Get Down or Sit Down, Part 3: The Great Distraction (The Numbers and Blame Games)

In a July 18 interview with DJ Envy and Charlamagne Tha God on The Breakfast Club, Dr. Umar Johnson made this one of many poignant statements: "Before you begin TAKING the Black life, you must kill the IMAGE of the Black life."  Now there are those of you who might discredit anything that I'm about to say in this post because I quoted "Dr." Umar, but there is no denying that "the powers that be" within the United States have contaminated the waters of social and political thought as it pertains to Black folks and people of African descent for centuries.  Even on Celebrity Family Feud when former WBO heavyweight champion Lamon Brewster filled in the "Black and [blank]" with beautiful, not one person out of 100 people surveyed agreed with him and that serves as a microcosm of America's mindset as it pertains to the positive imagery associated with Blackness.  So when you bust down what's happening in the conversations surrounding police brutality and inner city crime, many of the natural inclinations are either for people to hype up how police are killing us but we somehow deserve to be treated in that way or how we as Black people appear to care so much about police brutality but not "Black-on-Black crime".  In many of these instances, you have folks who will use numbers and statistics to validate their arguments that we are a violent people who need to be policed and controlled by any means necessary--even by excessive deadly force.  Therefore, in Part 3 of "Get Down or Sit Down", I will attempt to annihilate the foundations of those distractions in order to emphasize the need for justice--regardless of whether we are the perpetrators or the victims...

VILIFYING THE VICTIM.  Whenever I think about the difference in how law enforcement often treats a White offender versus a Black victim, I look no further than one of the last scenes in Higher Learning.  Although Remy (Michael Rapaport) is responsible for the deaths of two students, the campus guards immediately run to the defense of Remy because they see Malik (Omar Epps) choking him out during a scuffle after his girlfriend Deja (Tyra Banks) was killed in the attack.  They make no attempt to get Malik's side of the story and proceed to beat him in the stairwell while Officer Bradley (Bradford English) actually asks Remy, "Are you alright?"  When Remy is trying to escape and eventually draws his weapon, Officer Bradley tells the guards "don't shoot" as he tries to reason with him.  After being apologetic for everything that he had done, Remy pulls the gun on himself and commits suicide.  From a scene in a fictional movie made 21 years ago, we can come to the following conclusion that has not changed: a White man can shoot up a movie theater or a college campus, but the vast majority of the American public and the media will dig deep into their psychological history, try to gain understanding as to what drove them to commit such a heinous crime or just label the person as having a "troubled past".  That person will receive sympathy and, in some cases, public pleas for forgiveness because there has to be some valid reason for them to go off of the deep end.

However, Black men like Alton Sterling and Philando Castile aren't afforded the same treatment.  Both of these men were clearly murdered on video by the police, but instead of digging into the arrest histories of the officers, the deceased are the ones who are on trial.  Not only was it made clear that Sterling was engaging in illegal activity--which was selling CDs outside of a convenience store--and had a gun on him in an open carry state, but CNN undermined their breaking news story by showing an old mug shot of Sterling despite other photos being readily available via Facebook and Sterling's family and digging into his criminal history that involved doing five years for a drug-related conviction and a 2015 warrant for failing to register as a sex offender for a charge dating back to 2000.  That completely--and arguably purposely--overshadowed his aunt Sandra Sterling's "he was like a gentle giant" remark.  Castile was not treated much better as his excessive amount of traffic stops along with a mug shot of him became public record, although an NPR analysis determined that that six of the 46 stops "were things a police officer would notice from outside a car--things like speeding or having a broken muffler".  Add insult to injury, there was a disparaging rumor that he was a member of the Crips.  While it's unfortunate that these men had any bit of the pasts that they actually did, the bottom line is that due process was not administered in either case; these officers were no different than those campus guards in Higher Learning as they acted out of either inexplicable aggression or unwarranted fear.  It's too bad that media outlets like FOX News will try to justify the actions of these officers by blaming Black victims for their own deaths because they either lived a certain lifestyle that prompted their demise, failed to "comply" or made themselves a target.

