At least 150,000 young black men have been murdered since 1994 by other black men. 5,000 per year. Where’s the media outrage? Why are the country’s black leaders silent? The grim, ignored stats.
I think there's a "thug chic" at play in the culture that normalizes, then elevates the drugs, sex, violence, looting, narcissism, and misogyny that surround inner city life. I'm also guessing there are far more white kids consuming this garbage than black kids.
Yet a part of this appeal in the broader culture isn't racial at all; Al Capone, Bonnie and Clyde, and John Dillinger all had popular support from people happy that at least someone had succeeded in "sticking it to the man."
Seniors like me love to blame the excesses of the 1960s. The same probably happened in the 260s, what with those young people abandoning Roman virtue and adopting barbarian dress and customs.
All that said, I do believe that when societal restrictions were blown up in the 1960s, they blew up 100-fold in the black community, having been simmering for years under Jim Crow laws. We are all paying the price now, none more so than the the black victims of black thugs.
Dismal as it is, there are little blazes of hope out there. Please check out freeblackthought.com.
Thanks, Roberto. Places like freeblackthought are flickers of hope. I have to remind myself that the ugliest kinds of black-white interactions we see on TV and the Web are not as common as we think and that most people of both races in most places get along well and peacefully. It's the race-hustlers and politicians, as usual, who create problems and conflicts.
Roberto Sierra Hello! I'm also a senior born in 1951. My teen years were in & of the 1960's. Also, my experience and view appears to differ from your youth conclusions. Our story actual, it begins in mid-1950's post WWll deeply imbedded USA social war-time militarization. Our war economy included a deep social conformity demand expressed as black shoes, black pants, white shirts, short hair cuts and "Love America or leave it" march into Korea & Vietnam war driven chants. What the establishment failed to know or understand was the WWll baby-boom social adjustment affects. The USA's social culture clash was destined to be driven at lessening the militaristic restrictions upon higher education and freedoms her youth did & were seeking then. Natural progression to other social & progression to the nation's future!
In the Middle Ages, Western Europe executed about 1% of its too-aggressive males every year. Got the aggression out of the gene pool. That’s why it’s so peaceful today - or was, until a million Africans and S Asians showed up. This number is a problem only because it was extrajudicial.
True, DM. But no one in the USA seems to be aware of how deep the problem is. No one knows that terrible 150K number. O and O and other famous blacks in politics and entertainment should be making everyone aware of how bad the problem is and providing some sort of moral and noisy leadership. I have no faith that government at any level could do anything positive, and I know local people in cities around the USA -- the places where the victims live -- have always been trying to prevent the gun play and murder. But the big picture, and the decades-long picture, of the slaughter is not known. We all know there are shooting deaths in Chicago and Memphis, etc., every weekend, but do people really know how many young black men die in American each year at each others' hands. Or that it adds up to 150,000? We have all these fake 'national crises' thrown at us all the time by the media and politicians. This is not fake. It's bloody huge and stupid and tragic. And it's been going on for decades and no one in high black and media places realizes its scope or talks about it.
Bill, it’s complete naivety to think that those gun toting thugs are going to listen to Obama and Oprah and other leaders because they’re Black. 😂. It’s more likely that we would get somewhere if we’d listen to them first to find out what they’re really thinking and feeling.
I’ve always believed that this acknowledgment and willingness to show compassion transcends color. Yet as you point out no one appears willing to step forward to listen. Maybe it’s you and me brotha since we both care so much about this issue 😳
DM, you are right about the O and O et al. not being able to persuade the thugs. But because they are black and important and powerful they are the only ones who can identify the slaughter and rail against the culture that created and sustains it without being branded racists for bringing up a politically verboten subject. Also, I agree 100% about the need to talk with the thugs to find out their 'thinking' and feelings. God only knows -- not me -- how you get the thugs to stop being thugs, but there are people who, in theory and maybe in practice, know how to do it. I wish I could do more as a journalist. But, realistically, at this late point in my journalism career, I can only goad and shame journalists and the media for not doing their jobs. I couldn't find anyone in the major media using that shocking 150,000 number. Maybe I can get some big-shot's attention with my substack rant.
Our conversation here has prompted me to pick up and review the book “A Peculiar Indifference: The Neglected Toll of Violence on Black America” by Elliott Currie. So stay tuned.
