime Thing...
by Vyan .. Tue Jul 16, 2013 at 08:33 AM PDT
Anyway while we're busy pondering just how violent and criminal all the black people are - y'know oh so Trayvon-ish - might I mention what the rate of White on White Crime is, pray tell?
Straight from the 2011 FBI Uniform Crime Stats .. http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-6 - No chaser.
Victim .... Total .... White Offender .... Black Offender
White ...... 3,172 .......... 2,630 ...................... 448
Black ...... 2,695 .......... 193 ......................... 2,447
Totals .... 5,867 ........... 2823 ....................... 2,895
Note: there are more White on White Murders (2,630) than Black on Black (2,447) - although it should be noted this isn't all murders, simply those where both race of victim and offender have been identified as either black or white - with 1 victim and 1 offender each, yet this is only FBI Crime chart with this kind of racial breakdown so it has to do.
If black people are killing (under the limitations of this chart) about 2895 people, do you really think it's should be a point of pride that White Offenders are at 2823?
Here's a Percent Breakdown.
White Victim - White Offender 82% - Black Offender 14%
Black Victim - White Offender - 7 % Black Offender 91%
I have to say if 91% is bad, then 82% IMO should still kinda bad too, but really all this reveals is that most murders happen among people who know each other or at least are far more likely to come in common contact with each other.
But then of course, that should all be common sense.
These numbers show that a White Person is 5.8 Times more likely to be killed by another White person than a Black Person, whereas for Blacks it's about 12.6 Times. So I wonder, where exactly is the justification that White People should be deathly afraid of Black people? Both, by the numbers, should be more afraid of their own, than each other.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/07/16/1224031/-Yeah-and-about-that-Black-on-Black-Crime-Thing?detail=hide
Jul 14, 2013 2:40 PM EDT
For many black Americans, the Zimmerman verdict .. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/13/jury-finds-george-zimmerman-not-guilty.html .. was an unconscionable nightmare. But for some white Americans, justice was served. Sophia Nelson on the troubling racial divide.
For many black Americans, the verdict in the Trayvon Martin case is beyond shocking, it is earth shattering. It is beyond disappointing, it is devastating. It is beyond unfair, it is unconscionable.
From left Debra Reid, Yanni Medina, 13, her mother Carol Medina, Blanca Zavala and her daughter J'Len Edmund, 6, attend a rally in the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles following the verdict. (Jason Redmond/Reuters)
To many white Americans, justice was served last night. Based on media interviews, social-media posts, and dialogue around coffee tables and in restaurants last night as posted on Facebook and Twitter, many white Americans believe that George Zimmerman was protecting his community the night he singled out Trayvon Martin .. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/14/trayvon-martin-s-death-is-like-ennis-cosby-s.html .. as “suspicious,” and ultimately defending his life from an alleged violent and vicious physical attack against his person by the 17-year-old unarmed Trayvon Martin.
The stark contrast, yet again of how black and white people simply do not view the prism of race and racism the same, is troubling. It troubles me how we can intermarry black and white, we can work in the same workplaces, we can date across racial lines, our kids can play together, sleep over, and we socialize together, and even worship together. So how can we be so far apart, time and time again when it comes to how we see race or don’t see race as a factor in our everyday decisions, in our culture, and even in our criminal justice system?
Justice as you will recall in America, is supposed to be “blind.” But the sad truth is that she is not .. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/14/zimmerman-walks-free-black-america-seethes.html .
~~~~~~~~~~
George Zimmerman Not Guilty: America Reacts (Photos)
http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleries/2013/07/14/george-zimmerman-not-guilty-america-reacts-photos.html
~~~~~~~~~~
John Raoux/AP
Last night’s nearly all-white, all-female jury's verdict to acquit George Zimmerman of not just a “murder 2 charge,” but of a lesser “manslaughter” charge, is simply devastating. It is devastating to Trayvon Martin’s family. It is devastating to the black community. And it is devastating to a nation that proclaims to be a place where a 17-year-old, unarmed black boy walking home from the grocery store does not have to fear being shot dead by an armed neighborhood “watchman” who has racially profiled him, and deems him an “asshole” who must not be allowed to get away. We as a nation really need to stop with all of the emotion and all of the race baiting and we need to actually look at the facts of what happened in this case.
~~~~~~~~~~
Racial bias is real. Racial profiling is real. Racial inequity is real. Racial injustice is real.
