So, I read this the other day.
I'm going to put it
right out there that I have a certain amount of trepidation about commenting on
an essay about racial injustice, written by a biracial man, found in a
publication called Black Community News. It can certainly be argued that
Bomberger has more right to comment than I. I can accept that. What
I won't accept is misinformation, especially when the context in which I saw
the article stated that he is biracial, as if this one person's opinions,
because of his skin color, outweighed all the data available. I have said it
before, and will repeat it. There is no single "black
experience" which can speak for all black people, any more than one woman
can speak for all women. There are, however, facts that exist which
should balance any one person's opinion.
I agree with some of
what he says. There are social problems in this country that need to be
solved. I agree abortion, so called “black on black violence,” police
safety, etc. all need better solutions. I
just don’t agree that those problems negate the very real issue of systemic
racism in the United States. I don’t agree that these problems justify
ignoring other problems. Nor do I agree that all other social problems
need to be solved before we can address the use of excessive force by the
police against African Americans. To imply that they do is
ridiculous. Imagine if I wrote something suggesting that we couldn’t try
to stop heart disease because people die of cancer.
I’m annoyed by the tired
“black on black” crime thing. Sorry. It is just a stupid
argument. We aren't allowed to call for racial justice because of
"black on black" violence? (Or, as I like to call it,
violence.) 83 percent of white murders are committed by white
offenders. 90 percent of black murders are committed by black
offenders. What does that prove? Nothing except what we already
know—most murder victims know their killer. It's probably unrealistic to
expect anything better than a violent culture from a nation who solves every
foreign policy problem by spending a trillion dollars to blow it up. In
any case, I am bothered by his misleading use of statistics like
this. For someone so disgusted by media misrepresentation, maybe he
should not be adding to it.
Let me put it this
way. Blacks comprise about thirteen to fifteen percent of the United
States population, depending on the source. All things being equal, one
would expect, then, about thirteen percent of US doctors to be black. One
would expect about thirteen percent of the people in prison to be black.
One would expect about thirteen percent of the business owners in the US to be
black. One would expect about thirteen percent of women getting abortions
to be black. One would expect about thirteen percent of the people killed
in officer-involved fatalities to be black. Makes sense, right?
Here’s the reality (see
endnotes for references):
1.
Black doctors = 4-7%
2.
Black prisoners = 37%
3.
Black business owners =
37.4%
4.
Black abortions = 30%
5.
Black police fatalities
= 26%
6.
Black high school
graduates = 69% of black students graduate (86% of white students graduate)
7.
Black school
expulsions/suspensions = 50% (on average, 24% of students are black)
8.
Black college graduates
= 26% (whites 41%)
9.
Black welfare recipients
= 39% (same for whites)
10.
Black unemployment rate
= 8% (white 4%)
11.
Black homeowners = 44%
of African Americans, (73% of whites own their homes.) What’s even worse is
that black-owned homes were valued at 18% less than white-owned homes, even for
homeowners with equal incomes.
According to this
essay, we are supposed to be appalled at the 30% of abortions in 13% of the
population, but unconcerned at the 26% of police fatalities within the same 13%
of the population? That simply does not make sense. Look, I’m
pro-life too, but I strongly suspect that means something different to me than
it does to this author. I believe that safeguarding the sanctity of life
is not an obligation that stops at birth. I believe we are equally
compelled to defend every child’s safety and access to opportunity, regardless
of race. Come on. What are we trying to save our babies for?
I’m serious. To get shot in the street without a trial or go to prison
for a dime-bag while a white swimmer rapes somebody and gets a slap? Are
we really going to say the media is making it all up? No.
Look at the numbers, and
think.
Forget about black and white.
Forget about the 300 years of government-sanctioned enslavement. Take any people group, create a system that
will for a hundred years deny them education, employment, housing, and
opportunity in general; herd them into certain communities through redlining;
kill and imprison the men in disproportionally high numbers; and limit access
both financially and geographically to health care except abortion clinics.
Kind of sounds like a recipe for high abortion rates to me. Here we are trying to say we want to stop
abortion because we believe human lives are sacred. I say, if we want to
show that human lives are divine miracles, we have to value the homeless drug
addict, and the gang member, and the black guy with the broken taillight as
much as we value the soccer mom and the CEO.