I think there's a "thug chic" at play in the culture that normalizes, then elevates the drugs, sex, violence, looting, narcissism, and misogyny that surround inner city life. I'm also guessing there are far more white kids consuming this garbage than black kids.
Yet a part of this appeal in the broader culture isn't racial at all; Al Capone, Bonnie and Clyde, and John Dillinger all had popular support from people happy that at least someone had succeeded in "sticking it to the man."
Seniors like me love to blame the excesses of the 1960s. The same probably happened in the 260s, what with those young people abandoning Roman virtue and adopting barbarian dress and customs.
All that said, I do believe that when societal restrictions were blown up in the 1960s, they blew up 100-fold in the black community, having been simmering for years under Jim Crow laws. We are all paying the price now, none more so than the the black victims of black thugs.
Dismal as it is, there are little blazes of hope out there. Please check out freeblackthought.com.
Thanks, Roberto. Places like freeblackthought are flickers of hope. I have to remind myself that the ugliest kinds of black-white interactions we see on TV and the Web are not as common as we think and that most people of both races in most places get along well and peacefully. It's the race-hustlers and politicians, as usual, who create problems and conflicts.
Roberto Sierra Hello! I'm also a senior born in 1951. My teen years were in & of the 1960's. Also, my experience and view appears to differ from your youth conclusions. Our story actual, it begins in mid-1950's post WWll deeply imbedded USA social war-time militarization. Our war economy included a deep social conformity demand expressed as black shoes, black pants, white shirts, short hair cuts and "Love America or leave it" march into Korea & Vietnam war driven chants. What the establishment failed to know or understand was the WWll baby-boom social adjustment affects. The USA's social culture clash was destined to be driven at lessening the militaristic restrictions upon higher education and freedoms her youth did & were seeking then. Natural progression to other social & progression to the nation's future!
In the Middle Ages, Western Europe executed about 1% of its too-aggressive males every year. Got the aggression out of the gene pool. That’s why it’s so peaceful today - or was, until a million Africans and S Asians showed up. This number is a problem only because it was extrajudicial.
Yes. But Obama and Oprah? It’s much deeper than that.
True, DM. But no one in the USA seems to be aware of how deep the problem is. No one knows that terrible 150K number. O and O and other famous blacks in politics and entertainment should be making everyone aware of how bad the problem is and providing some sort of moral and noisy leadership. I have no faith that government at any level could do anything positive, and I know local people in cities around the USA -- the places where the victims live -- have always been trying to prevent the gun play and murder. But the big picture, and the decades-long picture, of the slaughter is not known. We all know there are shooting deaths in Chicago and Memphis, etc., every weekend, but do people really know how many young black men die in American each year at each others' hands. Or that it adds up to 150,000? We have all these fake 'national crises' thrown at us all the time by the media and politicians. This is not fake. It's bloody huge and stupid and tragic. And it's been going on for decades and no one in high black and media places realizes its scope or talks about it.
Bill, it’s complete naivety to think that those gun toting thugs are going to listen to Obama and Oprah and other leaders because they’re Black. 😂. It’s more likely that we would get somewhere if we’d listen to them first to find out what they’re really thinking and feeling.
I’ve always believed that this acknowledgment and willingness to show compassion transcends color. Yet as you point out no one appears willing to step forward to listen. Maybe it’s you and me brotha since we both care so much about this issue 😳
DM, you are right about the O and O et al. not being able to persuade the thugs. But because they are black and important and powerful they are the only ones who can identify the slaughter and rail against the culture that created and sustains it without being branded racists for bringing up a politically verboten subject. Also, I agree 100% about the need to talk with the thugs to find out their 'thinking' and feelings. God only knows -- not me -- how you get the thugs to stop being thugs, but there are people who, in theory and maybe in practice, know how to do it. I wish I could do more as a journalist. But, realistically, at this late point in my journalism career, I can only goad and shame journalists and the media for not doing their jobs. I couldn't find anyone in the major media using that shocking 150,000 number. Maybe I can get some big-shot's attention with my substack rant.
I’m no big time journalist but you sure woke me up. You raise some very compelling questions. I’ll dig deeper into this and circle back to you.
Good deal. Big things start small, they say.
Our conversation here has prompted me to pick up and review the book “A Peculiar Indifference: The Neglected Toll of Violence on Black America” by Elliott Currie. So stay tuned.