Posted on 04/02/2007 8:46:24 AM PDT by ventanax5
Mayor Mike Bloomberg has the chance to transform not just New York, but all American cities, by breaking the taboo on talking about the connection between race and crime. Doing so would take courage that no politician has yet mustered. But after the manslaughter and assault indictments of three New York police officers for fatally shooting Sean Bell last November, Bloomberg has an opening: acknowledge that police officers may react too precipitously to perceived threats in charged urban settings, in exchange for a wide-open discussion about the sky-high black crime rates that encourage that reaction. Crime, not police racism, drives negative police-community relations in black neighborhoods. And until the crime rate comes down, tragedies like the Sean Bell shooting may reoccur.
(Excerpt) Read more at city-journal.org ...
"Not all blacks are like that, surely. But they DO have a major tendency towards violence as a group, a fact demonstrated by the size of their prison population, and a fact glorified in their music and "gangster" lifestyle."
Think it out a little more carefully. Culture is a set of group beliefs and values.
White guys in the south like fishing and Nascar. Not all, but a lot of them do. Probably a majority. So, does that happen because that's just what white guys do? It's in their DNA? Why is it more pronounced in the south? I'm white, I don't really care for fishing or Nascar.
Or maybe it's what one sees and hears growing up? Your dad and uncles do it, the kids you know like it, so you do too.
Is it possible that happens with violence? Do you think that maybe a black kid raised exactly how a white kid is raised will turn out the same?
I do.
In Indianapolis last week a 14 year old male shot and killed a 39 year old male because the older man insisted on being paid for the work he did on the kid's car. (It was never made clear why a 14 year old is having a car worked on.)
Bump for an excellent posting!
BTW, I've posted full articles from City Journal with no complaints.
"I have tried, Lord knows I have tried, to treat Blacks as equals and not display any prejudice. They (the Blacks) have made this impossible."
Prejudice is a logical reaction.
If every time you eat a blue berry, you get sick, pretty soon you won't like blue berries.
If every time you have an interaction with a black person, it turns out poorly for you... well, of course you won't like blacks.
It's important you understand that the culture produces those traits we find undesirable. The net result is the same. But if we realize it's the culture, the is hope. If you, (incorrectly), blame it on the person's race, there is no hope. For them or you.
The city has had a remarkable rennaissance. The downtown area is a jewel. Granby street has been reviatized and has a vibrant restaurant and arts culture. We have a new Opera House, several new theatres and concert venues and a beautiful riverfront park. We've built a beautiful new AAA ballpark that "Baseball" magazine called one of the most beautiful ball parks in America. If you were here in the '70's you wouldn't recognize Norfolk now. It's clean, safe and beautiful. Unless you wandered into one of the few remaining 'ghetto' areas left in the city. There are several pretty good sized subsidized housing complexes still around and that's where the problems are.
Propensity for criminal activity has no relation to one's race. It's socioeconomic and cultural.
I think a mutt that looks like a pit-bull is more likely to leave a bloody sneaker in your back yard than a mutt that looks like a spaniel...
Not NYC (manhattan). It's awesome as far as crime goes.
There is no connection between RACE and crime, there's a connection between CULTURE and crime! A black child raised in the same setting as a white child has no more propensity toward violence than the white child.
Thank you for drawing everyone's attention to that. We have a tendency on this site as in the broader society of equating "black" with "poor, inner-city, culturally bankrupt, criminal." Yet there are millions upon millions of middle-class black people who are raising their children right and don't live in the ghetto. Criminality has nothing to do with color. It has everything to do with culture. And inner-city white kids in Britain raised in conditions of depravity have the same tendency to criminal behavior as black kids here.
100% correct in my (small) mind!!
Color/race has nothing to do with it, culture has it all!
Jack
That is an absolutely stupid thing to say...
"Black ghetto culture accepts criminality and breeds crime. "
There is your answer. And it's not so much differnt for poor whites. I have a nephew who ended up in a black foster home. He has spent time in the state penal system. He is as violent as any person I know.
Look at the numbers. In an inner city setting, what is the white to black ratio? Do the whites perhaps get put into a more submissive role due to being outnumbered? Do the whites, even in the ghetto have different influences, better values at home, (even if marginal).
You may not believe this, but I agree with you. But regardless of the root cause, it's fact. Blacks, as a group, have a greater propensity to violence than say, Swedes.
And it would be easy to dismiss the phenomenon in the US as "the legacy of racism", except that you only have to look to the incredible level of atrocities committed by Black Africans against other Black Africans to realize that this is a societal problem, a problem of their culture, which permits such violence at little or no provocation, and not something a few good wishes, pleasantries and a set of blinders will cure.
Culture has nearly everything to do with it, not race. But it is culture that defines the race.
"I think a mutt that looks like a pit-bull is more likely to leave a bloody sneaker in your back yard than a mutt that looks like a spaniel..."
Blacks were bred for physical strength, not aggression. In fact, aggression was muted. Aggressive slaves would run, or challenge masters. And, again, it's been 7 or 8 generations since selective breeding was employed. Do remember that considerable use was made of "picanannies". (Masters breeding with slave girls). So the selective breeding process was subverted.
But, I'm not going to change your mind. It's your right to believe what you believe. It's my right to believe you're wrong.
"That is an absolutely stupid thing to say..."
I see you present a commanding arguement. Such insight. But, then, I have to assume you're doing the best you can.
Exactly my point. All of these federal programs to address "underlying cultural problems" are a very bad and very expensive joke. The article by post #29
http://www.amren.com/946issue/946issue.html
may or may not be exact, but the magnitude of the problem is hard to dismiss.
Instead of sucking off public money, Black leadership needs to own up to their problems and start solving it themselves, rather than always trying to play the race card and blame everyone else in society. Sadly, Black leadership stays in power because they pander to the Black mentality that they are victims of racism and social injustice. While I'm sure both of these still exist, they do not justify observed and documented Black behavior.
US DOK report indicatesw that blacks commit about 85 percent of all violent crimes.
I think the biggest part of the problem is the near complete breakdown in the black family structure...one of the most pernicious after effects of LBJ's vaunted war on poverty. I read nationwide that the percentage of black babies being born to unwed mothers is something like 70%...it's probably higher in Tidewater. And this lack of a male role model and discipliner is not new to this culture, it's been going on for generations. Where you have white kids being born into the same kind of fatherless households they are much more likely to have a stable family close by. Maybe their grandparents or an aunt and uncle who live close by. But not so for the black underclass. You're more likely to find 2-3 generations of black women living together raising their kids with no man in sight. My wife works with a black woman who was complaining about her great grandson who had been arrested. My wife was astounded to hear that she has a 'great grandson' at all, let alone a teenager. The woman is about 48 years old and she has a teenaged great grandson who's living with her! How do you turn that around?
"Culture has nearly everything to do with it, not race. But it is culture that defines the race."
And that is where the care must be taken.
I agree with you. I think that blaming the culture on our legacy, or on white people, or on anything else is stupid. Black people are responsible for black culture.
We just have to be careful not to make it a race issue. The millions of middle class blacks deserve better. The guy who may live down the street from you, or you work with, deserves better. He's not just a "good one". He is the product of what can be, what should be.
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