NUMBERS LIVES MATTER.  If you let the conservative media tell it, then America has every reason to fear Black people--especially Black men--and claim to have the numbers to prove it.  We are the largest minority group in the United States that only accounts for 13 percent of the population, but we committed 52 percent of the homicides as compared to White people committing only 45 percent between 1980 and 2008.  The numbers still don't favor us after 2013 as we have carried out about 38 percent of the murders in America compared to around 31 percent for Whites.  We committed 38.5 percent of all violent crimes between 2011 and 2013--most of those crimes committed by Black men between 15 and 34, who only comprise three percent of the total population.  Oh yeah, and we are eight times more likely to commit crime against Whites than the reverse.  Therefore, in the minds of those who subscribe to stereotypes about Black people, those numbers not only justify the school-to-prison pipeline where we account for 40 percent of America's prison population, but it also validates clutching pearls and purses, walking on the other side of the street to avoid us and understanding the rationale behind excessive police brutality by deadly force.

However, although Blacks disproportionately commit more violent crime, let's flip that magic number 13 to discuss police-involved killings.  Yes, we are only 13 percent of the population and more Whites were killed by police in 2015 (577 as compared to 300 Blacks), but according to The Guardian, Black people were killed at a rate of 7.13 per million as compared to only 2.91 per million for Whites.  Black men between 15 and 34 accounted for 15 percent of police-related deaths--a rate that was five times higher than White men in the same age bracket.  Twenty-five percent of the Black people killed by the police were unarmed as compared to 17 percent of Whites.  In an article last year in The Washington Post, the paper noted the following:

Although Black men only make up 6 percent of the U.S. population, they account for 40 percent of the unarmed men shot to death by police this year.  In the majority of cases in which police shot and killed a person who had attacked someone with a weapon or brandished a gun, the person who was shot was white.  But a hugely disproportionate number--3 in 5--of those killed after exhibiting less threatening behavior were Black or Hispanic.

Say what you will and flip it how you like, but even when Black people are unarmed or aren't life-threatening in their resistance--if they resist at all--they are more prone to be treated like rabid dogs by law enforcement and the numbers validate that.  All of the evidence that you need regarding the difference in police treatment between young Black men and young White men can be found in how 21-year-old Dylann Roof got a Burger King meal from the arresting officers after he murdered nine worshippers at Mother Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, South Carolina last year (all of whom were Black), spent about 16 hours on the run and was arrested "without incident".  Meanwhile, I'm sure that 12-year-old Tamir Rice would've rather had a Whopper in lieu of being shot and killed by the Cleveland police, who responded to a 911 call of him playing with a toy gun in a park.  Bottom line, if we're going to use numbers, then let's use all of them.  Now let's get to the biggest red herring of all...

THE URBAN MYTHS BEHIND "BLACK-ON-BLACK VIOLENCE".  Now this section could very well be a post all on its own, but I'll simplify this in two myths.  Myth #1: Black people care about White cops killing them, but not Black people killing them.  Frankly, that's one of the dumbest things that I've ever heard in my entire life and people need to stop saying that post-haste.  I don't know any Black person who either doesn't care about Black people dying at the hands of those within our community or acknowledge that it's a problem.  If that were the case, then my mother-in-law wouldn't have been one of the adamant voices in Mothers in Charge Standing for Peace and Justice, Chester (PA) Coalition, fighting against homicide in Chester and other U.S. cities.  Several of my mentors and fellow coworkers wouldn't have organized stop the violence rallies throughout D.C. area.  Groups like CeaseFire Illinois--part of the national Cure Violence model--wouldn't exist to help curtail the violence that has plagued Chicago and other areas in Illinois.  With that said, we have the right to be just as outraged over killings by public servants that we pay to protect us as we are with intraracial violence among Black people as both are detrimental to our community.  Furthermore, just because the media chooses to promote the Black Lives Matter movement doesn't mean that 1) BLM is not outraged or has no plan to tackle intraracial violence among Blacks or 2) other organizations aren't attempting to deal with the issues within our own community; it just means that the good that our people are doing to combat the bad gets very little publicity.

