“Black-on Black Crime" and What It Doesn’t Represent

by Charles Giammona

There is a logical fallacy used in conversations about crime and race.

Many people (particularly the political right-wing) argue that for Black people to demand justice following murders of unarmed African-Americans by white people is to demonstrate a hypocritical disposition towards criminality and the justice system. 

This phenomenon is often referred to as “Black-on-Black Crime.” The resounding message is that Blacks need to address crime within their own community before attempting to address it outside of their community.  This point of view is valid.    

But to argue that the intra-racial phenomenon of crime victimization is unique to the Black community is to demonstrate an inaccurate assessment of crime and victimization. This argument builds on an ugly stereotype of black pathological violence.  It propagates stop and frisk policies, school to prison pipeline, mass incarceration and the knee jerk reactions of officers and vigilantes to shoot first and cry self-defense later.

The perception of rampant black violence is poorly founded on reality. There is a pervasive fear of gun violence at the hands of young black men, even though only 4% have ever even held a gun. Indeed, only ~1% of Black people in the United State commit any violent crime in a given year.  But the statistics are rarely stated this way. Thus, the term 'black-on-black violence' slanders the majority of law-abiding Black Americans, rich and poor, who get painted by this broad and crude (read racist or ignorance) brush.

The rarely-bemoaned ‘white-on-white’ crime pandemic is as prevalent as black-on-black crime. Eighty-six percent of homicides against white people are committed by other white people.  As the largest racial group, whites commit the majority of crimes in America and are responsible for the majority of violent crimes. When whiteness is treated as the default culture, white-on-white crime is not seen as a cultural symptom, but, by default, deemed ‘normal,' understandable, or a status quo crime statistic.

The reality is that most crime is perpetrated within race. We live in largely segregated environments. As with most activities we participate in, crime occurs in a segregated fashion.  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. Same is true for white folk.            

Crime within the Black community is indisputably an issue, but the “Black-on-Black Crime” catch phrase should not be confused with its use to politically deflect from the racism and racial profiling that precipitates large scale racial injustice/distrust by referencing the different social subject of ‘black-on-black violence.’  We can all simultaneously work toward improving crime trends and demand justice.  

So, let protesters continue their pursuits.  If they want to march, let them march, if they want to sit-in, let them sit-in, if they want to boycott, let them boycott--because when all is said and done, protestors (or political campaign contributions) are vessels that move this nation.