~~~~~~~~~~
VIDEO: From Rodney King to O.J. Simpson, see the verdict drop and the public react to racially-contentious trials.
For me as an attorney, I am deeply concerned about how this case was prosecuted from the very beginning. The fact is that George Zimmerman shot and killed an unarmed 17-year-old black boy, who was doing nothing but walking home with some candy and tea. The fact that George Zimmerman pursued this young teen, scuffled with him, and ultimately shot him, proclaiming self-defense, and was not even arrested the night of the murder by authorities should jolt all Americans as to the true racial subtext of this case. The fact that George Zimmerman’s brother Robert took to CNN’s Piers Morgan last night and called Trayvon Martin “angry,” “violent,” wanting to possess a “gun” and a user of “drugs” and as such ultimately responsible for his own death actually reduced many of us to tears. The case was riddled with race from the very beginning. To deny that is dishonest and simply not the truth.
This case reminds me of the nation’s racially split reaction when Harvard Professor Henry “Skip” Gates was arrested in his own home by a white Cambridge police officer for being a suspected intruder in July 2009. The first black president, Barack Obama, spoke up, and he was attacked. He spoke up because he had a unique prism of understanding like no other U.S. president before him about what it feels like to be black, male, and racially profiled in America.
Yet our fellow white Americans erupted in shock and outrage that the black president would speak about the issue of race. Something President Bill Clinton and many other white presidents before him were allowed to do without question. And I think that President Obama to this very day has to tread lightly on the issue of race, economic justice for blacks, and a whole host of “black” issues around race as a direct result of how he handled the Gates controversy. He has been effectively muted. As have been many black leaders in corporate America, in universities, in industry, in media and in jurisprudence in our nation. We all know the drill. We all know that to be black and speak up about racism or injustice in your environment is to put your very existence on the line financially, socially, and otherwise. That is a problem we as a culture must address and soon change if we are to solve our race problems.
The simplest way I can say this is to just say it: You can’t understand what you have not lived. You can be empathetic, you can listen, but you can never walk in another man’s shoes unless you have been or are that man.
To be black in America is loaded. It is “loaded” with history, with race, with deprivation, with rejection, with dehumanization, with disrespect, with stereotypes, with poverty, with abuse, with lack, with aggression, and with sordid imagery. For anyone to suggest that we as a society have moved past our perceptions about people of color and even women is just wrong. Have we made progress? Sure we have. We have made enormous progress; but many people had to agitate, engage, and even die for the most basic of human rights at the most basic levels of our society to be granted. Perhaps, it is time we have to do this again. We have rested on the laurels of struggles past, versus stepping up to deal with struggles present.
Racial bias is real. Racial profiling is real. Racial inequity is real. Racial injustice is real. Don’t take my word for it read the science on racial “profiling.” Read the science around the study of “unconscious bias” at Harvard University. Study history and how black men have been treated by the courts. Study history and see how juries have treated black victims, and black defendants. Study modern day sentencing guidelines and how black men (and women) are disproportionately and more harshly convicted for the same or lesser crimes as their white counterparts. The proof is all right there. If you dare to look for it, and admit that there is a race problem still in America.
For my fellow Americans who are Caucasian, I do not fault you for not knowing what it is like to be a black man or woman in America. How can you? What I fault is a system of institutional and generational white privilege and white-run jurisprudence in America that contends that a black boy’s life is so “valueless” that his admitted assailant is not even arrested the night he lay on the grass dead. I fault an attitude that supports the use of racial profiling against black males and others who are perceived as “different” or as would be thieves, murderers, or thugs. I fault a judicial system in Florida that sentences a black woman, Marissa Alexander, to 20 years for shooting her gun “off” at an abusive boyfriend who beat her, and yet allows a Hispanic male, George Zimmerman, to walk free for the murder of an unarmed black teenager. I fault unwillingness on our part as Americans to actually talk about race. Not point fingers. Not lay blame but to actually talk to people who don’t look like us, and to actually believe them when they tell you how hard it can be to be black in this nation still, despite having a black U.S. president, and having made many strides since the civil-rights era of the 1960s.
In the final analysis, we are all human. We are all Americas. E Pluribus Unum: Out of many we are one. The time has long since come for us to talk about race and racism for real in America. We are a great people. We have fought great battles since our founding as a nation. We have defeated kings, tyrants, foes, great depressions, and divisions. Yet, on this issue of race, we continue to hide, to deny, and to destroy one another. Let us find the courage to talk to one another. To listen to one another; and to build a better future for our children, one with another.