Myth #2: the idea of "Black-on-Black violence" itself.  Although I wouldn't consider this as asinine as Myth #1, it is extremely misleading because it overlooks the fact that all intraracial crime and violence is high across the board.  Granted, Black people die at the hands of other Black people 90 percent of the time and we lead all groups from that perspective.  In contrast, White people kill each other about 82 percent of the time whereas Hispanics and Latinos kill each other at least 72 percent of the time.  However, here are some staggering numbers to help debunk the myth: out of the 2,693 total homicides that Black people committed according to the FBI's Expanded Homicide Data, 81.9 percent were committed against other Black people.  On the flip side, 90.3 percent of the 2,756 total homicides that White people committed were against other White people.  So considering the data, why doesn't the media use the term "White-on-White violence" or a comparable term for other minority groups?  Is it really because of the proportional differences, or can that be attributed to the American establishment's need to continue its long-standing media campaign to protect its "lily white" image and sully the reputation of anything and everything Black--even during slavery when we weren't slaughtering each other like sheep?

What rarely gets discussed is the systemic racism and the various factors that contribute to the rise in "Black-on-Black violence" such as the proliferation of illegal narcotics and firearms into the Black community and the lack of access to quality education, employment opportunities, capital to start small businesses, fair housing markets, rapid police response, etc.  Combine that with generational curses that extend as far back as slavery and you have a lot of Black people who don't view Black as a blessing, but as an insufferable curse.  Hence, if you believe that you are nothing and have nothing because your parents, your neighbors, your teachers, your government and/or your primary sources of "information" tell you so, then that sense of nothingness will often manifest itself through crime and violence.  Much of that crime can be associated with undiagnosed mental illnesses--largely because of the traumatic experiences that many Black folk have endured living in the inner cities of America.  However, that doesn't serve those who propagate the fear-mongering agenda; they couldn't care less about any of those factors as they choose to give plenty of concessions and Kumbaya moments to intraracial and/or mass murderers of the "right" skin tone.  Also, because they want to project a particular narrative for public consumption, their story has to be about our alleged lack of outrage about "Black-on-Black violence" versus our vehement outcries regarding police-involved killings in order to promote our "finger pointing" toward anything White to strike or solidify fear in the hearts of those who believe that we're angry at them 24/7, 365 days of the year.

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In the scope of this larger discussion, one thing must be clear: none of us who claim to be down for the cause can fall for any of the distractions because we know that they are by design.  It's not a matter of sounding like some kind of conspiracy theorist who is always blaming "the man" for our problems 100 percent of the time because there are a lot of things for which we must hold ourselves accountable within our community.  We do need to stop killing each other and I will never excuse our part in our own destruction.  Ultimately, those of us who have broken certain cycles must teach those who haven't learned how to break these generational curses of depression, self-hatred and violence.  However, our "history of violence"--especially against other Black people--was passed down to us by our racist captors as it was some kind of diabolical family heirloom.  Whether it was something as simple as considering us only 60 percent human or sending a more vivid message through excessive whippings and/or lynchings, America has sanctioned the killing, stealing and destruction of the Black lives for centuries.  Until that reality is fully acknowledged, the violent connotation attached to Blackness is properly addressed and then eliminated and a real level of understanding and justice is achieved, then the uproar and the pushback from fed-up Black folks across the country will continue to get louder and fiercer.

If you missed Part 1 and/or Part 2 of this series, then please make sure to check them out.  Please don't forget to return next week for the fourth and final installment of "Get Down or Sit Down"!!!