As long as we are on
stereotypes and soccer moms, let’s talk about white guilt. This guy is
mad because some white people feel bad? ARE YOU SERIOUS!?!?! What a
load of crap, and how arrogant to generalize the motivation of people he does
not know. Isn’t it thinking like this that perpetuates the mess? I am
white, and I will continue to fight for police reform not out of some misplaced
sense of white guilt, but for my family and loved ones. I support the
work of Black Lives Matter, despite that same, tired clip everyone keeps
dredging up with the crazy bacon fryers. Speaking of unbalanced media
representation, and all—there are chapters and have been peaceful
demonstrations all over the United States for the last four years, and the only
media image you ever see is the bacon one. <SMH and rolling my
eyes>
Let me put his mind at
ease. I do not feel guilty for a damn thing related to racial justice,
nor does any single person of color I know want me to. It seems to me
that they just want the justice and freedom promised to all of us by that
Constitution we worship. Even though I am white, I may have clued in to
something very important that his essay completely misses. This is not
about how white people feel. GASP! Try to stay with me
here. Despite the fact that we keep trying to make it about ourselves,
this issue is not. About. White people. At all. Speaking as one, though, I can tell you that
having a basic understanding of concepts like white privilege and knowing the
historical context of practices like redlining have helped me understand the
problem at hand.
The problem we are
facing is not what people are "feeling.” Who cares how we feel about
other people, other races? You can't control the emotions of other
people, and someone else's emotions can't harm you. The longer we keep tiptoeing around
each other's feelings instead of addressing the actual problem—a discriminatory
system—the more black kids are going to die needlessly. Does it matter that it is only happening to 0.000006
percent of the black population? Not to
the mamas of the 0.000006 percent, it doesn’t.
Bomberger, like many
others, makes a big point of mentioning that more whites are killed by police than
blacks. I could mathematically explain how he is again using numbers to present
misleading information by failing to account for the vast difference in population
size, but why bother? Why are we
accepting the killing of anyone, of
any skin color without a proper trial? Why?
Why are we not employing even the most rudimentary de-escalation
techniques? Don’t tell me it is because
of the danger police face. The
situations around the killings of Sterling and Castile were about as dangerous
a shooting fish in a barrel, and don’t even make me point out Tamir Rice. Now, don’t lose your mind. I know there are legitimate dangers to
police. The problem here is that the police don’t have to be in any actual danger to get away
with killing people. They only have to feel in danger, and it apparently doesn’t
even matter if the police have themselves escalated the situation to the point
that they feel endangered. Well, if the
police officer’s feelings of safety are such an issue, why are we not training
these officers to manage unconscious bias and otherwise ensuring they can make
sound tactical decisions instead of killing people because they feel an
unfounded fear?
I’ll tell you why. There is no accountability. None.
Are you aware that police departments in the US are not even required to
report police fatalities to anyone, let alone investigate them? If they are investigated, it is done
internally, with no transparency. As if
that ever really works for anything! I
am no attorney, but as I understand it, the burden of proof is much different
when it comes to officer-involved fatalities, making it incredibly difficult
for criminal charges to be made. By
contrast, in Australia, all police shootings are subject to national monitoring
and, I can only assume, appropriate consequences. Big
surprise then, that even when adjusted for the difference in population size, Australian police kill a fraction of the people that ours do.12 We kill in one month, what they did in almost
twenty years. Wow. Is the disparity explained away by media bias? Is it any less dangerous to be a cop in
Australia? Do you think there is no
prejudice or fear in Australia? Come
on. We are smarter than that, aren’t we?
The best way I know how
to say it is like this: I do not care if someone hates my kid because he
is black. Could not care
less. Whatever. Everyone has to learn to deal with
idiots. What I care deeply about is whether or not someone can harm my
kid and get away with it because he is black. In
this country, in the year 2016, the sad reality is that yes, someone--even
someone sworn to protect him--could harm my child or yours and get away with
it. That is a terrible problem which
needs an immediate and concrete solution. Don’t you dare try to dismiss it.
1. Ellyn R. Boukus, Alwyn Cassil, Ann S.
O'Malley, A Snapshot of U.S. Physicians: Key Findings from the 2008 Health
Tracking Physician Survey, 2009
2. U.S. Department of Justice, 2014
3. US Census Bureau
4. Multiple
sources
5. Bomberger essay
6. and 8. US
Department of Education
7. Equal Justice Initiative,
http://www.eji.org/node/1141
9. US department
of Commerce
10. US Bureau of
Labor Statistics
11. Harvard University;
Forbes http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesleadershipforum/2012/12/10/how-home-ownership-keeps-blacks-poorer-than-whites/#62b46bf57e57
12. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/09/the-counted-police-killings-us-vs-other-countries