Like The Daily Beast on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for updates all day long.
Sophia A. Nelson is author of the award-winning book Black Woman Redefined: Dispelling Myths and Discovering Fulfillment in the Age of Michelle Obama.
For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/14/why-do-black-and-white-americans-see-the-zimmerman-verdict-so-differently.html
======
The Trayvon Martin Killing and the Myth of Black-on-Black Crime
by Jamelle Bouie Jul 15, 2013 4:45 AM EDT
Crime is driven by proximity and opportunity, writes Jamelle Bouie—
which is why 86 percent of white victims were killed by white offenders.
Last week, in Chicago, 16-year-old Darryl Green was found dead in the yard of an abandoned home. He was killed, relatives reported, because he refused to join a gang. Unlike most tragedies, however—which remain local news—this one caught the attention of conservative activist Ben Shapiro, an editor for Breitbart News. Using the hashtag “#justicefordarryl .. http://twitter.com/i/#!/search/realtime/%23justicefordarryl ,” Shaprio tweeted and publicized .. http://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/356452576079785986 .. the details of Green’s murder. But this wasn’t a call for help and assistance for Green’s family, rather, it was his response to wide outrage over Saturday’s decision in the case of George Zimmerman, where a Florida jury judged him “not guilty” of second-degree murder or manslaughter in the killing of Trayvon Martin.
Demonstrators James Alvarez, 34, and Yesenia Mena, 29, hold signs in front of the Freedom Tower in downtown Miami on July 14, 2013, a day after the verdict in the George Zimmerman murder trail. (Angel Valentin/Getty)
Shapiro, echoing many other conservatives, is angry over the perceived politicization of the Zimmerman trial, and believes that activists have ”injected .. http://www.mediaite.com/tv/the-five-hosts-put-media-on-trial-for-injecting-race-into-zimmerman-case-should-pay-for-crap-they-put-out/ ” race into the discussion, as if there’s nothing racial already within the criminal-justice system. Indeed, he echoes many conservatives when he complains that media attention had everything to do with Zimmerman’s race. If he were black, the argument goes, no one would care. And so, Shapiro found the sad story of Darryl Green, and promoted it as an example of the “black-on-black” crime that, he believes, goes ignored. Or, as he tweets, “49% of murder victims are black men. 93% of those are killed by other blacks. Media don’t care. Obama doesn’t care. #JusticeForDarryl .. http://twitter.com/i/#!/search/realtime/%23JusticeForDarryl .”
The idea that “black-on-black” crime is the real story in Martin’s killing isn’t a novel one.
~~~~
[ SEE .. dropdeadfriend's on another board ..
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=90002172 ]
~~~~
In addition to Shapiro, you’ll hear the argument .. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/11/george-zimmerman-trial-black-crime .. from conservative African-American activists like Crystal White, as well as people outside the media, like Zimmerman defense attorney Mark O’Mara, who said .. http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-omara-george-zimmerman-not-guilty-verdict-black-never-charged%E2%80%942013%E2%80%947 .. that his client “never would have been charged with a crime” if he were black.
(It’s worth noting, here, that Zimmerman wasn’t charged with a crime. At least, not at first. It took six weeks of protest and pressure for Sanford police to revisit the killing and bring charges against him. Indeed, in the beginning, Martin’s cause had less to do with the identity of the shooter and everything to do with the appalling disinterest of the local police department.)
But there’s a huge problem with attempt to shift the conversation: There’s no such thing as “black-on-black” crime. Yes, from 1976 to 2005, 94 percent of black victims were killed by black offenders, but that racial exclusivity was also true .. http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/04/crime_myths.html .. for white victims of violent crime—86 percent were killed by white offenders. Indeed, for the large majority of crimes, you’ll find that victims and offenders share a racial identity, or have some prior relationship to each other.
What Shapiro and others miss about crime, in general, is that it’s driven by opportunism and proximity; If African-Americans are more likely to be robbed, or injured, or killed by other African-Americans, it’s because they tend to live in the same neighborhoods as each other. Residential statistics bear this out (PDF); blacks are still more likely to live near each other or other minority groups than they are to whites. And of course, the reverse holds as well—whites are much more likely to live near other whites than they are to minorities and African-Americans in particular.
Nor are African-Americans especially criminal. If they were, you would still see high rates of crime among blacks, even as the nation sees a historic decline in criminal offenses. Instead, crime rates among African-Americans, and black youth in particular, have taken a sharp drop .. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304066504576345553135009870.htm . In Washington, D.C., for example, fewer than 10 percent of black youth are in a gang, have sold drugs, have carried a gun, or have stolen more than $100 in goods.
VIDEO: George Zimmerman’s attorney said his client ‘would have never been charged’ if he were black.
There’s no such thing as ‘black-on-black’ crime.
Overall, figures from a variety of institutions—including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Justice Statistics—show that among black youth, rates of robbery and serious property offenses are at their lowest rates in 40 years .. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0312/74546_Page2.html , as are rates of violent crime and victimization. And while it’s true that young black men are a disproportionate share of the nation’s murder victims, it’s hard to disentangle this from the stew of hyper-segregation (often a result of deliberate policies), entrenched poverty, and nonexistent economic opportunities that characterizes a substantial number of black communities. Hence the countless inner-city anti-violence groups .. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/us/anti-violence-groups-hire-mentors-with-criminal-records.html .. that focus on creating opportunity for young, disadvantaged African-Americans, through education, mentoring, and community programs. Blacks care intensely about the violence that happens in their communities. After all, they have to live with it.
“Black-on-black crime” has been part of the American lexicon for decades, but as a specific phenomenon, it’s no more real than “white-on-white crime.” Unlike the latter, however, the idea of “black-on-black crime” taps into specific fears around black masculinity and black criminality—the same fears that, in Florida, led George Zimmerman to focus his attention on Trayvon Martin, and in New York, continue to justify Michael Bloomberg’s campaign of police harassment against young black men in New York City.
Indeed, these fears are the reason that—in predominantly African-American neighborhoods across the country—police gathered and waited. There might be riots, observers said, and we have to be prepared. Why? The protests in support of Martin have been peaceful, and no one has called for violence or retribution. But that doesn’t matter.
America is afraid of black people, and that’s especially true—it seems—when it thinks they might be angry.
From Rodney King to O.J. Simpson, see the verdict drop and the public react to racially-contentious trials.
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Jamelle Bouie is a staff writer at The American Prospect and a Knobler Fellow at The Nation Institute. In addition to The American Prospect, his reporting and analysis has appeared in The Nation, The Atlantic, CNN.com, and The Washington Post. He covers campaigns and elections, as well as policy and public opinion. He is based in Washington, D.C. You can follow Jamelle on Twitter at @jbouie, at The American Prospect, or at his website.
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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/15/the-trayvon-martin-killing-and-the-myth-of-black-on-black-crime.html
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Yeah and about that "Black on Black" Crime Thing...
by Vyan .. Tue Jul 16, 2013 at 08:33 AM PDT
Anyway while we're busy pondering just how violent and criminal all the black people are - y'know oh so Trayvon-ish - might I mention what the rate of White on White Crime is, pray tell?
Straight from the 2011 FBI Uniform Crime Stats .. http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-6 - No chaser.
Victim .... Total .... White Offender .... Black Offender
White ...... 3,172 .......... 2,630 ...................... 448
Black ...... 2,695 .......... 193 ......................... 2,447
Totals .... 5,867 ........... 2823 ....................... 2,895
Note: there are more White on White Murders (2,630) than Black on Black (2,447) - although it should be noted this isn't all murders, simply those where both race of victim and offender have been identified as either black or white - with 1 victim and 1 offender each, yet this is only FBI Crime chart with this kind of racial breakdown so it has to do.
If black people are killing (under the limitations of this chart) about 2895 people, do you really think it's should be a point of pride that White Offenders are at 2823?
Here's a Percent Breakdown.
White Victim - White Offender 82% - Black Offender 14%
Black Victim - White Offender - 7 % Black Offender 91%
I have to say if 91% is bad, then 82% IMO should still kinda bad too, but really all this reveals is that most murders happen among people who know each other or at least are far more likely to come in common contact with each other.
But then of course, that should all be common sense.
These numbers show that a White Person is 5.8 Times more likely to be killed by another White person than a Black Person, whereas for Blacks it's about 12.6 Times. So I wonder, where exactly is the justification that White People should be deathly afraid of Black people? Both, by the numbers, should be more afraid of their own, than each other.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/07/16/1224031/-Yeah-and-about-that-Black-on-Black-Crime-Thing?detail=hide
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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